THE CYNICS: Living Is The Best Revenge LP

Description

In May 2002 THE CYNICS hooked up with ace producer/R&R spiritual counselor TIm Kerr in Austin, TX. to record their first studio album in 7 years and most likely their best one to date! Recorded at Sweat Box Studios with Mike Vasquez and Bryan Nelson engineering, the tracks were laid down in just three days and they capture the energy and intensity of the Cynics live performances. The songs cover quite a dynamic range -from howling, fuzzed-out punkers to mid-tempo melodic folk-rock nuggets to pure psych-garage mayhem. All with the ever-present Gretsch guitar sound of Gregg Kostelich and the gnarly great in-your-face vocals of Michael Kastelic. Completing the sound is Tom Hohn’s prime beat bashing and Smith Hutching’s solid bass.

Track listing:
Turn Me Loose
Making Deals
Marianne
The Tone
Ballad of J.C. Holmes
She Lives (In A Time Of Her Own)
Revenge
I Got Time
Let Me Know
You’ve Never Had It Better
Last Day
Shine

“Keeping the Garage torch burning since 1983, the Cynics come through like a rude blast of fuzz-tone guitar.”
-ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

“People like to talk about the new garage revival, but the Cynics have been churning out primo ’60s garage punk like nobody’s business for over 15 years, and they are truly the kings. From the opening chords of “Turn Me Loose” to the psychedelic harmonies of the last track, “Shine,” I was pretty much floored by the raw, fuzzed-out energy. Singer Michael Kastelic and guitarist Gregg Kostelich have topped themselves, and every other band in this genre.” -LAURIE HENZEL BUST MAGAZINE

“Pittsburgh’s Cynics have been toiling in those often barren fields for two decades now; reunited after taking most of the ’90s off, they display peak-form songwriting and instrumental skills on Living Is the Best Revenge. The Cynics honor two of the best known, the Electric Prunes and the 13th Floor Elevators, with superb covers, plus a fine performance of the more obscure Satans’ Making Deals, a mock satanic precursor of Sympathy for the Devil. But it is tracks such as the snarling yet tuneful Last Day, that point the way toward garage rock’s future: new songs that balance originality and tradition, energy and melody, and satisfy the eternal appetite for a three-minute nugget of rock ‘n’ roll thrills.” -KEN BARNES, USA TODAY

“A slew of prime Cynics skree. Among my picks to click are the malevolent, “Psycho-edged ‘The Tone’ and the interstellar hard rock jam ‘Shine’ which sounds like Coltrane crossed with the old Alice Cooper Group. But there ain’t a duff track in the bunch!-FRED MILLS, MAGNET

“Living Is The Best Revenge is chock full of charged up energy and great rock and roll tunes that get better with repeated listenings. The band offers plenty of original tunes on this outing and as well as covers of songs by The Satans and Thirteenth Floor Elevators.” –BABYSUE REVIEW

-Fred Mills, assoc. ed., MAGNET Magazine