Cymbals Eat Guitars

Cymbals Eat Guitars hail from Staten Island, one bridge and a whole world away from the creative ferment of North Brooklyn. There, among wedding singers and amber-preserved bar bands, the members of Cymbals Eat Guitars craft anthemic indie-pop that’s noisy, shimmering, and just a little bit shaggy. It’s as if Built To Spill and Pavement had cut a record together, only to have the label promptly bury it in a Staten Island cemetery, where, years later, four kids stumbled upon it while sneaking cigarettes. 2009’s Why There Are Mountains was a fine, assured debut, and with its second, Lenses Alien, Cymbals Eat Guitars still recalls a pastiche of ’90s indie rock, but the songs exude a craftsmanship that simple re-appropriation couldn’t achieve. 

Updated 09/13/2011