Customer Reviews

Dead Dog's Eyeball

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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..."

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.

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.

When I win the lottery I am buying this CD for everyone of my friends, my public library, and spend my days posting reviews like this on every music site out there.

Imagine if one of those great songwriters who couldn't sing (Lou Reed comes to mind) had their songs recorded by someone who could. That is what's happened here. This mixture of folk, psychedelic, indie rock, and general weirdness has been played in my home at least once a month since I purchased it five years ago. This is one of the CD's I constantly play for my 5-year old and for my punk rock friends. As a punk fan, I've never given lyrics any thought. Yet these lyrics from a certified lunatic (sorry non-pc) are more honest, scarier and depressing than anything Marilyn Manson tried to sell records with. Daniel Johnston's lyrics really give credence to the thought that madness and true genius aren't too far apart.

The music and arrangements are every bit the equal to the lyrics in beauty (forgive me oh punk rock god for using that word!), with folk / indie rock being the close to a description of the sound.

BUY THIS ALBUM ! (or become my friend and hope I win the lottery soon)

I was haunted by a certain song at the end of Before Sunrise(5 stars for that too!)for a couple years and carried the name kathy mccarty around in my head through every trip to the record store until i finally found it. If you judge music by how many goosebumps it gives you then this is your album. For the love of god, buy it!! :)

Folks, if you're interested in a beautiful, emotional album, where you actually FEEL something, where the unusual, pleasing melodies transport you to strange and wonderful places, where your love for it grows with each new playing, then please pick up this one by K. McCarty & Daniel Johnston.

I liked it on the first day, fell in love with it on the second, and on the third I couldn't wait to get home from work so that I could WORSHIP it.

This is one of my all-time favorite CD's, period.

If you are a big Daniel Johnston fan like me, then you MUST (there is no debate) own this CD! K. McCarty has done a beautiful job of complimenting "Uncle" Danny's music, making it sound much better but keeping all of the innocent emotion to it. And look for the SUPER CUTE photograph in the liner notes -- I don't want to ruin the surprise by telling you what it is.

I had this CD for about a year before I got around to listening to it (I had not heard the originals). I was more than pleasantly surprised. I am not what you would call avant-garde -- I like Elvis, Merle Haggard, & power pop -- but I love this CD. It's weird but very listenable -- always a great combination in my book -- and not really classifiable (The "Peter Gunn Theme" played on an out-of-tune guitar? Over-EQed drums? Sure, why not). And the "hick" countdown on "Rocket Ship", intentional or not, is a hoot. Obviously a labor of love. Certain hits (on Venus): "Walking the Cow" and "Rocket Ship". But there's a lot more after those two grabbers.

It is such a rare gem.... like I wrote elsewhere, it gave me the emotional release that I needed when I was going through a crucial transition. I don't know what I would have done without it. I think it needs to be rereleased with some bonus stuff to introduce to a new generation of Daniel Johnston fandom, esp. to accompany the new tribute album that has various artists on it. I think if aimed at the right people, it could get the attention it always deserved. Or maybe its best as a secret treasure.....

Kathy McCarty of the disbanded Texas band Glass Eye (though former G.E. partner Brian Beattie coproduced this with Kathy) pays homage to fellow Texan genius singer/songwriter lo-fi home-recording pioneer and parttime crazy person Daniel Johnston. Kathy has taken the some of the incredible songs of her one-time boyfriend, polished them like the gems that they are and given them the settings they deserve, songs previously recorded with toy piano and plunking guitar on the cheapest tape recorder available are given arrangements worthy of Sinatra, on the lushly stringed Desperate Man Blues or a crunchy rocking full band treatment as on Rocket Ship or the manic Sorry Entertainer (sounding not unlike a Cake Like outtake) or finely crafted near orchestral melodic pop of Hey Joe, Living Life and Golly Gee or the starkly gorgeous a cappella Running Water accompanied by the sound of running water, when over the faucet is turned off, the song is over. Buy this for yourself or anyone that likes music.An absolute masterpiece!

K. McCarty has taken songs as raw materials, songs that had heart but no flesh, and given them great full-bodied treatments here. The Johnston sensibility carries through, while allowing a wide array of musical interpretations. I have to confess, Golly Gee is a favorite lullaby around our house--probably not its original intent, but that illustrates the versatility of the artists involved. Wins over skeptics who shy away from the title.