Music like Cursive

Cursive is an American indie rock band from Omaha, Nebraska. Stylistically described as emo and post-hardcore, Cursive came to prominence with 2000's Domestica and found commercial and critical success with 2003's The Ugly Organ. The band has released eight studio albums, a compilations album, and a mix of singles and EPs since 1997. They have released recordings on several labels, including 15 Passenger Records, Saddle Creek Records, and Big Scary Monsters (UK).

Cursive's influences include bands such as Fugazi, Shudder to Think, Archers of Loaf and Brainiac.

Cursive formed in the spring of 1995, shortly after Slowdown Virginia broke up. Slowdown Virginia members Tim Kasher (lead vocals, guitar), Matt Maginn (bass), and Steve Pedersen (guitar) had parted ways, along with their drummer, a month prior. The three members decided that they were not ready to give up making music, and wanted to give music a serious try, with Kasher saying, "[we] decided with Cursive we would write the best we could, believe in it, and if everyone ended up hating it – well, we would deal with it." Clint Schnase, who played with Pedersen in a band called Smashmouth, joined as the drummer. Kasher has said that the band's name was inspired by a passage in a book by V. S. Naipaul, in which the British were forcing subjugated Indians to learn how to write English in cursive penmanship, symbolic of a pointless exercise with no value, and Kasher compares this to the band forcing music as a discipline, taking it seriously.