Dead Dog's Eyeball

Kathy McCarty | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 25, 1994)
• Original Release Date: October 4, 1994
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Bar/None Records
• ASIN: B0000048DP
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #309,276 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Walking the Cow [From Hi, How Are You]

2. Rocket Ship [From Yip Jump Music]

3. Living Life

4. I Had a Dream [From Don't Be Scared]

5. I Am a Baby (In My Universe) [From Hi, How Are You]

6. Hey Joe [From Hi, How Are You]

7. Like a Monkey in a Zoo [From Songs of Pain]

8. Sorry Entertainer [From Yip Jump Music]

9. Desperate Man Blues [From Hi, How Are You]

10. Oh No [From Retired Boxer]

11. Hate Song [From Songs of Pain]

12. Golly Gee [From Merry Xmas Fan Club Release]

13. Going Down [From Don't Be Scared]

14. Museum of Love [From Yip Jump Music]

15. Wild West Virginia [From Songs of Pain]

16. Running Water [From Hi, How Are You]

17. Grievances [From Songs of Pain]

18. The Creature [Fom Yip Jump Music]

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great!, April 25, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Dead Dog's Eyeball (Audio CD)

Village Voice (2/28/95) - Ranked #36 in the Village Voice's 1994 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll.

Spin (11/94) - Highly Recommended - "...This is gorgeous, throat lump-inducing music....McCarty fleshes out Johnston's home-recorded sketches into an eclectic assortment of torch ballads, guitar rockers, and beer-hall sing-alongs, and beguiling art pop..."

Melody Maker (8/12/95) - "...Other people have tried covering Daniel's songs before...mostly without much joy. Maybe they've all been in too much awe. Kathy treats Daniel's songs with due reverence, love and humour--and one helluva kick in her voice..."

New Musical Express (8/19/95) - 8 (out of 10) "...brilliant...Songs that were once skeletal, lo-fidelity, bedroom-with-tape-recorder affairs become full blooded and experimental....if these songs were Kathy's she'd be on the same magazine covers as Liz Phair..."

Entertainment Weekly (11/25/94) - "...Singer Kathy McCarty, formerly of Glass Eye, pays tribute to fellow Austin, Texas musician Daniel Johnston....unearthing veins of compassion and sadness not heard on the originals..." - Rating: A-

Option (5-6/95) - "...McCarty's a capable singer, and her voice is the glue that holds the disparate styles together....McCarty manages to separate Johnston's songs from his eccentric persona..."

Alternative Press (2/95) - "...This isn't a tribute album, more an homage to one highly individual talent from another....[Kathy McCarty's] biggest achievement is to make these songs accessible while retaining the charm of their quirkiness..."

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Destined for Greatness, January 18, 2005

By 

J. Davis (Phila. PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dead Dog's Eyeball (Audio CD)

If you haven't already heard of this album -- you will. Here in the Philadelphia region we have a great radio station 88.5 WXPN out of the University of Pennsylvania. I was just out of high school when this album came out ca. 1995. While working at some crappy mall music store called "Tape World" I had access to all sorts of catalogues and could choose whatever I wanted.

So XPN was playing "Walking the Cow" and "Rocketship" pretty often and I took the chance on this album and I have loved it ever since. I have been a singer/songwriter since age 15 and I was immediately drawn to the sharp lyrics and strong arrangements which are as varied as the subject matter.

Trust me and the other reviewers this album is WORTH IT. If you don't love every song right away, play it tommorow and the next day and see if you don't love every song by the weekend. You will if you like classic rock and folk music - Kathy even tosses bluegrass, jazz and blues in for good measure.

Independent (read GOOD) music is not dead it has just gone underground. There is a strong movement for real proletarian art and I see Daniel's songs and Kathy's interpretations in line with some of the finest musicians out there.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars jazzy, heartfelt, eclectic--quite wonderful, January 12, 2001

By 

Robert Nagle "idiotprogrammer" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dead Dog's Eyeball (Audio CD)

Ms. McCarty's interpretation of these Daniel Johnston songs are unconventional, intriguing and quite lovely. Desperate Man Blues probably was written in a fit of depression, and yet Ms. McCarty's crooning and marvelous piano playing gives it a magical consoling touch. Other songs like Baby in my universe use sound effects to provide an eerie claustrophobic touch. The songs seem so incidental and improvisational (like "running water"), and yet sounds like "Golly Gee" mellow out the mood. And other songs like "Walking the Cow" and "Monkey in a Zoo" have lyrics that are so strange that it almost seems meaningless (it almost hearkens back to David Byrne's own absurdist lyrics in "Once in a Lifetime" or "Strange Ritual."

The only criticism of the album is that the tone of the album is not really consistent. It is not really a unified album but a hodgepodge of songs.

A personal anecdote. I listened to this CD to death while a Peace Corps volunteer in Albania. A music critic friend had sent it to me, and it was a lifesaver for my spirits. It made me remember the funky Texas sound and how simple lyrical songs end up outlasting most of the drivel being produced these days.

Now as it happens, I am in the same city of both Kathy McCarty and Daniel Johnston (as luck would have it). And yet both people remain hidden in the Austin art scene.