Cymbals Eat Guitars Has a 'Pretty Year'

If, as Lou Reed said, cymbals "eat" the sound of guitars on a recording, the band Cymbals Eat Guitars seems hell-bent on bashing through feelings like anger, fear, loneliness, and resentment with high-octane tunes. On the cover of their new record Pretty Years, out on Friday (and streaming at NPR First Listen now), there's a vacuum cleaner adjacent to an open casket: the heavy silence expected of a somber event juxtaposed with the high-pitched whine of a quotidian reality. The record is produced by John Congleton, who has recently helped artists like St. Vincent and War On Drugs achieve career highs by stretching their existing boundaries, and is working here to similar results. Hear the Staten Island band perform a live set of the new songs, and talk about their ever-expanding palette.