Black Eyes [EP]

Black Eyes | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 15, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: EP
• Label: Dischord
• ASIN: B000090273
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #103,800 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Woah., October 27, 2003

By 

Stephen Atkins (St. Petersburg, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Eyes (Audio CD)

I saw these guys live when they played with Q and not U and they left me both blown away and perplexed. Their music is the kind of unique, experimental hardcore (if you can even label it as that) that belongs on a great label like Dischord. Their set was as engaging musically as it was visually. Seeing the somewhat spastic guitarist hack away at his axe creating ferocious yet brilliant waves of distortion. That is, of course when he was playing guitar. It seemed like all the members played at least three instruments and were continual switching out between (and during!) songs. Two drummers, saxaphone, something that looks like a 5 yr old musical toy, and occasionally a pot or pan on the snare. These are just a few of the instruments used to create the wonderful, unclassifiable sonic experience that is Black Eyes. The only downfall is with so many different elements in play and so much axperimentation going on, occasionally the experiments fail. HOWEVER, this is an excellent album and should be purchased by anybody who is a fan of dischord-style hardcore...scratch that. This album should be purchased by anyone who is a fan of things that are cool in a weird way.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars God Damn, December 30, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Black Eyes (Audio CD)

This is one of the best new bands I've heard all year. The perfect combination of the Dischord style with a desire to be as experimental as possible. Listening to this, I am constantly reminded of bands like Fugazi, Q And Not U, Lightning Bolt, The Blood Brothers, Pavement (one singer sounds exactly like Bob Nastanovich), Polvo, Les Savy Fav, June Of 44, and countless others, but Black Eyes never attempt to just copy a preexisting style, they take these styles and so something completely new and original. Produced by Ian Mackaye, this one is a keeper. I haven't heard an album as experimental and creative as this since I heard Liars "They Threw Us..." in 2002.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Junkmedia.org Review - Tribal-punk?, June 11, 2003

By 

junkmedia (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Eyes (Audio CD)

Black Eyes are an innovative act that imposes scatter-shot music onto organized patterns, creating a tumbling orgy of tribal-punk. There's a dark room hidden somewhere within the confines of the U.S. capitol filled with sweat and bodies writhing in tumultuous patterns to blissed-out rhythms. Dual bass lines curl around each other, filling the listener's every orifice. The vocals range from psychotic screams to rational low-end delivery. This might be what a Black Eyes rehearsal is like, or at least those are the images the act's full-length debut evokes.

The band, comprised of ex-members of Trooper, the No-Go's and the Rapture, supposedly plays in a symmetrical configuration onstage -- drummers on the flanks, bass players in front and back and a guitar player in the center. Their music focuses on Crash Worship-style cacophonous drum beats that throb along with throaty bass lines, making the songs feel like a slap on the back that is just a bit too hard. Sometimes evocative of Joy Division on PCP, sometimes of Arab on Radar on codeine, Ian MacKaye's production maintains the right balance of tin-can sounds with bullfrog disco stylings. Screeching guitars and sex vocals fill out the space on tracks like "Pack of Wolves" while dysfunctional disco drums chain a song like "Deformative" to the bedrock. "Speaking in Tongues" almost totally devolves into mush-mouth vocals and busy, busy instrumentation, culminating with a cowbell rising above the fray.

Black Eyes may be following a familiar trend in music by using the word 'black' in their name. But look at the bands they emulate -- Big Black, Black Flag and Black Sabbath, not to mention current trenders like Black Dice and Black Keys. That doesn't matter one scratch, though; the music they are creating is pulsing, pounding and original. And in a live setting, it should inspire the slack-jawed yokels to dance -- a valuable commodity in today's world of hipster apathy.

Jonah Flicker

Junkmedia.org Review