CNTS, the noisy Los Angeles punk band featuring members of Dead Cross, Retox and Qui, return with aggressive new music video/single “Smart Mouth.” It’s off their sophomore album, Thoughts & Prayers, out March 29 via Ipecac Recordings.
Featuring guitarist/producer Mike Crain (Dead Cross, Retox, Festival of Dead Deer), drummer Kevin Avery (Retox, Planet B), and vocalist Matt Cronk (Qui), Thoughts & Prayers marks a significant comeback for the band. Following a devastating car accident that tragically resulted in the loss of Cronk’s voice, casting doubts over the future of CNTS, the band’s existence, and Cronk’s career, were both in jeopardy. Defying medical expectations, Cronk experienced a remarkable recovering when his damaged vocal cord began to heal. Within just two months, he regained his voice, paving the way for the resurrection of CNTS.
“We got together and ran through a song and it sounded good. We kept playing and my voice held up, sounded cool, and we all felt good playing together. It was immediately clear that we could do it again, that we’d really missed playing together and we wanted to do it,” says Cronk. “Personally, the experience was a significant marker in my recovery. I got a little teary after that first song.”
Reinvigorated by Cronk’s recovery, CNTS spent the rest of the year hard at work on their new record, Thoughts & Prayers, the title inspired by the banality of our collective reaction to crises. With a great deal of inspiration from their recent challenges, CNTS channeled several years of frustration and hardship into the well-articulated and aggressive statement that became the 10-song collection. Such tracks include “Smart Mouth” and “Thoughts & Prayers,” which both chronicle Cronk’s pain and anger throughout his various injuries and subsequent recovery.
Equal parts catharsis and blood-letting, CNTS as a live entity is an unapologetic display of rage and sex, of belligerence and contempt, a warm gob of spit in the eye, all done with a sarcastic smile. The future belongs to CNTS.
Did CNTS’ latest single “Smart Mouth” get you going?
