There’s something about the water in B.C. that seems to kill a lot of promising young bands. Exhibit A: the Cinch, whose garage-meets-Breeders sound was supposed to be one of the next big things to come out of Vancouver earlier this decade. Though not quite as prominent as the leaders of the Lower Mainland wave like the Organ and the New Pornographers, nor current luminaries like You Say Party! We Say Die!, the Cinch were able to win people over so easily that you might almost call their whole career a string a splendid flukes. Shortly after the band started writing songs and performing, they played a couple of gigs at a battle of the bands contest hosted by the UBC radio station. Despite taking on a new member just before playing their first contest gig, the Cinch won—and scored some studio time as a result. The result was their first EP, released in 2002, and represents the first time the Cinch had ever set foot in a studio.

A bunch of shows and a bunch of songs later, the Cinch found themselves getting national airplay and a release in the United States. In late 2004, they put out a bona-fide album, Shake If You Got It. But already rumours had begun to swirl; with drummer CC Rose already in about twenty-four other bands and the other members similarly engaged in other projects, talk of a break-up began to spread. By the time I’d gone to see my first Cinch show that October, everyone seemed to have already guessed this might be one of the last shows they’d play. A month later the other shoe dropped: the Cinch were no more. Around the same time, the Organ lost their bassist, two blows to the Vancouver scene.

Of course, the scene’s still around, and there are plenty of bands still playing shows. But the Lower Mainland’s moment in the national spotlight has already passed, its bands back to toiling in obscurity while Toronto and Montreal bands get to enjoy the semi-obscurity thanks to continued media coverage. So until we hear of the next western renaissance, remember bands like the Cinch—it won’t be long before we hear from others like them again.