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December 01, 2004
You'll Never Guess Which Rolling Pin I Hit Myself With
Black Eyes - Someone Has His Fingers Broken
Aaaaaaaaaaah. Listening to Black Eyes = eating a sea urchin with an extremely high S.P.I. (spines per square inch) density, that has been coated in carmelized sugar. Their music is caustic and pretty at the same time- it's almost as if they concentrate on building a sweet percussive groove and then try to figure out how to tear it down a little with their erosional-guitars and tortured voices. 'Fingers Broken' is the first song I ever heard from this band, and I loved it immediately: for the double drums, for the lyrics ('in the city screaming whoaoah/someone has his fingers broken/eyes bleeding/face down on the concrete/bleeding/I heard his mother screaming woooooo'), and for the primal feeling of the melody. I like to think that Black Eyes are (were, I guess I should say) a lot like what Animal Collective would be like (both bands posses the same kind of manic energy and seemingly limitless creativity) if they focused less on the sylvan-drone/pastoral, and more on the guttural-growl/alleyway type of nature; instead of the panda bears, kittens, deer, and dolphins of Animal Collective, Black Eyes has the sounds of molting pidgeons, burrowing black rats, and wan, desperate stray dogs.
Anyway, all that stopped this past spring when Black Eyes broke up after the release of their sophomore LP, 'Cough'. Subsequently, Daniel and Jacob (from the band), formed White Flight, which was, by all reports, a pretty kick-ass improvisational/free-jazz duo. They broke up this summer. Okay. Three other guys from the band, Hugh, Dan, and Mike, went on to form Horses with Fiona (from the Dischord band Et at It), and have been touring for the past month and a half or so (I think they played with Arcade Fire in Philly, if anyone caught that show). Next step: Daniel (ex-White Flight) has formed a new band, with a woman named Maya Maaloyf, called Flowers, and according to Dischord, "their music is both improvised and composed and consists mainly of violin and guitar", and they should be playing some shows in the near/immediate future. So basically you need a flow-chart to show what has happened to the constituent members, post-dissolution of Black Eyes.
If you like this song (which you should, I swear to god), you can go buy the album this is from (self-titled), at Dischord's shop (they always only charge $10 for a CD), and mourn your eyes red over the passing of a freakishly innovative band.
Posted by matt at December 1, 2004 09:41 PM
Comments
HOLY MOLY, THIS SONG IS AWESOME.
Posted by: nicki at December 3, 2004 09:37 AM
Yeah, it's definitely one of my favorites- that first album they did is just full of stuff like this. The second one's a little more, um, noisy, but still solid.
Posted by: Kevin at December 3, 2004 02:36 PM