History
They play any venue that will have them, from art galleries to back alley warehouses, dive bars to back yard parties. Their DIY and open ethic extends from the presentation of their songs through the nuts and bolts of their day-to-day operation; Cinder Cone hands out free earplugs at all of their shows, and takes pride in the fact that it takes them fewer than 10 minutes to set up and fewer than 5 minutes to break down on stage. All of their gear fits neatly in the back of David’s four-door sedan. The gentleman of Cinder Cone share borderline geeky obsessions with the creepier passages of Unwound, the hypnotic iteration of Shellac and CAN, the unorthodox approach of Sonic Youth and Fugazi, the Lakers, gorilla suits, taco stands, and vegetarian dinners in Palms. A brief history:
Early Years
Anthony and David began playing music together during the summers of the early 2000s. At the time, David attended school in Boston, but spent summers home in Los Angeles. During his third summer back, the two began writing songs and even played a show. A few months later during the winter break of 2004, Cinder Cone recorded what would end up being the guitar and drum tracks for their first full-length record.
David moved back to Los Angeles in the fall of 2005. He and Anthony established a regular practice schedule and drew up a permanent battle plan for the two-piece sound. Less became more, and more became louder. With both members in the same city, Cinder Cone could now focus on playing shows, writing new songs, and finishing the self-titled record that would eventually come out at the very beginning of 2007.
Cinder Cone – Self-Titled Record
On January 26th, 2007 at the Knitting Factory/Alterknit Lounge in Hollywood, CA, Cinder Cone hosted a release show for their debut full-length record. After two years of adding vocal tracks, mixing, mastering, and finalizing the art, the album was released on independent label Harter Records. The 10 song self-titled album was recorded at KXLU and various other locations by Christian La Rocca.
The album cover is a picture taken by long-time friend of the band Scott Adams, as he hung out of the back window of David’s car, traveling West on the 10 Freeway near Overland Ave.
Sharkelepharhino EP:
In the summer and fall of 2007, the band began to hone its more “minimalist” sound that has defined much of their material since. Anxious to record the most recent songs that reflected this sound, they set to work on The Sharkelepharhino EP. The 4-song EP was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Christian La Rocca at the band’s downtown rehearsal space in October and November of 2007. While the record went to press, the band created all of the artwork by hand. Each of the 500, limited edition EPs was silk-screened, cut, folded, pasted, and hand numbered. The band decided that they would give the EP out for free, exclusively at shows, to anybody who had an interest in owning a documentation of Cinder Cone. The Sharkelepharhino EP was released at the Knitting Factory/Alterknit Lounge in Hollywood, CA on January 4th, 2008.
The Sharkelepharhino image is the silhouette of a statue that stands outside of a large bank in the French Concession neighborhood of Shanghai.
The Last Two:
Cinder Cone released The Last Two on Tuesday, February 16th, 2010.On this second full length release, the band solidifies the sound they have developed for the last several years. Engineer Christian La Rocca recorded the vast majority of the instrumentation for the album (guitar and drums) live in the band’s downtown practice space with a precision that brings the band to life right out of the speakers or headphones. The end result is the band’s fullest sounding and catchiest release yet. Lyrical subject matter includes themes of humans vs. machines, cyclical and linear time, killing TV’s, god complexes, love at the end of time, soothsayers, Howard Hughes (king of recluses), and a real-life World War II Japanese soldier who refused to believe the war had ended and kept fighting for almost thirty years.
The details: David played a single kick pedal drum kit, while Anthony played guitar and throat. Christian La Rocca engineered and mixed the album before Paul Altnether mastered the final recording. Anna Tes designed the layout, and also worked on the band’s website with Nate Luzod. David, Anthony, and Don Williams took photographs for the album.
The album cover features two rocks from the cinder cone located just off the highway on the way to Mammoth, California.