Frame & Canvas

Following the release of their second studio album The Age of Octeen in 1996, Braid played shows in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Missouri in September and October. Between November 1996 and January 1997, the band toured the south and west coasts of the United States. Following a handful of shows in February 1997, drummer Roy Ewing left Braid the following month. Atkinson had previously filled in for Ewing when he was unable to book time off work for a tour. Atkinson had been a fan of the band and Ewing's drumming; when he came to practice, they felt he was the perfect replacement. Braid continued to tour throughout 1997; playing with the Get Up Kids, Tomorrow, and Compound Red, among others. The members used to skateboard with Polyvinyl's co-founder Matt Lunsford before they became a band; he and fellow co-founder Darcie Knight organized the band's first-ever show in 1993. According to Nanna, Atkinson brought a sense of groove to the track that made it markedly different from their previous material and, for that reason, the song was almost scrapped. Following on from this, Braid traveled across the US with Rainer Maria in October of that year. The day Nanna graduated from college, Braid traveled to Washington, D.C., to record their next album. Robbins served as the engineer for Frame & Canvas and also mixed the recordings. The recording and mixing process lasted six days, and each recording day lasted 13 hours. ==Composition and lyrics==

Musically, the sound of Frame & Canvas has been described as emo and post-hardcore, landing between the late 1990s Midwest emo and D.C. post-hardcore acts, such as Fugazi and Jawbox, the latter of which Robbins was a member of. All of the music was written by Braid; Nanna wrote lyrics for seven of the tracks, and co-wrote the other five with Broach. The song features Broach and Nanna discussing job prospects with their parents. "Never Will Come for Us" includes references to Braid being an underground act that did not get airplay, and playing shows at friends' house parties. "Milwaukee Sky Rocket" was initially titled "Sky Rocket", until Atkinson—who was from Milwaukee—joined the band. They were working on the dance-indebted "A Dozen Roses" in Nanna's parents' basement when Atkinson began playing what he called "this cool beat". Nanna stated that "immediately once he started playing", he thought: "This is different." Robbins added tambourine to the track. Discussing "Urbana's Too Dark", Borach said Urbana, Illinois, was where the members lived alongside "the art kids and music kids. The frats were in Champaign and the old guard", such as Hum and Poster Children. The track's title referred to a movement that called for more street lights in Urbana because of concern over sexual assaults. With "Consolation Prize Fighter", the members felt there was competition from other bands, especially from their friends' bands, to make great albums and songs. It was written along with "Urbana's Too Dark" in 1995. "Ariel" is about living under one roof with people in bands while wishing the music Braid were making in the basement was being made upstairs. Robbins played an extra drum kit on "Breathe In", which Broach was highly impressed by. According to Broach, the song is about "trying to be the best person". Nanna said to occupy himself on tour, he would write lyrics; the lyrics of "I Keep a Diary" were used verbatim from a journal entry. ==Release and promotion==

Between January and March 1998, Braid went on a tour of Europe with the Get Up Kids, with the latter initially planning to take Hot Water Music on the trek. They went on a cross-country tour throughout the following month with Kind of Like Spitting, before embarking on a Japanese tour with Eversor in May 1999. It was later revealed that Broach wanted to return to school and had little interest in the band by this point. Aside from performing at a friend's wedding, the band played their last few shows in August 1999, including a hometown performance, Ewing performed on a few songs at the band's last show. Footage from Braid's last five days as a band was included in their documentary film Killing a Camera (2001). Polyvinyl reissued the album in 2003; they explained that they had signed a pressing and distribution deal with Southern in 1998, which had expired in 2003. ==Reception and legacy==

AllMusic reviewer Blake Butler noted that Braid came up with "very technical pop melodies" on Frame & Canvas, accompanied by frequent time signature changes. He liked the "beautiful interlocking" guitar lines, which he wrote were "fused together with yelled/sung boyish vocals" from Broach and Nanna. In the opinion of Blake, the album cemented itself as one of Braid's best works. Blake even went as far as to say that by the end of the first track "you know you will be humming these melodies in your head for at least the next few days". The staff at Impact Press called Frame & Canvas "incredible", adding that the song arrangements are "untraditional and right on, their vocals are well-sung". Punk Planet Mike Barron said it was full of "genuine, heartfelt, and complex songs", highlighting "The New Nathan Detroits", "Milwaukee Sky Rocket", and "Urbana's Took Dark" as examples of Braid performing melodic music "really goddamn well". Andrew Chadwick of Ink 19 considered the songs "more straightforward than on Age of Octeen," while the band's "penchant for constantly changing structures remains intact, and their knack for amazing melodies and memorable songwriting seems to have grown". Glenn McDonald, in his online music review column The War Against Silence, compared the band to their idols Fugazi, asserting, "Braid are what I wanted Fugazi to become. (...) Fugazi showed how the world could be reduced to a set of sharp angles, every compound shape abstracted to the smallest possible number of lines, but after a while I got tired of dramas staged with just lines. [With Frame and Canvas] Braid points out that if you relax the rules a little, and allow the lines to be bent, you can draw surprisingly recognizable characters without needing very many more of them." As of July 2004, Frame & Canvas has sold over 16,000 copies worldwide. It has appeared on various best-of emo album lists, being named to lists by Consequence of Sound, Kerrang!, LA Weekly, NME, and Rolling Stone. Similarly, "A Dozen Roses" appeared on a best-of emo songs list by Vulture. OC Weekly said the album established Polyvinyl and pushed the band as an important figure in the emo scene. Frame & Canvas was an important snapshot of second-wave emo and the contemporary Champaign, Illinois indie rock scene. Nanna ranked it as his second favorite Braid album, saying: "You can hear the fact that we really needed to nail it and you can tell we’re nervous but excited and really pressed for time. But I’m still happy with the way it sounds." ==Track listing==

All music by Braid. All songs produced by J. Robbins and Braid. ==Personnel==

Personnel per booklet. Braid • Damon Atkinsondrums • Todd Bellbass • Chris Broachvocals, guitar • Bob Nannavocals, guitar Additional musicians • J. Robbinsextra percussion (tracks 5 and 11) Production • J. Robbinsengineer, mixing, producer • Braidproducer • Andy Muellerdesign, photography ==References==