Sego releases their debut EP "Wicket Youth" today. They've released three songs of the five songs in anticipation for its release, but let's go through each song one by one:
"Your song's.....different....Sego"
1.20 years tall -- Alright alright we start off with some straight talk dance punk. Its different and edgy, but its the same different and edgy I heard when I listened to LCD Soundsystem. (Which is a great thing) The song is like the principal in Forrest Gump, "Your son's.....different...Miss Gump.", but we all know that Forrest falls into wealth and ends up with his long lost passed around girlfriend in the end so he gets the last laugh......just like this song....what? Anyway, the first track off the the new EP probably defines what the band sounds like and the rest of the tracks will follow suite, right?....
2. Wicket Youth -- ....well not exactly. The next track is Wicket Youth......which is like taking off my ripped black jeans and putting on my white dress suit from Miami Vice and fighting drug lords while driving the $100k police race boat that they randomly have a budget for ......quite the contrast. All the edges are as smooth as the keys on a keyboard, and what we have left is very catchy synthpop number.
Harrison Ford digging "Engineer Amnesia"
3. Engineer Amnesia -- We stick with the synthpop tone but dial it back a bit.....instead of Miami Vice we get Blade Runner/Terminator/Terminator 2. I could very easily see Harrison Ford in his flying car cruising through the clouds with this song blasting as the human race is being exterminated by killer terminators below.
4. False Currency -- I would say this as close as we get to track one. More straight talk but with less dance punk. In its place is seemingly chaotic guitars, punchy horns and a steady beat that gets stronger as the song explodes to the finish line. No bands or movie comparisons because I honestly can't put my finger on what this sounds like. But the EP definitely hits its climax with that dance beat ending.
"Hey!!.....PARTED LIPS!!!"
5. Parted Lips -- Alright, now this is awesome. ...its only 1 minute long, kind of the denouement of the EP, and again throws a different flavor into the mix. I'd say that it sounds a hidden Beck track on the Odelay or Guero album. Since Beck is my favorite musician this bodes well. Its offbeat but in the best kind of way You'll find yourself blurting out the words "Parted Lips" to yourself in a quiet room and yelling it to strangers on the street.
Overall, after all the flavors make the best kind of Kool-aid. You'll feel really.... Kool.... when listening to it.
At SXSW in the spring of 2011 debuting their music video "Pretty" at the film festival, Eyes Lips Eyes caught people's eyes and ears. The venues were small, they weren't an official SXSW band, but the small crowds that came were excited about them. I remember seeing some of the "offical" bands at SXSW and being underwhelmed and wondering why they were selected and not ELE. If they were just given a big crowd with a big stage they would destroy the other bands with their raw energy alone that they brought.
They finished releasing Blue Red with a song a month until the middle of the summer and then toured into the fall. When they released the album on vinyl I made a short documentary of the making of the vinyl covers.
I was very tempted to take a couple weeks off and tour with them and take pictures but I could never make it work. Later on that year they caught the ear of a small label called Roll Call Records. They finally had some recognition from the nonstop year of touring and releasing singles and videos every month. The manager Rob set them up with a great producer to put out their next album that was set to release the following year. They put out a pledge music to raise funds for the recording they did and to release the album. They hit their goal at the last minute thanks to my sister Jane. They recorded the record in Seattle in the same studio where Nirvana recorded. It was exciting to hear of the progress as they were recording and mixing the songs.
Eyes Lips Eyes at the Frost Revival. Opening for Modest Mouse
The highlight of that year was their invite to open for Modest Mouse at Stanford University. I was really really excited for that. Apparently there were some very avid fans from Stanford that were putting together a show and wanted ELE to be on the bill. This would be in front of a crowd of a few thousand. I had access to the back stage and got to photograph the whole thing. It was a lot of fun. The crowd was big and liked it. They seemed to be heading in the right direction, with more and more momentum.
Velour show Sept 2012
Later that summer they released their EP, which was in preparation for the album release the next year. They played a show that I arranged for my co-workers, which could have turned into a disaster but turned out pretty good and then played a "Cowboys and Indies" show at Velour to a very energetic crowd. One specific memory from that show is when Spencer and I swapped places for the finale. We both had big beards, so I put his shirt and hat on and Spence was playing his guitar in the back while I was acting it out on stage. No one knew the difference. I was going crazy, doing all kinds of weird positions and what not and then I stopped playing during the middle of a guitar part.....but apparently people still believed I was playing still. People came up to Spencer and me afterward and complimented us on how amazing the guitar work was on the last song. I wished someone had taken a picture of video of it, but it was pretty funny and cool.
