July 2002 • Rockbites Alternative Daily
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Winfred E. Eye release quiet stunner of a debut 9 July 2002
Aaron Calvert, former front man with legendary LA post punkers Evergreen in the early ’90s, two years ago founded a new band up north in Oakland, California with a new sound—a largely acoustic, tension-charged, subtly experimental slow blues sound. He gave the new project an old, auto-biographical name, Winfred E. Eye—the birthname of his grandfather. Their debut album 'A Bottle, A Dog, Some Milk, A Bottle,' out 25 June on the new Luckyhorse Industries label from Seattle, is all about Calvert’s stunning and unique voice. First blush might remind you of Tom Waits, but listen deeper and you’ll hear, perhaps, Dr. John, Bozz Scaggs, Galaxie 500-era Dean Wareham, and even Jackie 'Moms' Mabley (the Brevard, North Carolina comedienne, born Loretta Mary Aiken, 1894-1975). The point is that Calvert is a vocal chameleon with incredible control, emotivity, expressiveness, and range. He applies his gift to these rainy day, rainy night ballads with preternatural ease, each one a canvas upon which he dashes off a new masterpiece. Meanwhile, the band provides expansive, and at times painfully beautiful, accompaniment on acoustic, electric, and slide guitars (Mikel Garmendia, ex Cars Get Crushed), banjo (Craig Adams), upright bass (Chandan Narayan), keyboards & autoharp (Dax Pierson), and drums (Josh Kilbourne). Producer Jeremy Goody employed a nearly live recording approach with the band set up in a wooden playhouse, a brilliant choice which adds a measure of fragility and danger, perfectly complementing these quietly stunning songs. The minimal processing also brings an astonishing technical clarity to the recording. You can enjoy this record just for the beauty of the audio. Not available from such online retailers as Amazon or CDnow, the debut LP from Winfred E. Eye is bound to get picked up by a larger label and eventually hailed as a great alt-country/slo-core gem for the new century. Hell, I’ll hail it as that right now and beat everyone else to the punch. Five bites out of five. Rockbites ratings 5: life changing, 4: stunning, 3: captivating, 2: amusing, 1: annoying. To pick up your copy, check out the availability info on the band’s Website. | Winfred E. Eye | | Luckyhorse Industries | | top of page | |
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