Hey guys, are you tired of hearing about how I’m very close to graduation yet? Well get used to it, because we’ve got a couple more days of hearing about how nervous/excited I am. However, this give me a great lead-in to Cymbals Eat Guitars. See, I decided to try and listen to more bands now that I’m freeing up about 20 hours of my week. The first band I listened to after making that decision… turned out to be pretty great.

MP3: Cymbals Eat Guitars – Cold Spring
I can’t help but think that Cymbals Eat Guitars would have killed in 2005. The year after the Arcade Fire broke, everyone was looking for a smartly-instrumented, enthusiastic, powerful band to love. Modest Mouse and Wolf Parade got more attention (though “Float On” meant there wasn’t much attention left MM hadn’t already earned) but people kept on looking. Cymbals Eat Guitars are very similar to what I think people were looking for back then. The band is different — they’d fit in opening for Modest Mouse and they wouldn’t be out of place on Saddle Creek — but not to an off-putting degree. They sound a bit like Modest Mouse might’ve the week after they first heard the Arcade Fire’s Funeral. If you dug this one, go to their myspace and stream “Wild Phoenix” for a bit of Blitzen Trapper’s Wild Mountain Nation thrown in the mix.

Cymbals Eat Guitars on Myspace