by Kate Hoos | Feb 7, 2023
Black Eyes (photo by Shawn Brackbill)
Black Eyes, the influential experimental/art punk/post punk band, announced late last year that they were re-uniting and re-issuing their 2003 self-titled debut on Dischord to celebrate its 20th anniversary. They also announced that they would be playing a short run of re-union shows, including one at Market Hotel on 4/8, which is one of our most anticipated shows of the first half of 2023.
They have now revealed the other acts for their run of shows which will include the experimental jazz/drone duo, Blacks’ Myths on direct support for all shows, as well as openers Ecstatic International in DC and Trophy Hunt in Brooklyn, along with Pissed Jeans in Philadelphia, who will co-headline.
Additionally, the band has announced a zine, Speaking In Tongues, as well as archival recordings of demos for each album along with live recordings from two 2003 shows. They share about the zine and recordings:
“Speaking In Tongues: Black Eyes 2001-2004″ is a 44 page zine that features an extensive oral history of the band, reflections and essays from friends and organizers in DC who we worked with, interviews by the band members with groups we played with and more. It first will be on sale IRL at our shows, then online afterwards. You can preorder it on BC now.
As part of this work, we’re also putting up some archival recordings on Bandcamp: demos for both albums and live recordings from SF and Amsterdam in 2003. They’re available for preorder now as well and will be released after the shows. A purchase of a zine comes with a free download of all four albums.
This one is a labor of love, can’t wait to share it with you.”
Pre-orders are up on Bandcamp, and for only $19 with shipping for the zine and download of four albums worth of material, it’s quite the steal. Several of the the tracks are available to listen to now, two per release, including the demo of “Deformative” which is the band’s most well known song.
Scroll down to see artwork and more detailed statements on each release and head to Bandcamp for pre-orders.
S/T Demos
“These recordings were done in preparation for our S/T album in July of 2002. Ian [MacKaye] had offered to work with us on a full length and wanted some demos of the songs as they stood. As you can hear, a number of these didn’t make the cut or got radically reworked (or recycled…the number of tracks with lyrics that ended up with wildly different music/songs is substantial). But it’s interesting to hear how things evolved and where we were as a band such a short time before heading into the studio. Any songs that are on the S/T that weren’t recorded here were written after discussing these demos with Ian and deciding that we needed some new songs to go with the ones that made the cut. Regarding the songs with just numbers as titles:as a band we referred to our songs in chronological order while we sorted out lyrics and titles. Thus 1 was the first song, 2 the second, etc…This was how we referred to these songs and how we wrote them on our setlists. This can be seen/decoded in the liner notes of the S/T LP and on the cover of “Cough” as well. The tracks that didn’t make the cut only are known by their numbers,though we did keep a few with the numbers as the actual titles as well (Nine and Ten).
Recordings were made in Hugh’s studio in his parent’s basement and were engineered/mixed by Hugh with tape op help from Paul Jickling and Matt Vanek.”
Cough Demos
“This session was done in the Summer of 2003 between our first full U.S. tour and our Fall U.S./European tours. These recordings were not originally intended as demos but were made as possible recordings for a split 12” we were planning with the band Need New Body from Philadelphia. They were another percussive and strange punk-adjacent art band who we had met and connected with when we played at MacRock in Fredericksburg, VA in the Spring of 2003. For one reason or another that record didn’t end up happening and these songs turned into the bulk of “Cough,” which we recorded in January of 2004. These recordings were done in our practice space (Daniel’s parents basement) and were engineered and mixed by Hugh. It’s hard to recall if the instrumental tracks were purposefully done as instrumentals or if they were waiting for vocal overdubs (most likely). Either way it is interesting to hear them in a different form than what they became,and closer to how we would have played them live.”
Live in San Francisco 5/23/2003
“This is a rough and raucous live set from just about the midway point of our first full U.S. tour. We had already been playing very regularly live throughout 2003 and were “road tight” by 2 weeks into the tour. Songs were played at ferocious tempos with almost a telekinetic tightness. Even though we were touring shortly after the release of our first album, more than half of our sets were made up of songs that would later become “Cough.” We immediately integrated any new material into our sets often as soon as it was ready to be played live. This show took place in a short-lived, cramped storefront gallery on Valencia Street in the Mission.”
