...No No Not Nothing

There is a tiny handful of great bands right now mixing some poppy ’80s darkwave into their grease-ball garage rock. Digital Leather and Blank Dogs come immediately to mind. Brooklyn quartet Xray Eyeballs slides easily into that category, but they set themselves apart by being an outstandingly fun time. Setting yourself apart as a garage band can be a challenge. In their live show it’s hard to zero in on just how they do it, but it gets easier to dissect on their delectable debut Not Nothing.

Start with the idea of ’80s punk and post-punk inspired by ’60s pop. There’s a bit of that Jesus and Mary Chain junk-sick Beach Boys sound and touch of Suicide’s no wave pop. The beauty of it is that sometimes it sounds much more like a ’60s-does-’80s thing than the other way around. They mostly hew to warm, familiar rock ‘n’ roll hooks so it often sounds like a band in 1964 gazed into the future and had a new wave vision of pop to come. There are synthesizers and special effects on the album but they’re used in a way that keeps things feeling primitive and analog. All the dirty reverb and noise makes for a nice chewed-up-Ronettes kind of feel.

Not Nothing is a well-crafted document too. All the songs really work to justify their place on the album, like separate facets of a cloudy gem. The guitar driven “Egyptian Magician,” with its “let’s all get high,” refrain makes you wish The Raveonettes would get over themselves and rock out once in awhile. Then the zombie prom slow dance of “Po’ Jam” enters the running be the most warped take on the girl group sound to date. To name one more example, the evil drone of “Drums of Dead” is an all-out proto-goth masterpiece.


Finally, the surf guitars here and there impart a seriously weird summeryness that will make the album totally indispensable to a certain kind of listener. This is a warm weather album for people who mostly experience daylight via the heat radiating off the pavement just after sunset. That is to say, if you are not actually looking forward to longer days and shorter nights, Not Nothing contains all eleven of your new favorite summer jams.
From; MTV Iggy by Beverly

Links;
Xray Eyeballs - Not Nothing
Password (if needed); wwsXray Eyeballs
Xray Eyeballs @ MySpace
Kanine