Reviews
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EP Review There's a difference between making serious
music and taking music seriously. The four songs on its self-titled EP give
you only a taste of what the band can do. Thirteen minutes of music isn't
much, but Eyes to Space does its best to make those minutes count. Common to
and prominent in these songs are two instruments: the fuzzed-out guitar and
the loopy keyboards. And by "loopy" I don't mean programmed,
sequenced loops - I mean wacky. But it's probably hard to be too serious when
the keyboard you're playing is strapped over your shoulder like a guitar. The opening cut, "In an Unfamiliar
Land," saves the quirkiness for its ending. There, the song morphs into
a spacey sounding rave-up where the synth sounds
like a dying robot whose circuits are losing power. Until then, the guitar
carries the song with its subtle power chords and high-note melodies.
Occasional flashes of guitar virtuosity (double-hammering or just fast
note-picking?) accent the tune, and subtle syncopation from the bass and
drums keep you guessing. "Roadkill"
seems to be about a robotic dog, and not just any dog: "No normal dog
can match / The precision of his Frisbee (TM) catch," we're told. And
who are we to argue? After all, Sparky's "robot eyes / Have laser
guides" and his legs are spring-loaded. In the middle of the song, the
time signature changes and the keyboard takes over
the melody. It's here that Eyes to Space most
resemble the Dismemberment Plan: tight musicianship (agile bass and drums)
married to an unusual and unexpected overall sound. "Destructive Behavior" allows
band member Wendy Spitzer a chance to sing, and she has a nice voice. I would
have liked to have heard more of her singing, actually. The bouncy, jaunty
music - featuring a few different synth sounds and
some guitar acrobatics - contrasts with the serious(!)
tone of the lyrics. Then, on "Dear Sir," Eyes to Space returns to a
sarcastic tone, musically and lyrically. To wit, "Dear sir / Won't you
give a listen / And hear all about me / I want to snag a jag / And watch
myself brown-nose on MTV." This EP might be the perfect prescription
if you're growing weary of your Isis CDs. If you want something that's fun
but not sloppy, clever but not pretentious, you might want to turn your eyes
to Eyes to Space. - David Smith EP Review Hello. This is the keytar
of 2005 trying to rekindle a long-lost relationship with you. I know it's
been a while since we last spoke. Sure, I was an ass and never called you
back after those sweat-soaked nights fifteen-plus
years ago. By no means does it indicate that I don't still care about you.
Most of my kind suffered horrible fates at the vicious hands of time. Despite
this fact, I wanted you to know that I am still thriving personally. Okay, so
I'm a little bit of a hybird. Homemade and
hand-built. I've been hanging out in You know love songs about the Future. No,
not the days and weeks ahead, but the capital "F" sort of Future where
life has advanced well beyond anything currently known. Well, given that sort
of love is present in us all, how could you not be smitten with songs about
robot dogs, space-age conveniences and other mysteries of the unknown? As you
listen to the songs from Eyes to Space's self-titled EP, two sounds will
repeatedly jump out at you - some serious guitar riffing from Andy Spain and
all sorts of what can simply be described as space sounds. As for the space
sounds, they are courtesy of Jay Cartwright's mastery of the keytar. The best example of all of the parts coming
together is from the disc's opener, "In An Unfamiliar Land."
Featuring spastic guitar work, a super-steady backbeat from Wendy Spitzer and
Dylan Thurston, and Cartwright's vocals mixed with some of his work on the
keys, the entire track is a wonderfully tasty pop treat emblazoned with a
love of the Future. The remaining three tracks on the EP expand on this theme
(some even with oboe!) successfully. If I've left you intrigued, check out the EP.
Man... or Astro-Man? had a lot of the same robotic geekiness
that Eyes to Space happily embraces, but they didn't use a keytar. They claimed they loved the future, but this
absence has to leave you wondering. You know you've missed the keytar. Show Preview The Nerd
rockers Eyes to Space kick it with key-tar By
Kenneth Price Star-News
Correspondent When
I first listened to the self-titled EP from Chapel Hill band Eyes to Space,
who play the 42nd Street Tavern on Saturday, it reminded me of a cross
between the first tape I bought in fifth grade (They Might Be Giants’ Flood)
and the first music video I remember catching a glimpse of on MTV (Devo’s Whip It.) The combination of video game melodies
with punk rock drumming and guitar riffs, not to mention the wailing key-tar,
makes Eyes to Space an always surprising listen. With all the comparisons to
other bands, it would be easy to write Eyes to Space off as simply a knockoff
band attempting to rehash musical styles from 20 years ago. But with
synthetic bass lines, a semi-rotating lead vocal spot, screeching guitar
riffs and songs about futuristic robot love, the band really carves its own
musical niche. “Our
frontman, Jay Cartwright, is our main singer and main
songwriter and he plays a homemade keytar, which is
basically a guitar-shaped keyboard,” said Eyes to Space vocalist and bass
player Wendy Spitzer from The
band’s EP comes out Sept. 15 on Solarium Records, but you can grab a copy of
the quirky four-song EP at Saturday’s show. Details: 10 p.m. Saturday with Thunderlip, S.A.V.A.S. and Birds of Avalon, Live Performance Review The Carolinian ( First up was Eyes to Space, a small band from EP Review This eponymous debut EP from EP Review The EP starts with In An Unfamiliar Land.
