The Cringe signs management deal with Rock Ridge Music; new album & free sampler forthcoming

New York City-based rock quartet The Cringe has inked a deal with the management arm of Newark, NJ-based music services company Rock Ridge Music. Says band lead singer John Cusimano of their new management colleagues: “The team at Rock Ridge has been working ahead of the curve for us on this album and helping tee up what we anticipate will be a first quarter release in 2012. RRM is unusually adept at sussing out and creating marketing and promotional opportunities for The Cringe, and they can move as nimbly as they need to without taking their eye off the ball in today's completely different and dynamic world of music distribution.”

Rock Ridge Music’s label arm will be releasing the band’s forthcoming album in 2012; the record has been in the recording process for a number of months, and joining the band again in the engineer seat is Steve Hardy (Vertical Horizon, The Upwelling), with the band self-producing the effort. Says Cusimano: “We are driving Rock Ridge Music (and each other) nuts by spending waaaay more time than we have ever spent on an album before. We are splitting hairs on this one and being more collaborative than ever before, and building songs up only to break them down again, and reinvent them, ad infinitum (or at least it feels that way). We are again lucky to avail ourselves of the indispensable and platinum-selling advice of our friend Steve Lillywhite, who assures us that we are in reality working much more efficiently than we think we are.”

In advance of the album, Rock Ridge Music has teamed up with Amazon.com to bring a free sampler of The Cringe’s music to listeners on October 4, 2011. The sampler features tunes from two of the band’s past albums, plus two live recordings. Here is a complete track listing:

The Cringe – Amazon Sampler:

(From “Play Thing”)
Ride
Weary Me
No Control
Hiding Space
When I Stay Home
Poison
(From “Tipping Point”)
Freedom Ban
Fade Out
Patient Man
I Can't Walk Away
In God We Trust
And Then I'm Gone
(New tracks – recorded live at The Highline Ballroom in NYC)
Gimmie Resurrection
Finally Gonna Be On Your Own

The Cringe has been bringing their music to fans across the country since 2004, and their forthcoming 2012 album is the follow-up to last year’s “Play Thing.” The New York City band (lead singer John Cusimano, lead guitarist James Rotondi [ex-Air, Mr. Bungle], bassist Jonny Matias [ex-Crash Moderns] and drummer Shawn Pelton [“Saturday Night Live” Band, Bruce Springsteen]) have been lauded both for their incendiary performances and top-flight musicianship: “Cusimano’s infectious and insightful songwriting is the foundation for the band’s dynamic mix of artful, harmonic power pop and raw, aggressive punk garage-band energy,” said All Music Guide of their music. Electronic Musician calls their sound “smart, poppy rock,” while The Pulse Magazine says the band “blaze[s] forth with a sense of rock that hearkens back to the days when combining genres was fresh and exciting.”