Cindy Cane has been stalking the darker corners of Brooklyn for just over a year now and are finally poised to strike with their first single via Fetish Records, appropriately being released everywhere on the most terrifyingly romantic day of the year, February 14th.
“Be My Nightmare” is a bit of a stylistic departure for the band, a cleaner and more straightforward sound than the shadowy Bauhaus-flavored post rock of their current material that sets the stage for a psycho-sexual gothic fever dream reveling in its own campiness. Drawing strong parallels to the godfather of shock-rock, the Alice Cooper-grade lyrics are gleefully absurd. Lines like “Marinate me in a bloody bath” are as vivid and shocking as a 1980s B-movie slasher flick and just as entertaining, complete with metallic knife sound effects in the background. By the end of the track the bone-dry beat has been fleshed out with a hellish host of artificial voices singing in chorus and a towering wall of operatic synthesizers recalling a glitched out copy of Castlevania flickering from an ancient tube TV in a dark room.
For all its theatrically sexy violence it could be argued that “Be My Nightmare” exists firmly within thoroughly charted conceptual territory, but pay attention to what’s really going on and the track takes on a completely new subversive angle. Cindy Cane’s stage show is markedly gender-fluid, with bandleader Tom Lescovich frequently donning dresses and smeared eyeshadow. That flexibility simmers under the surface here, bubbling up in the submissive line “I’ll be your lover/Be your red hot wife” delivered in a masculine voice and “I’ll let you kill me/watch you lick the knife” twisting the view of phallic symbolism from multiple perspectives. Cindy Cane has always been the Phantom of the Opera, but the ambiguous suggestions on “Be My Nightmare” imply that they also might be Christine Daaé, indulging in the unique pleasures of malleable power dynamics.
“Be My Nightmare” will get its live debut this Friday night when Cindy Cane plays Planet X in Ridgewood. Bring a date or fly solo, either way this Valentine’s Day treat is sure to satisfy lustful cravings. Stream the track here exclusively today and follow Cindy Cane on Instagram.
