Disc Reviews: Girls Of The Gravitron and Sore Eyes

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Girls Of The Gravitron

Self-released

This limited-edition, seemingly homemade disc — the CD “case” is a hand-folded Xerox — collects nine tracks, totaling just over 23 minutes of music, from this under-recognized DIY outfit, including their well-received 2008 7-inch “Malthusian Love Song.” Girls Of The Gravitron is made up of members of the more popular The Barbaras and Kazalok. The former, winners of the judges’ award at last year’s Memphis Pops Festival, have impressed with their Black Lips-like take on ’60s classic pop of the Brian Wilson/Phil Spector variety, while the largely forgotten Kazalok were a more straight ahead punk-rock unit with surprising folk touches.

Girls Of The Gravitron shares both bands’ no-fi aesthetic (it must be a lot of work to tear holes that big in your new jeans) but the work represented here is generally much more experimental, with psychedelic touches like the vibrato drenched guitar figure on “Violent Appetites” and the spaceship keyboards of “Weird Worlds.” And all the songs are delivered in a flat, ironic monotone that surprisingly does not bleed them of emotion but adds depth to the deceptively raw tracks underneath. The Girls — all males, by the way — subvert their own punk expectations with surprisingly catchy and varied compositions. With its furious, ringing guitar riff, the awkwardly titled “Her Flowering Opens Like the Slow Moving Trail On An Atom Bomb” plays like a lost Jeff Buckley demo and “Malthusian Love Song,” at 1:46, is a mini epic.

Sore Eyes

Sore Eyes

Self-released

Formed in 2006, the Memphis quartet Sore Eyes has seemingly come from nowhere to jut to the head of the local hard rock class. The band has the support of such local heavy hitters as Egypt Central; lead singer John Falls gushingly introduced the band at a recent New Daisy gig and drummer Blake Allison has recorded the band.

More recently, through the Memphis Music Foundation’s Piggyback Touring Program, the band broke out of their hometown and enjoyed a stint on the road with best-selling Florida rockers Shinedown. That tour led to the band signing a management deal with the band’s guitarist, fellow Memphian Zach Myers.

Now with the release of the band’s debut EP, it is apparent what these other bands hear in Sore Eyes. A slick, professional effort, the four-song EP was produced by former Creed bassist and current lead singer of the metal supergroup Dark New Day, Brett Hestla.

But Sore Eyes has none of the dark, aggressive tendencies of Dark New Day. Instead, they are pedaling a less affected form of metal with subtle traces of emo. That much is clear from the bouncy beat of standout “Deadly” and also in the big catchy shout-along chorus of disc opener “O.M.G.”

Though a tad one-dimensional (his vocals go a long way to contributing the sense of sameness that seeps into the collection), vocalist Shi Eubank carries the set well and thankfully never resorts to the screaming so many acts use as a third gear these days. The true test will come in the form of a full-length effort, but on their first time up Sore Eyes has delivered a strong debut that portends tremendous potential.

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