Cyanides make crate-digging music. The band’s self-titled debut LP, out now on Sinkhole Records, is the sound of a group for whom Lenny Kaye’s seminal 1972 compilation album, Nuggets, might as well be the Holy Bible.
Their choice for a cover song—”Hate” by The Stoics—is a good case in point. The Stoics were a short-lived teenage garage band from San Antonio, Texas. They released one surly, hormonal single in 1967, then disappeared completely. “Hate,” the A-side of their sole 45 RPM vinyl record, is credited to a songwriter by the name of J. Cutrer. Nobody knows who this is. Nobody has managed to track down The Stoics either.
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The song is as obscure as they come, and Cyanides’ decision to cover it is a testament to their commitment to the fringes of rock’s history.
The group’s debut album often captures the feeling of listening to a band like The Stoics. It sounds like the sort of hidden gem you would stumble upon during a 3 a.m. YouTube binge, or something that an obsessive, socially maladjusted record store clerk would happen to feel intensely passionate about.
“Our band group chat is just obscure bands that we send to each other,” bassist and vocalist Matt Stuttler says. “Most of the time, it’s brand new to all of us.”
The group first started jamming in the basement of The Sinkhole, which Stuttler and guitarist/vocalist Brian Will own together, around 2017, and began playing shows two years later. They recorded a split EP with local band TSP in 2019, featuring four songs that are included on the new full-length release. The new LP was self-recorded at The Sinkhole’s in-house studio throughout the fall and winter of 2022, and mixed and mastered over the following two years.
Stuttler says the decision to record at The Sinkhole was crucial to the album’s sound. Because he owns the venue with Will, the group could take all the time they needed to perfect each of the 12 tracks without input from a third party.
“I wanted it to be a very Cyanides record without outside influence,” Stuttler says. “It’s good to record with engineers who can help shape your album, but I wanted this to be as authentic to our process as possible.”
Aside from the sounds culled from arcane ‘60s garage-rock releases, shades of art-punk bands such as Television and Suicide abound across Cyanides. The jangly, washed-out guitars on tracks like “Calloused” even recall noise pop pioneers The Jesus and Mary Chain. And closing track “Eyes” reveals that underneath all the scuzz is a killer, no-frills rock ‘n’ roll band.
But Stuttler calls “Speedball,” another stripped-back rock ‘n’ roll number, the best encapsulation of Cyanides’ sound. The group’s songwriting chops are on full display on this track, built on a primitive guitar line and backup vocals that sound like a sweaty, drunken singalong.
With unlimited time to record, the band took the opportunity to experiment and add subtle details to each track. “Movin’ in the Ground,” for example, features 16 vocal tracks. Stuttler even bought multiple Pocket Operators, a line of miniature synthesizers, one of which was used to provide sci-fi sound effects for the intro to opening track “Radiation People.”
Will describes the band’s attitude in the studio as spontaneous and relaxed, while still remaining intensely focused on the project.
“For me, it was the most extensive recording experience I’d had up until that point,” he said. “It was a really ever-changing, as-we-went-along kind of thing. These songs went places I never would have expected at the start.”
For the near future, Cyanides plan to continue writing songs and honing their recording process. As for Sinkhole Records, Stuttler says listeners can expect a new release by Boreal Hills on December 14, and a tape by punk group Maximum Effort in 2025.
But in the meantime, he plans on enjoying the final product of a two-year effort taken by himself and his bandmates.
“At the end of the day,” he says, “it’s nice to be able to say ‘this is what we envisioned.’”
Listen to Cyanides, and purchase a limited edition 7” vinyl, here. Other Sinkhole Records releases can be found here.
