On The Verge

Cymbals Eat Guitars

Staten Island, N.Y.
Clear as Fuzz
www.cymbalseatguitars.com

“I prefer the ritual that comes along with putting a record on a turntable,” explains Matthew Whipple, bassist for New York-based noise rockers Cymbals Eat Guitars, when asked about his sonic format of choice. “It’s a calmer headspace for experiencing music rather than just hitting play on a blog and trying to pass judgment right away.” And Lenses Alien, the group’s crystalline follow-up to their self-released 2009 debut Why There Are Mountains, is an album that’s epic hybrid of melody and experimentalism is meant to be heard on vinyl through a quality set of headphones rather than an inferior pair of computer speakers. Especially when you take into consideration the array of effects pedals that the band has has at their disposal thanks to their own in-house Roger Mayer. “ Brian Hamilton, our keyboard player, has a pedal company, that’s his job outside of the band,” reveals frontman/guitarist Joseph D’Agostino. “He runs a one-man shop called smallsound/bigsound, and a lot of the pedals that we use are stuff that he has built for us. He creates these amazing fuzz pedals that sound interesting and work great and he is building a solid reputation in that community.”