Live in Amsterdam 11/5/2003
“This was the first show of our European tour, which started less than 2 weeks after the completion of our 7+ week North American tour. It was a live-on-the-radio recording session/show for 3VOOR12 with an interview component as well (sadly not archived). We spent our first day/evening in the Netherlands recovering from jet lag, adjusting to unheated squat life and traveling to Rotterdam to see Enon perform. This show took place the next night, when we were mostly fully recovered and ready to go and we hit the ground running with this energetic set. Also joining us on the bill that night was Cave In who was being tour managed by a former member of the DC band Scream who we chatted with about DC hardcore scene things over dinner (not sure if we asked about Dave Grohl but it would seem possible). Anyway it is nice to have such a well recorded live document of our road tightened set. Unfortunately there are a few digital glitches on the master of the recording, including one that cuts the end of Deformative short. Nonetheless, we’re happy to share this one.”
by Kate Hoos | Nov 15, 2022
Black Eyes (photo by Shawn Brackbill)
Black Eyes, the influential experimental/art punk/post punk band, had a blink and you miss it career—only existing from 2001-2004—and thus are the kind of band many of us discovered posthumously, myself included. Having found them in the nascent ether of mp3 blogs not long after their breakup, I’ve been listening to them for a very long time at this point and their self titled debut is one of my favorite records of the early aughts, but I still never thought seeing them and their legendarily intense live show outside the realm of a low quality YouTube video was a thing that would be possible. I figured it was a footnote in history and they were just one of those bands I’d have to accept never having seen live. Flash forward to today, right here in the waning hours of 2022, and the band has re-emerged from retirement to grace us with their presence, the feverish and chaotic fury of their sound a much needed salve in these hellish times
They have announced a 20th anniversary re-issue of their 2003 self-titled debut on Dischord and three East Coast shows to coincide with the release: 4/7/23 Washington DC at Black Cat, 4/8/23 Brooklyn at Market Hotel, and 4/9/23 Philadelphia at First Unitarian Church. No word at this point if these shows and the re-issue are it, or there may be more coming, but either way, this is joyous news. Pre-orders for the record will soon be available directly from Dischord.
Their bio via Dischord reads:
Black Eyes are Dan, Daniel, Hugh, Jacob, and Mike. They began playing as Black Eyes in August of 2001, although most of the band had played together previously in Trooper and The No-Gos before that. The band’s first-full length was released on Dischord in 2003 following several singles on Ruffian Records and Planaria. Black Eyes created a unique live experience as the members made a symmetrical shape on stage, two drummers, one on either side of the stage, two bass players, one at the back and one at the front, and one guitarist in the middle. Their shows were chaotic and often melted down into frenzied, rhythmic jam sessions, with most of the audience partaking in the mayhem by the end of the set. After an extensive tour with Q and Not U, the band released their second full-length, Cough, in May of 2004. This album introduced saxophone to the mix and relied more heavily on improvisational and dub influences that were hinted at in their earlier work. The band broke up shortly before the album was released, at the height of their popularity.
See some of the aforementioned low quality YouTube footage:
by Kate Hoos | Jun 20, 2022
The Messthetics at Union Pool (photo by Kate Hoos)
In the life and times of Kate Hoos, few other bands have meant as much to me as Fugazi has. I’ve listened to them probably more than just about anyone else and being a serial completionist, I’ve also kept up with pretty much all of the various projects the members have done before and after the band—and not just the obvious ones that involve Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto like Minor Threat, Rites of Spring and Coriky. I’ve also listened to and loved the deeper cuts like Joe Lally’s work in Ataxia and all of his solo records (in particular the first two, There To Here and Nothing is Underrated), as well as Brendan Canty’s work with Lois Maffeo on The Union Themes. I’ve been invested in this group’s output for close to 30 years—be it together as a unit or as individuals or in collaboration with other groups of people. All of which led me to standing on the outdoor patio of Union Pool under the threat of impending rain (that fortunately didn’t arrive until much later) to see Canty and Lally performing in their latest creative venture together, The Messthetics.
