Way back at the tail end of the last millennium, four Milwaukee musicians joined forces to form Camden. During its brief-but-commendable run, the indie-tinged emo outfit toured with Death Cab For Cutie and The Promise Ring, while leaving a lasting mark with the band’s impressive debut album, Reel Time Canvas. Sadly, Camden’s untimely breakup shortly after the turn of the century made the band’s first album its last album as well…for a while, at least.
Last year, while much of the world was isolated and relying on things like Zoom happy hours and FaceTime chats to stay in touch, the longtime friends and former Camden bandmates—some of whom went on to play in Promise Ring, Decibully, Eric & Magill, and Dramatic Lovers—reconnected and decided to remotely write and record a song together for the first time in more than two decades. After that, as the band puts it, “the floodgates were open” and new music started pouring out.
So much new material came, in fact, this long-disbanded quartet managed to finish an entire album worth of songs in early 2021. That collection of material can be heard on Skeleton Wedding, Wedding Music, Camden’s forthcoming album that will be released on all streaming services November 29. Using many of the same instruments utilized on the first album, the unexpected follow-up’s 10 songs recapture the band’s original sound, but according to a press release, also brings in new influences and examines topics like “the solitude of lockdown, the fragility of life, death and love, with the burden of a middle age that romanticizes a past that never happened.”
Prior to Skeleton Wedding, Wedding Music‘s release, Camden recently introduced the new album with a music video for the band’s first new single in more than 20 years. The video for “I Don’t Even Dance” was put together by Camden member Ryan Weber, who augmented public domain footage of dancers to match the mood and tempo of the bleary and emotional shoegaze track. Party like it’s 1999 and watch the video for “I Don’t Even Dance” below.