Then after this show...........there was silence. The album was supposed to come out that spring and there was no word. Months went past and no word or updates.
Velour Show 2012
Behind the scenes, Tony had gotten married in 2011 and by the end of 2012, news of a baby came. The newly added obligations to his family took him to Chicago, far away from LA and the band. Unsure on what was going to be become of the band, the others decided to work on their own projects. Spencer and Tom started playing in various other bands (SWIMM, The Moth & the Flame) while also writing their own music (Sego), Aaron created his own band/group/entity called Fresh Big Mouf where he produced other bands and groups and also created music out of nothing literally in his Beat Scout project. I constantly pestered my brother and Tony on when things were going to come back together and continue. As 2013 came and went, my hope had dwindled that they would ever get back together as a band. I had heard some of their new songs and I really really wanted to hear them live....at least one more time, but things still looked pretty bleak. I knew that the momentum that had been building for the last 6 or 7 years was now gone. They were almost back to square one it seemed if they got back together. Now, I wanted to just hear them play one more time. Tony moved back to LA in 2014 and I thought there was a sliver of hope that it was going to happen. They were able to block out some dates and they planned on their last shows in LA and in Provo. In the weeks previous they released their album after a long wait. I had forgotten how much this music meant to me and how juiced up I got when I heard it.
Their final show in LA came. I flew in for the show and took in all of the prep. They rehearsed while I was there. It was a little rough. I hadn't heard their live performance in a long time, I was used to recordings, so I wanted perfection. I had requested certain songs to be played of course, but there were only so many they could fit into the set. But the really big reason was they were not in Eyes Lips Eyes shape. Even though they had been playing in bands, the playing was not nearly as intense as an Eyes Lips Eyes set. When I asked for them to play Carolina's Cut, Tom's response was "Are you trying to ****ing kill me?". I think most of the band members were in denial that this was it. It had been so long since their last show that I think they had finally come to terms with it fading away. But now that they were doing the final shows, it was like bringing up all the emotions to the surface again. A lot more emotion had come from Tony. The other members of the band had been playing in other bands, but Tony had been out of the game for two years. I could tell that he truly missed going crazy on stage in front of a raucous crowd. It was a release for him. The show came and 60 or 70 LA fans and friends showed up. It's funny what a cheering crowd can do for your nerves. They sounded pretty great for their first set in two years. The whole crowd was drenched in sweat as was the band. I didn't feel emotional as much because I knew the Provo show was still to come.
I was exhausted from the LA show and couldn't imagine what the Provo show was going to be like. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it through the whole set. Provo seemed like a pressure cooker ready to explode when they were starting their set. They pulled an old trick that they had used in previous shows. They had a group of 20 or so fans stand on the stage, like a human curtain, to help block the view of the audience being able to see band setting up and to help build up the hype even more. I can't remember the last time they did that, but it had been years. They started with a classic of "Soy Sauce Sailor". The extended intro added more pent up energy. Everyone had a smile on their face as they grew close to the explosive climax of the intro. Once that happened everyone jumped off the stage and went berserk. The top of the pressure cooker blew and the whole crowd danced, jumped pushed, yelled and cheered. I chose to take pictures during the first song, but I had chills the whole time watching the band feed off the energy from the crowd. The next song was "Sweat Swat Swote", which is a song that destroys me with its 4 1/2 minutes of constant dancing. I was breathing pretty hard after that song and wondering how I was going to make it the rest of the way. The next song was "Pretty" and "Don't Blow It" and that was a little bit of a breather. The second song feature Nate Pyfer who has since helped Spencer with his other project Sego. He stood and yelled and beat the cow bell with a stone face. "Lumiere" gave the crowd a little bit of a breather overall since its more of a listener versus a dancer. The song seemed a little misplaced amongst the other dancers. This song is about Tony's father (my uncle) who had passed away a few years ago and so I understood immediately why it was being played. The next song was an oldie, "Hola May" which rocked the crowd into a frenzy. Cooled off a little bit for the song "Bear Trap". I really liked hearing that one. It seemed like forever since I'd heard it. It has such a strong driving bass line with the perfect amount of accented guitars. Then came happy and feathery "Hollywood" got the crowd into a bouncy mood especially for the ending chorus when everyone was jumping up and down. "Ghosts" was next which was a never ending bounce fest......very stressful to the calves. My friend Jim said his calves were so tired, heavy and tight that he could hardly walk around after the song. He had to sit out until for a handful of songs to recover for the finale.
