Cold Cave is a testament to the benefits of experimentation. The brainchild of Wes Eisold has produced a debut full-length that is both stark and emotional, filled with plenty of catchy melodies and inventive samples to keep it interesting throughout.

Wes Eisold formed Cold Cave after a run as singer of a few well-loved hardcore bands (Some Girls, Give Up the Ghost) and as front man for some more electronic-based bands like XO Skeletons and Ye Olde Maids. He decided he wanted to start making music on his own, but a lack of facility on guitar forced him to experiment with synths and effects pedals, and the results were dramatic. Edgy, dark electronic pop emerged: a winning mix of new wave, goth, experimental noise, pop and indie rock.

For 2009’s Love Comes Close , Eisold teamed up with Caralee McElroy (Xiu Xiu) and Dominick Fenrow (Prurient) to craft a collection of syth-driven numbers that speak to the tortures of modern life and love. Noise, samples and programmed rhythms make Cold Cave’s tunes sound simultaneously otherworldly and danceable.

Layering harshness and odd recorded sounds with melody and beats results in an edgy, intoxicating whole. There’s a little jangly New Order guitar mingled with Whitehouse-esque noise and Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis’ deep baritone. One of the real treats here is the great female vocals of McElroy as counterpoint. Cold Cave’s trippy, brooding debut presents a project truly rounding into form.

Where you can find them in cyberspace:

MySpace

On Tour:

JamBase

Why you should check them out:

Whatever you’re into, Staten Island’s Cymbals Eat Guitars is probably into as well. Too experimental to be called pop, but too pop to be called Animal Collective, CEG is like a four man amalgamation of the last twenty five years of indie rock progression.

Background Check:

When I first heard the name Cymbals Eat Guitars, my instinct was to wince. Images of violent hardcore rock flooded, thinking of the sound surely made when a guitar is consumed by the shrill jaws of a cymbal. Hearing that front man Joseph D’Agostino went by the alias Joseph Ferocious only further drove my fantastical visions of black metal and bloody stage shows.

Turns out I am terrible at predictions, since Cymbals Eat Guitars is one of the most dynamic, eclectic, and accessible sounding  bands around today. Just listening to “And the Hazy Sea,” the opening track off CEG’s self released 2009 debut album Why There Are Mountains, paints an epic and artful picture of a young band (D’Agostino is barely in his 20’s) wasting no time in dominating the indie stratosphere.

Building on an early 90’s indie rock base, and launching off with exceptional and experimental flourishes, CEG leave no stone unturned in the canon of modern music. D’Agostino himself is like the love child of Isaac Brock’s yelping and Stephen Malkmus’s ultra hip swagger. The music sways back and forth, often within the same song, from softly crooning piano rock to all out rolling drums and horns backed intensity as the volume and pitch rise higher and higher. Songs like “Some Trees” are down right poppy, reflecting the not so distant past of CEG’s high school incarnation as a Weezer cover band. Though enormous strides have been made musically for the four piece, the essence of that early and pure enjoyment in music still dominates the group. Few bands today sound like they’re having as much fun doing what they do as Cymbals Eat Guitars. And that makes them all the more infectious.

Where you can find them in cyberspace:

Cymbalseatguitars.com

MySpace

Wikipedia

On Tour:

JamBase