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--Barry Hyde (The Futureheads)
The Cynics - Here We Are PDF Print E-mail
Written by David T. Lindsay   
ImageThe Cynics
Here We Are
[Get Hip]
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The shortfall of most modern-day garage rock is that none of it captures the spunk and spirit that went into “Are You Gonna Be There (At the Love-In),” the old Chocolate Watchband come-on. In 1989, when the Pittsburgh-based garage-influenced band The Cynics released the illuminatingly astounding album Rock ‘N’ Roll, it stood as a gripping challenge and reminder that snotty, whiskey-soaked garage punk was still viable.

Whereas Rock ‘N’ Roll stuck to tradition by its every song working up a sweat, immediately on their latest record, all that’s changed. Here We Are is as a soul embattled while leaping flames lick up the body. Ballads and blunt-force Byrdsian Bacchanalia abound to where you would not be remiss to mention it as a wedding march uniting Pet Sounds and Forever Changes!

Michael Kastelic has always rivaled The Lyres’ Jeff “Mono-Man” Conolly as the consummate madcap ‘80s frontman. Here, with this record, he establishes himself as a vocalist to rival legendary libation a la Sky Saxon. And I mean it!

Set against the background of The Cynics’ most turbulent decade, where touring was curtailed, the song “Coming Round My Way” has a Faustian resolve that declares all that preceded was merely the prep. With disenchanted, nervy Gregg Kostelich guitar echoing Sean Bonniwell “Double Yellow Line” misterioso, after the solemnity of the opening title track, teeth are bared and claws unsheathed.

The jangle intro to “The Warning” recalls “Sunny Girlfriend” off The Monkees’ Headquarters. “What She Said” coulda been one of these little sprouts Iggy snatched up during his LA breakdown. And to remind us that garage rock is more than amateur American replies to Brit-rock, The Cynics wallop out “All About You,” a writhing Bosstown soul number complete with trumpets and an intensely demonstrative bassline, followed by the creepiest soliloquized heart-tug on the album: “Courtney.” I can’t stand Courtney Love but the song’s an antidote to harbored resentments.

It’s the best material this band has ever sharpened or shaped to where there’s a pulse between tracks energizing it as more than a random collection of songs. Here We Are is a role model for sequencing, how each song bleeds into the next, the way albums like Aftermath are known for. For a band to release a record this strong at this point in their career is amazing.

Notorious for saying I don’t care about music anymore, I certainly don’t feel all that compelled to write about it much. Here We Are is exceptional. It’s a sincere joy to be as excited about a record again, the way I was in the mid-’80s when rock ‘n’ roll got vital again after punk. Today, as then, The Cynics are unequivocally leading the charge.
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