Portland, Oregon's Kaddisfly returns with their second installment, Set Sail The Prairie, a decidedly more advanced and mature musical effort. Putting its remarkable progression on display, songs like "Campfire" sport driving beats and commanding vocals, deftly shifting gears from the strummed verses’ hustle to the guns blazing choruses. The soothing, lush piano-laden intro of “Silk Road” eventually gives way to a chorus of defined accents, nailing the mark with both precision and conviction. Set Sail The Prairie takes the listener through a sonic journey of spectacular, highly innovative musical wonders. Kaddisfly had undergone many changes since their signing to Sub City/Hopeless in 2004. Becoming a full-time band, relentlessly hitting the road, honing its musicianship on stages with myriad bands — this was what Kaddisfly wanted, worked for and achieved, admittedly sometimes the hard way. “Because of the scope of our music it allows us to effectively tour with a wider range of bands than some other groups,” says vocalist Chris Ruff. “Our fanbase draws from pretty much any pool or demographic that you can think of. It’s pretty cool and I think in the long run it’s a very positive thing, but it’s definitely a longer road to go down. But we’ve already made that bet, so we don’t want to pull a 180 – we’ve gotta be true to ourselves.” Utilizing some borrowed equipment (because of the October 2005 theft of their van and trailer), Kaddisfly hunkered down in its Portland homebase and began the assembly of its label follow-up, Set Sail the Prairie. Fortunately, the band already had a lucid vision of where this next album would be heading, as some of the writing had already taken place while on the road. The final product found Set Sail the Prairie as a continuation of sorts — thematically and conceptually — from its predecessor, albeit with more substantial songwriting and much steadier musical footing. Set Sail the Prairie is divided into four different seasons, with a double-tiered track listing. Along with each song title, there’s an assigned month — fourteen tracks in total are split into 12 calendar months, plus Summer and Winter Solstices. The album is written from the perspective of a year-long journey starting in June — with each month representing a different location in the world, reflected in the printed language of the song title on the track listing and also in the music itself, in which native musical elements of each location are added. There are also some obvious differences from the onset, before the disc hits the player. First, Set Sail the Prairie’s song titles are almost all single words (“Birds,” “Snowflakes,” “Mercury”) — a serious shift from the phrase titles of the act’s former disc. “I had always been into poetic song titles, influenced by the Smashing Pumpkins,” says Ruff. “I felt like that was almost getting spoiled and overused. I didn’t feel any heart in it and what we were doing was probably getting lost in the saturation of things happening, so we’re going back to the basics.” “As we were writing each song, we knew what track number it was, what season it was, where it was taking place, what was before it and what was after it,” says Ruff. “Every step of the way, it was like a movie — it feels cinematic, it sounds cinematic. It’s just sparks images — I don’t know if it’s just for us since we created it. But we were able to capture something special.” With Set Sail the Prairie, Kaddisfly hopes to make a special contribution with its first association with Hopeless’ charity label Sub City. Proceeds from the album’s sales will benefit the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, an organization who donates musical instruments and helps fund music programs in schools. The band will direct its proceeds specifically to the Oregon program. “We’re just like five brothers that have been playing together for a long time and I think we come at this whole band thing with what we’ve believed to be a pure intention,” says Ruff of the band’s experience. “This album, we feel, marks a new era for our band. It’s almost like we’ve hit puberty musically and have grown up a little bit. We hope that this record is something everyone can at least respect
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