I'm a little late to the game in coming across the debut album Fatten The Leeches from the Athens, Georgia based duo Cancers. As soon as I clicked on the opening track "Be Cool" I was immediately transported back to my teenage years. On the cusp of graduating high school, long dark brown hair hiding a pimpled face, I was moving out of my "metal only" phase and beginning to open my ears up to a burgeoning grunge scene while falling in love with college rock that was transitioning into 90's alternative.
What I loved most about 90's alternative were the introduction of more melodic choruses and catchy-as-hell hooks over crunchy guitars. It was hard-edged but welcoming at the same time.
Members Ella Kaspar and Lenny Millar are able to create a fat and filling sound with just the two of them with Kaspar's vocals adding an extra sweetness to their sound in a way that Kristin Herch did with Throwing Muses or Kay Hanley did with Letters To Cleo. What separates Cancers from the aforementioned is that they deliver the sweetness with a crunchier outer shell.
