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Formed in 1985 by Get Hip Recordings owner Gregg Kostelich The Cynics are a Garage-Punk institution. After 5 studio albums, 2 live albums, 20+ singles and several great compilation tracks, the band is still full of power and creativeness.
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.
You know the Cynics. Get Hip’s house band, beneficiaries of the Swamp Rats’ incendiary Pittsburgh legacy, and brutalizing force that demands attention in concert. And on their all-new opus, Living Is the Best Revenge, you’ll get to know them a little better as they leap out of your speakers like an FBI raid with their full-throttle flamboyant take on ’60s punk raunch combined with the tight musicianship of the present. Some such bands use covers as a crutch, but there’s nothing lame about these guys, as their originals have never suffered in comparison to the covers.
The versions of the Satans’ "Making Deals," the Thirteenth Floor Elevators’ "She Lives" and the Electric Prunes "You Never Had It Better" blaze with the fury of an overheated combustion engine, but the band matches their forefathers tit for tat with such molten steel heat originals as "The Tone," "Shine," and the melody-tinged title track. Of the many rhythm sections that have worked with guitarist/Get Hip CEO Gregg Kostelich and vocalist Michael Kastelich, Tom Hohn (drums) and Smith Hutchings (bass) are unquestionably the best, laying down the law as decisively as Bruce Lee’s fists. Get hit! (Doug Sheppard, contributing writer Ugly Things)
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