REVIEW: The Original Cyndi

The Original Cyndi
The POWER Without the PRICE
Makeshift/Migrant, 2009

Occasionally, albums take a long time to make. People used to churn them out on an annual basis in the early days of the long player, and I remember in the mid-Eighties when Def Leppard’s Hysteria finally came out – “oh my god, THREE YEARS in the making!” Well, former Johnny Romanian (and current member of Two Way Radio and J.D. Reager’s backing band, The Cold-Blooded Three) Justinedward took eight years for his debut as The Original Cyndi to make it to the shops. Take that, drummer with one arm. Mind you, Def Leppard were an established name, but you get my drift.

For the handful of you who might remember Johnny Romania, The Original Cyndi’s electronic-based numbers seem like the more immediate, denser offspring of that project – and such tech-savvy pieces as “(Tales of) Unnecessary Surgery” take a satirical tone towards not only man’s interaction with and through technology but also life itself. “Stinky Man” and “Tears Me Up Inside” paint a portrait of someone torn between resigned inaction and the brink of sanity.

Of course, for you others who have witnessed Cyndi live, many of the other songs indeed stay true to its current incarnation as a slightly demented glam/garage combo, and these songs bristle with sexual perversion and frustration. Justin’s vocal delivery is wild-eyed and depraved, concerned only with getting his message across from the opening anticlimax (his own observation) of “Get Along” to the incendiary final throes of “Where Ya Gonna Go?”

There are no clues for the casual listener as to whether any of it’s personal, or real, and that in itself makes The POWER Without the PRICE one of the most baffling, confrontational listening experiences a virgin pair of ears might find in Memphis’s music scene nowadays. For me, that also means it’s one of the best as well.

REVIEW: J.D. Reager

J.D. Reager
The Repechage
Makeshift/Migrant, 2008

This is a record I’ve been looking forward to for a long time – given J.D.’s rich history in the Memphis music scene with a wide range of groups such as Pezz, Johnny Romania, The Great Depression and Two Way Radio, seeing something released in his name is a big moment for those of us who’ve been keeping up for a while. You find yourself being proud for him.

The Repechage lives up to the anticipation generated by the two tracks that have made their way out via Makeshift’s self-titled compilation series – that would be “For Now” and this record’s opener “Water”. And for those of us lucky enough to have caught J.D. and his backing band The Cold-Blooded Three out and about (yeah, I’m bragging – three times now!), a good chunk of this record is already familiar. “Wading In” is magnificent in its studio form, and “Panic” is the best song in ¾ time I’ve heard in recent memory (and I even wrote one recently, but everyone knows your own material doesn’t count in reviews of other people’s records).

And so you know, “No One Wants To Know” is nothing short of spectacular, as is the rocker “I Can’t Decide”. A Tim Regan-penned number, “Regime”, is another high mark on a record crammed with real ups. Also, it’s of little consequence but it’s only recently dawned on me how much J.D. sometimes sounds like Lou Barlow (Sebadoh fans take note)!

If you’ve not bought any local music – and shame on you if that’s the case – you owe it to yourself to grab this one, and get out to a show or two. Maybe you should just get out more anyway…