Final Show Velour Oct 2014
Then came "Itty Bitty" in which I was skeptical they could pull it off because its a song that requires the band to completely be in sync. But they pulled it off and sounded awesome. Its not really a dance song, but more of a sing along song that has a chaotic ending. Only two songs remained from the main set. The next was crowd favorite "Never Alone" which by the end became a mini mosh pit. I was expecting them to talk a little bit more and tell some stories or something. Spencer shared his thankfulness for being in the band and how great Provo has been to the band. Tony added his gratitude as well earlier and could tell it was a sensitive issue as his voice cracked a little. I think they avoided talking to much because they didn't want to get too emotional. It was the end of an era in Provo music. Spencer started the jangling intro for "Tickle" and everyone went nuts. Girls on shoulders of guys, everyone was chanting "hey" and they jumped around. It was probably the most active and energetic I've seen a crowd at Velour ever. At the end of the song, Cole Barnson of the Toy Bombs planted a kiss on Tony, which I thought was hilarious. It was hard to top that ending. It definitely climaxed there.
Final Show Oct 2014 - Psycho Killer
In the encore, several friends with guitars or just themselves came on stage for "Psycho Killer". A song that they've been playing since the beginning of the full band. With that many people on stage it was hard to tell who was playing. It ended up being who ever felt like getting up on stage by the end, but it didn't matter, everyone was having a good time. I took the song off and took pictures. I was wanting to capture the amazing site of people everywhere dancing but also wanted to save myself for the last song, "Old".
Even though the song is my current favorite and I go absolutely crazy for it, I wouldn't have ended with it. With the amazing energy of Tickle and the chaotic party of Psycho Killer, "Old" seemed anti-climatic since it was a semi-new song. But now that I think about it.....I believe it was the perfect choice. I don't know what it is about that song that brings out a lot of emotion from me. When listening to it in the car I go crazy hitting the wheel of the car.
Final Show Velour Oct 2014
So for the final song in the history of Eyes Lips Eyes, I was determined to go nuts the entire time. Of course it had an extended intro, Spencer playing a single note. Just building it up for me like crazy. Then the bass and drums come in perfectly and start the beginning of the end. I had tears welling up in my eyes after each time the chorus was sang and then I'd emphatically go crazy during the guitar follow up. I was shoving and jumping on people and yelling to the top of my lungs and I didn't care at all. I remember thinking during the final build up that it was so weird that this was going to be their last song. I let out my emotions in the form of jumping and pushing and yelling to the top of my lungs for the last 20 seconds till my eyes started to go black and I felt like I was going to faint for a minute. It was a great ending to a band that will always be my favorite. It was an incredible show that I will always remember. As I was talking with Cole Barnson afterward, he echoed a thought that I've always had since the beginning.......which was that bands like this don't come around that often....they are rare. Bands can play loud and go crazy on stage or whatever, but its the way ELE wrote the songs, the way they played the songs and who they were as individuals that drove this unique band into almost unattainable energy during their shows. The band will now disband officially and pursue their own goals in other bands or in life. I think they'll always look back at those times as something special......I know I will.
Tony bows after the final song at the Frost Revival, May 2012
One story that I forgot to mention a couple of posts back was how the band came up with the name Elizabethan Report. If any of you know Tony, he has a knack of mishearing or misunderstanding people during conversations. One such conversation had mentioned lesbians at Borders (the store). Tony naturally asked them if they had just said Elizabethan Report. They said no and were confused how he had even come up with that based on what they had said. So there you have it....selective hearing can create bands.
Now to start again from where I left off. One correction to the previous post, they didn't actually change their name to Eyes Lips Eyes until after they had moved to LA and had been there for a while. they transitioned from Elizabethan Report to the shorter ER for a while until the actual change to Eyes Lips Eyes.
