To be honest I'd never heard of The Band Of The Eye until this debut EP arrived. However this patchy, yet ultimately quite rewarding disc has perked my interest. Not to sure about the band name, different anyway and I suppose all the wackier/cooler/impactive names have gone so things are getting a bit surreal now. Surreal is good though and it never harmed Jeff Minter’s game sales with his bizarrely monikered Llama and Sheep games. Anyway they are a very young band indeed, only coming together this year, but so far the press have  been very favourable to them and it is not very often you have Hayden Panittiere as one of your Myspace friends. Good to see that the lovely little cheerleader is a rock chick as well. 

On to the music. First up is a song called “Dress-Down Day” which immediately strikes me as having an essence of 70’s AC/DC with a modern flavour, though obviously not Bon Scott on vocals, but pretty good none the less. There is a laid back groove to the song that will get heads nodding and maybe even the girls up onto the dance floor. There are some more aggressive guitar parts throughout and it comes across as a highly accomplished, and boogie-able, rock song. A great way to start this EP as it  garners attention for what is to come.

Next up is the unusually titled “Beatnik Acoustics” which starts off with some Southern style slide guitar and it could be a Cajun rock band about to fire off. It shows a very different angle to the first number and is certainly an indicator of the flexibility of the band. Again it is a pretty laid back affair, like the first number, but with a very different feel to it yet still holding onto the bands sound. Lastly is “Why Are You So Awful”, which has some unusual lyrics for what is a very mellow song with an 80’s style pop intro. The vocal style proves to be monotone for large sections which is definitely deliberate but I still haven’t figured out yet if this works or not. Still it's quite a catchy number with a bit more interesting guitar work later on but it has a less polished feel to it than the other two tracks and doesn’t come across as strong either vocally or musical performance wise. 

Overall what this EP achieves is to point out potential for the future. It will be interesting so see what they can manage on a full length album, to see what twists and turns they would throw in and if they further develop that groove rock style they hinted at.

Contact: www.myspace.com/thebandoftheeye

Track Listing

Dress Down Day
Beatnik Acoustics
Why You Are So Awful

Line Up

Chris Murray – Vocals/Guitar
Rob Ephemeral – Bass
Wil Penberthy – Drums