Curtail

I think I saw the name of this band a little while back and subsequently forgot about them, so when an LP turned up in the post a few weeks back I was quite excited to give it a whirl. Especially when I learned they were from Kent, Ohio, a small town that has produced a bloody good lineage of DIY bands over the years. And the excitement was utterly justified as this record is super solid and eminently worthy of your time. CCC play a kind of free-wheeling emo / indie mix, slotting in mathy rhythms that never get overly technical. So it bounces back and forth in a manner previously honed by the likes of Braid and Colossal. I played this back to back with the Colossal LP on Sunday morning and felt they complimented each other nicely. No trumpetmo here mind you. The only minor quibble I really have with CCCs sound is that sometimes the vocals get a little bit too much and up front but for the most part they mingle in with the guitars rather nicely, for example the soft intro on the superb “They’re Digging the Wrong Place”, which actually brings to mind Chune. Which is nice. There’s also a couple of tracks which groove into parts with both singers urgently shouting, kind of like Kolya or Sinaloa. These are slightly different to the other tracks on here but works super well, and the album as a whole seems to show off a wider range of genre influences than most emo bands tend to flaunt these days, which is great.

This is a rather enjoyable album all told, and I have given it plenty of listens whilst procrastinating on coming up with a few words to spill. In that process it has firmly embedded itself as one of my 2012 favourites. CCC’s take on emo is different to most, and their album is all the better for it. Look forward to hearing what they do next. - Collective-Zine U.K.

God, please let Cherry Cola Champions stay a band for more than a year. I don't know if listening to their record will give everybody else the "oh shit, this is it!" moment that I got when I started jamming "Ft. Myers Flyers" like no tomorrow. There are two guys here, and they're doing the most. What you get is jazzy-emo grooves built around a spot-on connection between Jesse Sloan and Anthony Robinson, who work together to pull together something that is so much more than the sum of the parts. You can't twinkle when you're the only one playing guitar and singing, so instead there are head-bob-inducing riffs that incorporate the coolest chords I've heard in forever. Maybe that's part of it: you can hear each chord as it chunks out because there isn't a bunch of chaff in the way. Also, note how cool the guitar sounds. Apparently Tim Gerak, who was in The Six Parts Seven (an absolutely crucial band), produced the record and it's evident in how clear the songs come out in all of their minimal glory. Please also gives props to Anthony Robinson's drumming which keeps the songs as fresh as a spring breeze creeping in through your open window. He refuses to do the same thing for more than a few moments and takes every opportunity to show off his inventiveness. If anybody is feeling a bit reluctant because of all the yelpy singers that accompany everything I post, please hear me out: Jesse Sloan can actually sing, and he does. Try thinking of Colossal, except without a trumpet or Pat Ford's badass voice. They groove in the way that Colossal did, though. Alright, whatever, I clearly can't stop listening to it. - Circle The Drain

Cherry Cola Champions – Cherry Cola Champions: The self-titled debut from Ohio duo Cherry Cola Champions is a charming collection of new emo tunes. - Forbes