Beginning with burbling, happy, semi-electronic sound, it then moves into an
off kilter melody which holds up to the press sheet comparison to Man or Astroman. In the background, and during the interlude,
guitarist Andy Spain adds semi-complicated, overdriven
guitar riffs that recalls early Van Halen.
It's a good little song, which is enhanced by the slightly spacey, chanted
singing style of keyboardist Jay Cartwright. Afterwards, the band moves on to Roadkill, which was one of my favorite songs from that
long ago live set. This one too begins with guitar/keyboard interplay interplay that goes back to a New Wave 80s style. In this
one, Cartwright's vocals aren't nearly as prominent and are actually lost
under the waves of keyboards. Stylistically, this song brings to mind the
late lamented Destructive Behavior is the third song,
which, like the others, features a prominent keyboard line. Surprisingly, the
vocalist is not Cartwright, but instead bassist Wendy Spitzer, who sings in a
wavery and light style. As if to not overwhelming
her, the guitar is very subdued throughout her singing. About halfway through
the song, the vocals switch back to Cartwright and the guitar comes back to
prominence. Then, after another instrumental break, Spitzer sings again, and
the music becomes lighter. Underneath all of this, drummer Dylan Thurston
propels things along with a snare-heavy drumming style. Destructive Behavior
is, at least in this version, easily the catchiest and most poppy song on the
EP. Although it sounds a bit different than the first two songs, it's very
strong and gives a good impression of the somewhat eclectic sounds of Eyes to
Space. The EP ends with Dear Sir, a song which
begins with tinkling piano played by a very good keyboardist. Then the
guitars come in, and someone begins to sing. Although the vocalist is male, I
don't think it's Cartwright, as the timbre of this
voice is different. Instead, this person reminds me vaguely of a
lower-pitched version of Matt Lisle from The Fairburn Royals, or perhaps that
lead singer of SNMNMN. Either way, especially if you listen to the lyrics,
Dear Sir feels a bit more like They Might Be Giants than Man or Astroman, and that's not a bad thing by any means. And then, after roughly 13 minutes of total
music, it's all over. For a more or less self-produced recording, this EP is
quite good. The way the band plays with the relative volume of the different
instruments over the course of the songs suggests that they have a good ear
for how their music should be presented. It also suggests that this band is a
full blown collaborative effort, as each person comes to prominence at least
once over the course of the EP. Still, any way you look at it, Eyes to Space
as a band are recommended and worth looking for in the future. EP Review Nerd core darlings Eyes To Space launch
their new EP in September. The four-track introduction to these geeky torch
bearers make pop and science collide with pleasing results. Album production
is bright and electric. Plenty of gained out windy guitar licks tossed with keytar and pocket drumming. Vocals come off monotone in
the beginning, but lead singer Jay Cartwright finds his tone in the perplexed
characters he portrays. Mundane suits thrown into intergalactic travel and
mystery. The treat to the album is Wendy Spitzer’s synthesized vocals on
‘Destructive Behavior’. Sweet and light but not void of the underlying
paranoia that wraps the album. Show Preview The Independent Weekly (Chapel Hill, NC) Eyes to Space Local 506 Apparent hosts to surprisingly
complementary interests in '80s arena rock, DEVO and Stereolab,
Chapel Hill's delightfully goofy Eyes to Space crafts a good-times shtick
with White Snake guitars, wry wise cracks and video-game melodies from an
accordion, a synth bass and Jay Cartwright's
sexy-like-we-nerds-do keytar. New-wavers Gerty and no-wave razors Cantwell, Gomez & Jordan
open the bill, yet another Local 506 noteworthy, no-cover Free For All. Free/10
p.m. --GC EP Review The Independent Weekly (Chapel Hill, NC) By Chris Parker Eyes to Space EP (self-released) Occupying a space somewhere between geek
and prog rock, Eyes to Space's nearly obsessively
quirky music is richly gilded and yet somehow straightforward. This may be
counter-intuitive because while devoted to bouncy riffs, the band's
arrangements have more turns than a NASCAR race. It's that these musical
digressions usually aren't discursive, but rather form a kind of quilt that
envelops the songs. As such they feel like complexly textured and linked
treats like shards of peanut brittle. Within the patterns exists an earnest
playfulness, such as the calliope keyboard riff that runs like a string
through "Roadkill." The rich, eclectic
