THE BAND OF THE EYE

♦ Marxist punk outfit Red Square Records has also assembled a crack squad of new alt-rock, but has betrayed its leftist principles by selling the record.  We contribute 'Why You Are so Awful' to this travesty:

Available on iTunes, cdbaby, Napster, Rhapsody and lastfm.

♦ Third up, the latest issue of Bubblegum Slut Zine includes 'Wasting' on the free complimentary CD.  To remind you of its significance, Bubblegum Slut is the only music magazine we are aware of that always has a fur cover:

Disappointingly - given its title - Bubblegum Slut is focussed entirely on rock music, so please don't write in looking for a refund when your copy turns up without any pictures of inadequately clothed women draped over motorcycles.

The Band of the Eye is one of those bluffers that contradicts itself, and then pretends that it never said the other thing in the first place.  How else could we turn up here all news and sunshine saying our album is called Contagious Ignorance, all the while trying to sweep the previously announced title of Maximum Fisting under the rug without you noticing?  At least let us explain ourselves before you go off to listen to Miley Cyrus instead:

♥ Maximum Fisting gave off vibes that at best said 'comedy rock', and at worst put us in the company of Limp Bizkit, which is not a room we want to be in, all due respect to Fred Durst (which, to specify, is none).

♥ It was under doubt that DJ's could say Maximum Fisting and retain their jobs.

There you are.  Contagious Ignorance will be available to listeners outside the EU in the first week of August.  Here is the cover art:

Thebandoftheeyecover

Thanks to our friends at Poison Tree Records for sorting this out.  Buy their stuff!  Especially our album.  With the artwork the album is completely finished at last.  It's been a long process.  Thanks to those who listened at various stages and offered advice of diverse nature and usefulness.

Continuing the titular theme - stop giggling, you - the imminent Red Square Records compilation has been given the name Sounds for a Jilted Generation.  As well as being called virtually the same thing as a Prodigy album, this selection will include our song 'Why You Are so Awful'.  Next up: 

BCFM Radio Interview, Sunday, 5 July at 10PM (GMT): DJ Stashy Jon has been a kind supporter and will be indulging our rambling anecdotes, our unwholesome tastes in music, and playing any songs off our album that don't have naughty words in them.  Repeated on Monday at 10AM.  Tune in at 93.2FM in the Bristol area, or fiddle with your computer's antennae until they get to http://bcfm.org.uk/ to listen online.

Live shows:

Thursday, 30 July: Die Young, Stay Pretty night at The Jazz Club in Reading.  It's free in before 9.30 and £3 thereafter.  Named after a Blondie song.  It'll be our first trip to Reading.

Tuesday, 11 August: One World Festival in Bath.  It'll be our first festival.  All proceeds are for charity.

Wednesday, 12 August: flux=rad night at 12 Bar in London.  Named after a Pavement song and organised by our friends King of Spain.  Buy their album.  Unless you only have enough money to buy ours.

It is with girlish giggles of excitement that we announce that our debut album, Maximum Fisting, will be released in the Americas, Asia and Australasia in June. 

Courtesy of Californian indie label Poison Tree Records, Maximum Fisting will be available from iTunes and, as the contract tells us sternly, ‘any and all download sites deemed appropriate’.  Small but perfectly formed, Poison Tree Records has worked with Mondo Generator, Fu Manchu, Brant Bjork and Dwarves.  As such they know their figurative onions in relation to our type of rocking, and we’re very pleased to be working with them.

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We are not deaf to the protests of the EU, which is murmuring to the effect that it notices its absence from the release territories named above.  Patience, my sweet.  In short, we don’t know yet.  It will be a separate release, and we need to tread carefully to get it right.  Look at this e-mail that Chris actually had to send to someone the other week, for heaven’s sake:

Hi [A&R Guy]

Thanks for your message and your interest in our album.  However, I must point out that our lyrics include the chorus 'we all worship Satan' and, irony notwithstanding, we might be at odds with a professedly Christian label?

Best wishes,

Chris

We.  Kid.  Not.

Meanwhile, the album is being mastered by Shawn Joseph at Optimum Mastering.  Check out their link for informative clips on how vinyl records are made.

For an understanding of the modern music industry you might try this documentary, viewable free online, with the pleasant narration of Forest Whittaker: Before the Music Dies.