They first lived in a house in Eagle Rock that they rented for the summer. They spent their time establishing themselves and writing. I stayed their for a couple of nights and then went with them on a mini tour. The first stop was Taft, CA., which is near Bakersfield. It was a for a funeral ironically. It was held in the upstairs of a bar. It was a one of the more weird shows I've ever been to. I think the band didn't really know if they should enjoy themselves or be more serious. They had a show two days later in Bakersfield. They had one friend that lived there that we stayed at that introduced them around to other friends and soon they had a little group of fans even though they had never seen them play. That is one that I found awesome about the band. They made friends very quickly and were very likable. The fans that came a lot of time were not only fans but became good friends with the band. The Bakersfield show wasn't well attended but those that came were friends that they had met the day before and are lifelong fans.
After the few short months in Eagle Rock they moved to an old factory converted to three big studio apartments on the east side of LA near Chinatown. It was squeezed between a cement factory and a UPS loading dock. It was the perfect spot for a band.....with the exception of nearly no privacy. From there they met the band Kid Theodore (now known as Toy Bombs) who were from SLC. Both bands had known each other a little while in Utah but neither of them knew that they moved to LA. They joined forces and toured the country with each other, forming very close bonds in the process. One particular tour in the fall of 2010 I believe they played in a lot of empty venues, everyone in the tour van was sick or would get sick. They ended up in a New London, CT. The tour had been awful up to this point. They had been barely making any money the whole tour. This venue was no different, no one was there except for the other band named The Beauvilles. So the bands just put on shows for each other basically and let out the frustrations of a bad tour. The Beauvilles loved them as well as their manager. A friendship that would create a chain reaction of friendships down the road This was the turning point in their success.
Right before that they had started their conquest to release one song, one music video for the song and one B side each month for twelve months and slowly release the album Blue Red one spoonful at a time. The first video for the single "Pretty" was a success as it was nominated to be in the SXSW film festival the following year. The constant amount of music, videos caught a lot of attention and would lead to even better things.
Shows started popping up with high frequency (no pun intended). Here are a couple of show posters. I believe the biggest show of the fall of 2007 was at the Sego Festival. The Sego Festival was basically a local music and art festival in Provo that ran for a few years. That year had some big local headliners: Chris Merritt, Fictionist, Neon Trees, Another Statistic, Return to Sender, Mathematics Etc. Elizabethan Report found its way in one of the headliner slots and played one of the their better shows. It was the biggest crowd they had played for.
For the next while they focused their attention to putting out their first EP 'Hola May'. They converged on a cabin just east of Park City and lived there for at least a week, doing nothing but recording. I made my way up there a few times to see how things were going and to add some background voices and claps. Months later the EP was released to high praise. I was really excited because I had listened for months to the songs in concert but couldn't listen to them outside of that, which drove me crazy.
At the beginning of the summer they received a big invitation to play in the North American Music Union in Pittsburgh to compete in a contest of a hand full of other college bands. The winner to be given a one album deal. The rest of the festival included acts like Bob Dylan, The Black Keys, The Roots The Raconteurs and Spoon. All of this was currated by Anthony Keidis. So there was no way I was going to miss this. I flew into Washington DC, hung out at a family reunion in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, then drove 9 hours from there to Lake Chautauqua where they were playing a show to a random art colony there. I then drove from there to Pittsburgh. There was some nervousness among the band members of what songs they should play. It was only a 25 minute set so they had to decide which songs would resonate best with the judges and the crowd. It took a while before they narrowed down some songs.
The other college bands played to some mixed reception. I felt a little intimidated for them. Two bands that were invited were French Horn Rebellion and Royal Bangs, both of which currently are successful touring bands. They went on and I did my thing in the crowd, danced around, clapped and what not and the band came through had an awesome performance. The crowd really got into it and responded very positively. After the show they completely forgot to man the merchandise table, which had a good little crowd around it so I ran over and started helping people.
When it came to judgement time, another band was picked but the judges had them as a very close second place. They definitely made an impression, even the local paper thought they had the best performance.
Things were on a high from that point. They pushed hard to put out a full length album. This would be called 'Are you a Murderer?' based a lot on a couple of Tony's relationships. It was a very descriptive and visceral album. Much different than the previous EP. While it had some lighter numbers, there were some darker ones as well.
