The CINCH (Canada)

THE CINCH EP
-CD
2002 (Stutter)





"After honing their craft in the darkest recesses of Vancouver's rock clubs for a couple of years now, The Cinch have finally given us their debut release on Stutter Records. A short, sharp, 5 song (one unlisted bonus track for all you modern lovers out there) dynamo that reminds one of early Dream Syndicate and Wire. Glorious, driving rock 'n roll, delivered by nervous, buzzsaw guitars, a tough-as-nails rhythm section, and fronted by a coupla' edgy female Richard Hell's. A summer must-have!" - Zulu


"Ever since the popularity of garage-pop bands such as The Strokes and The Hives made buzzing, twisting guitar riffs and primitive, Meg White-approved drum chops en vogue, cutesy bands that wrap grunge rock around vintage pop chords and feature some self-important sap behind the microphone have inundated hipster record stores and coffee shops across North America and beyond. Armed with little more than some vintage threads and their Velvet Underground boxed set, most of these groups should never have existed in the first place, probably, except maybe in order to fill that all-important first slot on the $5, five-band bill at the local Cavalry Chapel.

Fortunately, when The Cinch crawled out of the primordial ooze of some rehearsal space in Vancouver, it didn’t give a hot damn about being cute or taking itself too seriously." - Casey Lombardo


"The Cinch were able to win people over so easily that you might almost call their whole career a string a splendid flukes. Shortly after the band started writing songs and performing, they played a couple of gigs at a battle of the bands contest hosted by the UBC radio station. Despite taking on a new member just before playing their first contest gig, the Cinch won—and scored some studio time as a result. The result was their first EP, released in 2002, and represents the first time the Cinch had ever set foot in a studio." - Angels Twenty



"As the Strokes were taking New York by storm with their blend of lifts from late-era Velvet Underground, early Modern Lovers, and the first Television album, Vancouver's the Cinch were perfecting their own distaff blend of the same influences. The difference is that the Cinch's debut lacks the whiff of arrogance that colors the glammy New Yorkers' efforts; the far more diffident vocals of Jennifer Smyth are Doug Yule or Richard Lloyd to Julian Casablancas' Iggy Pop/David Johansen cross-breed. More importantly, the five-piece band (also including singer/guitarist Kathy Dube, guitarist Mark Epp, bassist Geoff Thompson, and drummer C.C. Rose) burns through these three-minute pop songs with punky intensity instead of snotty attitude, giving lesser songs like "French Maid" and "Got To" an extra energy boost even as it lifts top-drawer stuff like the kinetic opener "Once a Week" and the howling "Talk and Talk" to a higher plane. In these surroundings, the closing cover of the Modern Lovers' classic "She Cracked" not only stands up to the original, it almost sounds like an original. The Cinch was originally released on the tiny Canadian indie Stutter Records in the summer of 2002. Seattle's slightly larger Dirtnap label gave it a belated United States release in early 2003." - Stewart Mason

Kathy Dubé (guitar, vocals)
Mark Epp (guitar, vocals)
CC Rose (drums)
Jennifer Smyth (vocals, percussion, guitar)
Geoff Thompson (bass)

Tracklist:
1. Once A Week
2. Got To
3. Talk & Talk
4. French Maid
5. She Cracked

Download (192 Kbs, 19 Mb)