Interviewees include TBOTE ally Joey Burns of Calexico.  It’s interesting and informative viewing, if a little sentimental, and seemingly produced by people who think that the issues raised affect only America (somewhat ironic as they refer to U2, Eric Clapton and Elvis Costello).  Watch!

If you can drag yourselves away from your computers there’s still the option of live music:

Friday, 24 April at the Comedy Café in Shoreditch, doors 10PM.  It’s a measly £3.50 in and we’re on with The Wow Signal (distributed by Universal, if you don’t mind), planet chivers, Dim and Captain of the Rant.

On Tuesday, 12 May it’s AR2 at Bristol University, and for eye pleasure twice in a week get to Weston-Super-Mare on Thursday, 14 May for a show at Hobbits with Cosh, Panic Office and the Ottawa Hoax.

This month's gibberish proves that The Band of the Eye doesn't know much of anything.

First off, we aren't clear on the release details of our album.  In fact, we're not even sure what it will be called, although Maximum Fisting and Girls We'd Do are strong contenders.  Suggestions on a postcard, please.

Today, Friday 30 January, is your last chance to listen online to an interview on BBC Radio Bristol, which we permit you to do on condition that you do not write to us saying that you can't get iPlayer to work.  You can also hear it on Facebook if you befriend us at this e-mail address.

To sow a further inkling that we are busy-bodies who can't keep our opinions to ourselves, Chris has a review of the new Kurt Cobain book at Live Music Scene's website.

The next Eyegunk of note is the matter of our show on 20 February at rock club Area 81 in Bristol.  The owner is a Hell's Angel and patrons are asked to leave their motorcycles outside.

After that is a trip to The Dublin Castle in London on 23 February for Bugbear.  Hell's Angels please note that you will have to pay the congestion fee for your motorcycles if you turn up to this.

I'm getting abuse about iPlayer, BBC's listen-again facility, so I'm just putting up an MP3 of the radio interview I did last week.

BBC interview 24 Jan 09

The Band of the Eye

"We're pleased with the results.

"I hope this is not a sign that we have desperately low standards."

[The Band of the Eye is currently recording its debut album at Press Play Studios in London, UK.  This blog is the first report from the recording sessions.]

Even in the horizon-expanding world of music, few people can boast of having met someone who is actually called Tarzan.  But it was piloted by a surly German named Tarzan that Stereolab, unable to reach their storage facility to offload their gear, came to Press Play Studios to deposit their equipment one Sunday evening.  Unfortunately, due to physics, the tour bus couldn’t squeeze down Record Street, so the ’Lab, weary from touring Europe, needed some assistance to move their stuff from around the corner.  Enter two-thirds of The Band of the Eye, C. Murray and K. Ross, who were conscribed to help out.  Several rounds of lugging were required, unaided by Tarzan, who elected to mope in the vicinity of the bus.  Tarzan, you see, was destined that evening for Glasgow and the Stereophonics’ tour (quite why bands are touring in alphabetical order these days is beyond us).

Seriously.  Tarzan.

Stereolab!  You owe us one.

Since that time, the progress of the recording sessions can be charted by the comments of production sage Paul Tipler:

‘I’m going to make you sound very talented.’ (Issue could be taken with this statement, but never mind.)

‘I’m going to hit him.’

‘Let’s make this song sound like a rant.’

‘That take was pony.’

So far, the results sound good to us.

Reports of Chris's death are greatly exaggerated.  The electric shock he received in this month's show in Newport, South Wales made him question the suitability of the venue's electrical wiring, but was not enough to get Kev and Wil dressing up for a funeral and advertising for a new singer.

This leaves Team Eye in prime condition for recording its album.  Production wizard Tipler gave a lesson in thoroughness when he visited Bristol to hear the band's songs and plan the sessions. Tipler suggested sounds, overdubs, and such outlandish concepts were aired as fitting new strings and tuning instruments. The band shall wander towards London and the sunny shores of Press Play Studios late in November, and the recording sessions will last until Christmas.

Suggestions for album titles are welcome.  So far there are three in the running:

1. Death Magnetic

2. Chinese Democracy

3. Some conflation of the above that will not lead to the band being sued by Metallica or Axl.