song structures invite repeated listens, but never overwhelm the simple
imperative--an infectious tune. Some of the prog
rock elements (which alternate throughout with surprisingly chunky spates of
guitar) are a bit too over the top, but overall this is a refreshing,
intriguing album made by excellent musicians. Show Preview Style Weekly (Richmond, VA) In the proud tradition of Devo and Man... or Astro-man? comes cobbled mess of keyboards and distortion. The invented instrument is an
obligatory piece of any good robo-pop outfit,
proving that the instruments of today just won’t satisfy a band with eyes on
the horizon. ~Style Weekly Feature The Independent Weekly (Chapel Hill, NC) …Of course, not everyone can run their own
studio. But that's certainly the idea. Eyes to Space recorded two albums
worth of material without being entirely satisfied, before laying down the
money to do it right--themselves. "We weren't happy with the first
recording because the quality wasn't too great. We weren't very experienced
and made a lot of beginner mistakes," says key-tarist
Jay Cartwright. (He plays a converted keyboard/guitar mimicking the accordion
he grew up playing.) Though they had nothing but nice things to
say about working with Jerry Kee at Duck Kee studios, Cartwright felt the sound still failed to
adequately represent the band. "When you're on a budget and you're
being charged, you can't experiment as much and get that perfect keyboard
sound or guitar tone," he says. "So I just decided we should give
the home recording another shot. I did a lot of reading and research and
worked with some engineers to learn to do it right." Producer Mark Williams (who has worked on
several SCOTS albums) offered Cartwright the opportunity to help out,
providing him an invaluable apprenticeship. "It was going to involve a lot of
different recording situations--horn players, backup singers, a full drum
set, everything. And they didn't have a budget for an engineer but Mark said
it'd be OK if I helped out," he says. "I spent seven 10- to 12-hour
days working with him learning mic placement,
watching his procedure and how he treated recording different
instruments." He also met a different, younger Mark
Williams, who was recording his old-school chum Nathan Asher and his band The
Infantry. Cartwright was pulled in to play some organ. "Mark said he was trying to unload his
old Pro Tools rig. A light bulb went off because our guitar player already
got a G4 in exchange for some media work that he'd done," he says.
"We realized this isn't going to take too much money, and we can make
this happen. So I did research about what year to buy and how to get the most
bang for my buck." It's been a year since he converted the
house he shares with bassist/girlfriend Wendy Spitzer, but then as Cartwright
says, "We describe ourselves as a band of nerds, and that's what the
process was--me sitting in the house tapping at a keyboard for a year while
others were hanging out." The new self-titled album is available
directly from the band, though Cartwright is looking to land a deal for their
next album. Most of the band is classically trained, from Spitzer, who's
trained in the oboe, to classically trained guitarist Andy Spain and
percussion performance major Dylan Thurston, but that doesn't prevent them
from rocking out. "Beyond just trying to play as a tight
band, we're really just trying to make music that's fun. We don't want to
play music where we're showing off our chops. We're still interested in writing
and performing catchy songs and putting on a show an audience can dance to.
If the audience listens closely maybe they'll hear more of the work we've put
into it and the sophistication, but that isn't something we push up
front," he says. Eyes to Space play with Daniel (Go Machine)
Hart's new group, The Physics of Meaning, on May 4 at Temple Ball/De La Luz. Live Performance Review Evil Sponge (Atlanta, Georgia)
http://www.evilsponge.org In fact, on this night, the only real wild
card was the first band, Eyes to Space. I knew nothing of them, except for
the fact they are from Chapel Hill, so I didn't know what to expect… They
were a four piece with drums, guitar, keyboard, and bass/keyboard. In and of
itself, that might not sound so strange, but the music they played was
something to behold. First off, the guitarist seemed like he learned to play
by watching Eddie Van Halen. By this I mean that,
during the songs, he managed to work in that extremely quick and proficient guitarwork one more normally associates with Van Halen, et al as opposed to the standard Indie Rock fare. Next, the keyboardist/ vocalist played a
keyboard which was modified (not constructed) to be worn from a guitar strap.