While I’ve been a long time fan of the work of Canty and Lally, this was actually my first time getting to see either of them perform, bad timing and circumstance always finding ways to keep me from shows at previous points. (And yes, I am old enough to have seen Fugazi play, things just never worked out.) To say the wait was well worth it would be an understatement. Particularly to see Canty playing up close—and with a much busier and more intricate style than he employed in Fugazi—as well as incorporating his signature ships bell much more often, it was a true delight for a fellow drummer to see. And to witness the rock solid connection of this rhythm section was truly unparalleled. They have a musical bond that runs back over 35 years and is as deep and unwavering as any I have seen.
But though I love Fugazi, they are not the only link/attraction to this band for me because as some readers may or may not know, I also love experimental and instrumental music. Guitarist Anthony Pirog rounds out the trio and is a major figure in the jazz and experimental scene in Washington DC, adding many layers of rich nuance and colorful complexity to the air tight rhythms laid down by Canty and Lally. I’m not as well versed on jazz I admit, but I have in more recent years explored a little bit more from that world and more avant-garde genres, so getting to see his otherworldly guitar skills was also quite the treat. Pirog may just be the personification of “play a guitar just like a-ringin’ a bell” mentioned by Chuck Berry In “Johnny B Goode,” since he makes it look entirely effortless while he does things many other guitarists (including this one) can only dream of.
They have a sound that is hard to nail down as rock, jazz, and post hardcore elements are all there, with of course a strong experimental bent, and I even hear perhaps a bit of a surf vibe in the main driving riff of “Serpent Tongue.” Suffice it to say that there’s just a lot to sink your teeth into and despite the pedigree and depth of the three musicians involved, no single element overshadows another and it all blends together in a seamless and entirely unique to them way. I was pleased in particular when I first heard them that they chose to keep the band instrumental as there is just such a special and unique quality to instrumental music in general, regardless of genre or style. I love getting lost in it and applying my own feelings and emotions to the sounds I’m hearing rather than having a road map laid out for me by a lyricist.
They played a set that was a mix of songs from their first two records 2018’s The Messthetics, and 2019’s Anthropocosmic Nest, as well as some new as-of-yet unreleased material. Special guest saxophonist James Brandon Lewis joined them for the beautiful and lilting “Once Upon A Time,” and for the final untitled song which was also new (referred to as “New Single” on the setlist). With the inclusion of that new music, one can hope that a third album is already in the works and will arrive sometime this year.
SAVAK opened the show and really were the most fitting band that could have done so with their own links back to the Dischord/DC scene. They have almost as impressive a resume as The Messthetics, featuring former/current members of Holy Fuck, Obits, the Cops and Edsel. To add to that, James Canty (aka Brendan Canty’s younger brother) filled in on drums and comes with his own long list of musical accomplishments, having played with The Make-Up, Nation of Ulysses, and Ted Leo and The Pharmacists. They always put on a great set and I was happy to hear a lot of their newer material from their latest album, Human Error/Human Delight, which was released this past April. They also hit one of my favorite of their songs, “I Don’t Want to Be Defended,” which appears on their 2017 album Cut-Ups.
I don’t tend to use words like “heroes” when I think of the musicians I love and respect the most, that feels trite at the end of the day and frankly abstract. But if I were going to use words like that to describe any musicians, the four members of Fugazi would be deserving of that title. Their music and their message shaped so much of who I am and it was a dream come true to see even two of the members perform in such an intimate setting. Even more so, it’s wonderful to see when musicians are humble and all around nice people and don’t feed into egotistical notions even when they could. I say this because I was introduced to Joe briefly by a mutual friend and he graciously chuckled when I joked that I had “maybe listened to an old band he was in once or twice” and I saw Brendan chatting with quite a few fans as he packed up. They didn’t go hide in a green room, they were out interacting and engaging with folks before and after their set. As a fellow musician I know how taxing that can often be, but as a fan I always appreciate it. There’s no bones about the fact that this show was a special day for me and one I won’t soon forget.
Scroll down for pics of the show (photos by Kate Hoos)
SAVAK
THE MESSTHETICS