Months went on after the album where they did played some shows. I followed them to San Diego, LA, Durango and Telluride CO. for some shows. During this time they decided it was time to pick up a manager, which is when Alex Jones came into the picture. A big fan of the band from Santa Ynez (near Santa Barbara), his first order of business was to change the bands name and to have them move to LA. I had mixed feelings on both. Even though everyone in the world couldn't pronounce Elizabethan Report correctly, Being a very nostalgic man by nature I wanted them to keep the name, I liked the name. I also loved having them live nearby, but could understand the need for both changes.
With this move came the end to the Hillary Hathaway era, which ended on a semi-weird note. The alliance with her was always an unsteady one, so it was not a big surprise to see it happen. In my opinion, it was needed to happen to further the bands success. The band contemplated pulling on another female singer; even played another show with one to test it out. In the end it was determined that they would continue on without the extra singer.
Several names were thrown around, like Sweat and Blue Red, but ended up land on Eyes Lips Eyes based on the lyrics of a song that was yet to be released.
After some years of performing randomly at parties they decided to expand it to a full band in 2004/2005. They added Adam Orton (bass) and Trevor Goss (drums). Their first show as an official band was at a Mexican restaurant. About 20 people who were mostly friends or family of the band showed up. Tony was so juiced full of energy that on the opening song he proceeded to break the microphone stand after the first 20 seconds.
Performance at OZZ in Provo
After that first show I knew that a lot of people would hesitate to dance to their music, so I took it upon myself to dance the entire show no matter if anyone came up with me or not. (there were quite a few shows where I was by myself the whole time) I remember one show at a place called Steamers, that hosted mostly hardcore metal bands. The ceiling had blood on it from the night before. The only audience was me, the owner and I think one other person. One thing that I remember telling Spencer a long time ago was to always play a great, energetic show no matter what, as if there were 500 moshing people in the room. For the most part that's exactly what they did. I had to dance around to get them going sometimes of course.
The picture might actually be from Steamers
This went on for about a little over a year, playing random shows, gaining a following, but not a serious one. Tony would still roam the crowd and try and embarrass and do what he could to make people uncomfortable. He was very energetic, but a bit raw.
After a while it seemed apparent that they needed a change in order to be taken seriously. The song writing needed to be sharpened, their performances needed to be tightened and basically needed to start from scratch. Tony informed the drummer (Trevor) that his services were no longer needed after taking him out for a milkshake. Adam (bass) left on his own. It was back to the original duo once again in the fall of 2006. It would take them a year before they reformed. During this time, Tony and Spencer both wrote. Their approach was more serious, more edgy but still fun and energetic. They met their new drummer Thomas Carroll) the year before when they had played a battle of the bands the year before and he was playing for a different band. He was impressed with the band and agreed to join. The bassist was harder to find. Spencer knew a classmate name Aaron Hatch but hadn't really played bass before. He quickly learned before their first show in the fall of 2007. They also added a backup singer and someone to help compliment Tony, this was Hilary Hathaway.
Their first show was at a house party. They only had a handful of prepared songs but you could tell that this was different. The crowd responded very positively to it, they weren't confused on what had just happened. They were no longer a joke band. This was very exciting for me personally. The next show that I remember was the battle of the bands at Muse Music in Provo. Their set was packed with people wanting to dance. They first song was Hola May which was on the first song that the full band had written together. It was their most edgy song to date with a driving bass and punchy guitar hook. They wanted me and another friend to wave some flashlights around at the band which kind of turned out cool. The crowd thought so as well as they were chosen as the winners.
Their was some reluctance to go full electric acoustic since they had always been acoustic, but Spencer added a little pickup on the original guitar that gave it a very unique sound. He also remained sitting which I thought was really cool and unique. No other band did that. No bands banged the crap out of garbage can, beat to death a little tikes mini piano, use the little piano to beat the garbage can to death and use a diving flipper as an instrument. Their whole approach was very refreshing.
I went to every show no matter what. I loved the energy they brought, it was kind of addicting to me. I've been made fun of for being the "#1 fan" but I didn't really care. I loved the music.
After the success of the the battle of the bands, it kind of put them on the map as a legitimate band in the valley. They would often open for other bands and wear the crowd out for the headliner.
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