Cardiacs



You want a band that complains about Suburban Life? Come to Cardiacs. You want a band that combines Progressive Rock and Punk. Come to Cardiacs. You want a band that preempted the Emo genre by about 10 years. Come to Cardiacs.

Cardiacs are that perfect band you've been looking for all your life but couldn't find because they're so damn obscure. Frontman Tim Smith is pretty much the only songwriter of the band. However, older brother Jim Smith is as much of a key character as Tim, bassist, batter-head, bully-bait, he's been "there" since Tim was a baby. Then there's Sarah, Tim's sister, saxophonist, pre-Seaside synth player, skirt wearer supreme, she's been "there" too.

The "Classic 6-Piece"
 * Tim Smith: Vox, Guitar,
 * Jim Smith: Bass
 * Sarah Smith: Sax
 * William D. Drake: Keyboards
 * Dominic Luckman: Drums
 * Tim Quy: Percussion + Bass Synth

Tropes

 * Adult Child. Tim Smith plays this for laughs and would often be really immature on stage and make commentary that someone 20 years his junior would have felt uncomfortable.
 * Artist Existence Failure. Tim Smith suffered a stroke on the night of a My Bloody Valentine gig. It Got Worse, Tim had a further stroke and Cardiac Arrest and is thus unable to even talk, let alone perform.
 * Black Dude Dies First. Colvin Mayers who died of effects of AIDS on Boxing Day.
 * Brother Sister Incest. Double Subverted Tim and Sarah were set up by the band's manager as an incestuous brother and sister item, the desired outcome being publicity. Their onstage antics didn't exactly help this and many people actually believed it, with Kingston police 'investigating it'. The story got into a British tabloid and Ex-Cardiacs to this day still push it as the truth, although with tongue firmly in cheek.
 * Crowd Chant "JIM JIM JIM JIM JIM..." Also "WHO IS HIM WHO IS HIM? IT'S JIM IT'S JIM!"
 * Damsel in Distress. Jim Smith who looks particularly sad on most album covers/promo pictures.
 * Non Appearing Title. "Bus for a Bus on the Bus", "The Obvious Identity", "As Cold As Can Be In An English Sea", "Is This The Life" to name but a few...
 * Offscreen Moment of Awesome. Most of Cardiacs' early material (As Cardiac Arrest) was either not recorded or recorded poorly (and to make matters worse only released once and in extremely limited quantities).
 * Shout Out. During Gloomy News Colvin Mayers would often play a short part of Enter the Gladiators riff. Colvin appears to like Shout Outs since Rock Around the Clock (itself being a pun on the Bill Haley song) was often introduced as "Real Rock and Roll!"
 * Suburbia: The source material of many of Tim's lyrics. See also Real Life Writes the Plot although less evident.
 * Tim is the Band Inverted with Jim being a punchbag on stage and music videos. Not to mention being in the band as long as Tim and standing next to him on stage.