Cinder Block

Cinder Block (born Cynthia Morgan, May 13, 1961) is an American punk rock vocalist and visual artist.

Cinder is most well-known as the lead vocalist for Tilt, a Fat Wreck Chords punk band.

Cinder was raised in Nebraska.

She categorized herself as being a "festival-goer" and a "concert-goer" in her adolescence.

She was a part of Nebraska's punk rock scene in her youth and often visited a venue there called the Drumstick and the Zoobar, where well-known Los Angeles-based bands such as X and Meat Puppets would perform.

Cinder cited those bands as influences that inspired her to pursue her own career as a punk rock musician.

She also felt inspired by the rebellion, energy, and artistry in punk rock.

She began songwriting in the 1970s, and she started her first band in 1983.

Cinder has cited theater as an inspiration to her.

Growing up, she enjoyed plays by Sam Shepard and William Shakespeare, as well as existential poetry and the Beat Generation.

In the mid-1980s, Cinder wrote a "punk rock opera," based on the mythological story of Agamemnon, called Hubris. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater Arts, acting, and directing from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Cinder moved to the San Francisco Bay Area around 1987.

Cinder Block and Jeffery Bischoff founded a licensing and merchandising store, Cinder Block, Inc, in 1989.

Cinder Block, Inc. was based in Oakland, California, and started in a warehouse as Cinder and Bischoff's means of financially supporting their burgeoning music careers.

One of their earliest clients was the punk rock band AFI.

Tilt was mainly active from 1992 to 2001, during which period Cinder Block was the lead vocalist and lyricist for the band.

She also assumed bookkeeping responsibilities in the band.

In 1997, Cinder Block, Inc. had 14 full-time employees and was responsible for printing shirts and merchandise for Vans Warped Tour.

At one point during the band's tenure, Cinder Block was the only female artist on the Fat Wreck Chords label, although by 1998, Fat Wreck had signed one other female-fronted band, The Muffs.

As one of very few female punk rock vocalists, Cinder cited difficulties that she encountered throughout her career, including one time when a male fan approached her and told her that she would have attracted a larger and more passionate crowd if she had been a male vocalist.

She also credited the Bay Area scene for heavily influencing her, and in a 1999 interview, she stated that she still felt like she was a part of the Bay Area scene.

Cinder partially attributed Tilt's initial breakup in 2001 to the increasing success and demands of Cinder Block, Inc., the merchandising company she founded with her former husband, Tilt guitarist Jeffrey Bischoff.

She would then go on to form the hardcore punk band Retching Red in 2004.

By 2005, Jeffery Bischoff was the president of Cinder Block, Inc. At its peak, Cinder Block had over 300 clients; some of the store's most high-profile clients included the alternative rock artists The Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, R.E.M., and Phil Collins.

Aside from merchandising, Cinder Block, Inc. also offered full tour service, e-commerce, ticketing, and business development for its clients.

In 2009, Transom Capital Group, a Los Angeles-based equity firm, acquired Cinder Block, Inc. from Jeffery Bischoff, who, by that point, only retained partial ownership of the business.

In March 2014, Anschutz Entertainment Group and Transom Capital Group announced that they would merge BandMerch and Cinder Block, Inc. into one standalone company that would continue under the name BandMerch.

By that point, Cinder Block, Inc.'s CEO was Jason Greene.

She was married to Jeffery Bischoff.

They have since divorced.

Cinder makes silkscreens and has been doing so for almost two decades.

In 2015, Cinder reunited with Tilt to play a one-off reunion show during a festival to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Fat Wreck Chords.

In 2017, Tilt reunited again for another show at 924 Gilman Street, a music venue in Berkeley, California.

Before Tilt, Cinder was in a band called Prick.

The band was not the first Cinder had ever joined, but it was the first to ever have any releases.

She sang with the all-female band Fabulous Disaster for a short time.

Since 2018, she has sung for The Pathogens, although The Pathogens are on a temporary hiatus due to Cinder relocating from California to perform in a family band called The Morgans.

Cinder worked for Fabula magazine and Punk Rock Confidential.

Her lyrics typically focus on left wing political themes and other irreverent topics.

Some of her songs have feminist themes.