New Band Aims to Blend Alternative Rock Instrumentals With Soulful R&B; Vocals

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Author George Orwell once defined it as “the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.” Today it seems everyone has something to sell and everyone can give any number of reasons why you should buy it: It’s the best, it’s the newest, it’s the oldest, and on and on and on.

Rock bands are no different.

Like a lot of other bands, the group Cyrano, which performed last Friday at the Riverbottom Cafe in Burbank, boldly claims to be at the forefront of a new style of music. The band says it blends the best elements of alternative rock--that is, melodic guitar riffs, live drums and bass--with the soulful vocals of R&B.;

And after hearing their music, it turns out this claim might be more than hyperbole.

The young men in the band--Carl King, Lawrence Mendheim and Tracy Hill--are African Americans who got tired of digital sample-driven R&B; and rap music and decided to try something else.

“The thing was I was not having fun anymore,” said King. “We’re now trying to do more things that are fun.”

With the basic instrumentation of only drums, bass and acoustic guitar, Cyrano plays a sparse but melodic rock behind King’s soulful vocals.

King hails originally from Chicago, Mendheim from New York and Hill from Seattle. The three met in Los Angeles and became friends playing basketball. All were involved in other musical projects; it took them awhile to get together to form a band.

While drummer Hill was performing in various groups around L.A., singer King and bassist Mendheim were making demos of their original songs in a computerized home studio, spending a lot of time programming a drum machine and a sampler. Finally, they had their fill--”No more machines!”

So, King and Mendheim decided to go into the studio to record some tracks live and they asked their friend Hill to join them. They didn’t know what to expect.

“We knew we all liked each other,” Hill said. “So we knew we wouldn’t kill each other when we got in the studio.”

And in the studio, they liked what they heard. The Riverbottom Cafe audience Friday liked the music as well.

“Our music is very organic, it’s just us,” King said.

For the last several months, the trio has added female backup singer Koty J. to the act, but Hill said she’s not yet a permanent member of the band.

While J. provides more than ample backup, it’s King’s powerful vocals, sophisticated original songwriting, and the rhythmic interplay of bass, drums and acoustic guitar that are the big attractions here.

“People seem to be diggin’ it,” Hill said. “When we play, it’s nice to hear people say, “We’ve had a good time.”

Because of the three-piece instrumentation and high-register lead vocals, the band is sometimes evocative of the Police. But, the musical influences of the three individuals are diverse.

Besides Sting, King lists Stevie Wonder, Prince, Sade, Hall and Oates and the Clash as major influences. Mendheim comes from a jazz fusion background, and Hill said he listened to a lot of the Scorpions, Metallica and Led Zeppelin growing up in Seattle.

“Living here in Los Angeles, people can sometimes get caught up in the recording industry,” Hill said. “They forget that music’s supposed to be fun.”

So, is this a case of truth in advertising? Is the band Cyrano really at the forefront of a new kind of music?

Who knows?

As another British author once said, “There’s nothing new under the sun.”

But, Cyrano is a really good band.