Taken together, along with the bassist (who flipped to keyboard) and punk-ish drumming, the music sounded like Devo
meets The Squalls. And, surprisingly, it was good. ~~ note: this performance (The Earl, Show Preview Encore ( Progressive Math Rock: Eyes to Space fill a
technological void in sound By: Ian Allen I’ll start off this article by saying that
the genre of math rock (or prog rock or even space rock)
has constantly eluded me. I understand the musical preoccupation with outer
space and technology (such as Man Or Astro-Man?),
but I just don’t get the whole look associated with it. I guess with every “different” brand of
music, there has to be a “different” image to go along with it, even if that
image has run itself over to the point of becoming its own parody (long hair
in heavy metal; combat boots in true punk; musical nerds in math rock). I’m
not calling the members of Eyes to Space nerds; it just seems like everyone
else has managed to lump them in the group, and they don’t seem to have a
problem with that stereotype. Anyway, if you’re familiar with this whole
genre than you know what the band sounds like, although I will say they
belong near the top of this specialized sound. But if you don’t know what to
expect, the best mainstream example I can think of is to imagine Devo starting out in the 21st century; as 20 years
separate the two, so does a more involved, complex sound (think of it like
you would in film: Stars Wars 20 years ago against Star Wars today—the
special effects are much more progressive now). The members are also as varied as their
sound. Jay Cartwright is the lead singer who plays the keytar.
Yes, the keytar—which consists of a Three of the four members have also been in
numerous other bands, which typically means they
know what direction they want to head in, giving the present band more focus
than usual. However, I also read they are currently in other bands. Does this
mean they don’t consider Eyes to Space a full-time gig? Or perhaps they’re
just exploring other musical terrain? Regardless, they continue perfecting
their craft. Hear their skils
on August 20th at EP Review By Meghan McNeer Eyes to Space’s self-titled EP attempts to send
listeners into orbit with its galactic sound that seems to be as popular a
sound as the new psychedelic trend or bread and butter, for that matter. What
ends up happening on this album is there are lots of space age sounds and
spatial lyrics, but all hidden under a “this is a jam band” feel. On “Roadkill,”
the main chorus goes “Sparky the electric dog/ Nobody can stop him now/ Cars
and trucks can’t run him down,” with vocals that sound eerily like those of Phish’s Trey Anastasio.
Refreshingly, Eyes to Space occasionally adds bassist/oboist Wendy Spitzer’s
vocals to the mix, which have a distinct and unique quality. All of Eyes to
Space’s lyrics have a certain playfulness to them,
whether it be in the form of a random space reference or something miscellaneous,
such as in the case of “In Unfamiliar Territory.” In this song, Eyes to Space
‘s lead-off track, vocalist Jay Cartwright compares himself to Chicken Little
as he exclaims: “The sky is falling/ does anybody care/Chicken Little but big
are my plans.” The four songs on this EP are layered with
sounds and various textures. There are the norms: drums, guitar and bass. But
then there’s also Cartwright’s homemade keytar, an
oboe sometimes and a sprinkling of synth sounds on
other occasions. All of these elements are laid down to create a tight,
speedy sound that would make for a perfect soundtrack to an intergalactic
battle, perhaps on Galga. On the final song, “Dear Sir,” Dylan
Thurston sings “Cause there’s nothing in this world
I cant do.” Perhaps Eyes to Space’s prime objective is to take their sound to
space as a test of their talent. However, playing that keytar
without gravity would certainly present its own challenges. EP Review Chattanooga Pulse ( Review by Bill Colrus Rating: 4 out of 5 You won’t find Eyes to Space on MTV or
VH-1, nor are they going to be tearing up the airwaves of your favorite radio
station any time soon. But you can find them on the Web (www.EyesTo
Space.com) or in their hometown of Eyes to Space’s self-titled debut EP clocks
in at a super-quick 13 minutes, and features four forward thinking tunes
awash in custom-made retro technology (see Jay Cartwright’s “Keytar”) spritzed with the
occasional accordion or oboe solo. Cartwright’s and bassist Wendy Spitzer’s
vocals are a sweet, simple counterpoint to the infectiously upbeat and
complex compositions that would make both Super Mario and Devo
equally proud. Seriously, though, kids: Four songs simply aren’t enough. |