Starting Line & Algernon Cadwallader members form FILM, announce debut album ‘Permanence’

Back during the pandemic days, The Starting Line vocalist Ken Vasoli, Algernon Cadwallader/Hop Along guitarist Joe Reinhart, and drummer TJ DeBlois from pre-Algernon band Halfway to Holland (and A Life Once Lost) teamed up to jam and write some songs, and they ended up quickly busting out a demo that’s now coming out as Permanence, the debut album by FILM.

Though they originally intended to hit the studio and record the songs more properly, that changed when TJ unexpectedly passed away in 2023 at age 38, and now Joe and Ken have chosen to release the demos as is. “I think people need to hear this,” Joe says, “not because we did this amazing thing, but for TJ’s sake. This is the last thing he played on. He was such an important drummer to so many people, and he’s been one of my closest friends for twenty years.”

“I’m just forever grateful that he brought us together and that he put such a phenomenal performance down on this record,” Ken adds. “Now everybody gets to hear it.”

Ken’s voice will be immediately recognizable to Starting Line fans, but as you can hear on lead single “Roundabout,” FILM finds him, Joe, and TJ leaning much more into their love of raw, gritty, discordant stuff like Drive Like Jehu, Mclusky, and Braid—it’s a little closer to Ken’s post-Starting Line band Person L but even more caustic than that, and this kind of thing suits him, Joe, and TJ so well.

“The music came together in an instrumental combustion during a practice session,” Ken said. “The title came from a small exchange in a car ride with TJ. There was a newly constructed traffic circle on the route from his house to the studio. When it came time to name the song, I was searching for the word and asked what those traffic circles are called. He chimed in, ‘Roundabout?’ There it is.”

Permanence comes out May 22 via Lauren Records (pre-order). Check out “Roundabout” below.

FILM also follows both The Starting Line and Algernon Cadwallader releasing excellent, long-awaited reunion albums. Read about both on our list of the 50 best punk albums of 2025.

FILM – PERMANENCE TRACKLIST
Reassurance
Dumber
Roundabout
Diminished Return
Loyalty Program
Blurry
Rings True