Cains & Abels began rehearsing in Grand Rapids, Michigan when the space shuttle Columbia exploded in 2003. Two years later, the EP, Clean Air, Cloud Science, was released on New Blood. Moving to Chicago, the band began working on its recent 2009 States Rights release, Call Me Up, engineered by NOMO member, Erik Hall.
Curator Magazine
"Seeking to make honest music, Cains & Abels embrace both harshness and beauty. Visceral, image-driven lyrics, reminiscent of Neutral Milk Hotel’s physicality, combine with memorable melodies."
Fred Thomas of Saturday Looks Good to Me
"This sounds like a band who spent a lot of time in the lo-fi, heart-on-sleeve indie folk ghetto and got so sick of it they said fuck it and decided to actually go for it, singing stories and playing whatever music made sense in the context of those true stories, regardless of how the sound might be received. The result is a slicker-than-most production and some heavy Neil Young guitar tones holding up Sampson's honest-to-god bellowing about all of the aboves."