Xray Eyeballs – Not Nothing

Xray Eyeballs are a band who previously recorded a cassette for Raccoo-oo-oon’s Night People Records which featured early versions of the tracks “Po Jam” and “Fake Wedding”. These appear on this debut LP, “Not Nothing”, which was released this April from Kanine Records.

The lead single “Crystal” is an abrasive and slurpy garage rock song combined with surf pop grittyness and a lacerating repetitive riff which works perfectly with the video’s imagery of sapphic bathroom voodoo doll jealousy (that is not even exaggerated nor made up ). The opening bars have this sensuous kraut-rock appeal which transmogrifies into normative garage band sensibilities. There is such a plethora of strong 1960’s noise pop era influenced bands suppurating into the underground Zeitgeist that it requires the extra originality ethic point to be truly noticed and this record seems to fall short of the desired boilerplate. Sure there is the same brittle Half Japanese DIY production and sneering nasal vocals enunciating within inaudible haze and murk which made the Girls of the Graviton’s LP release so infectious and beautiful despite it’s striking banality, but something seems missing from the whole arrangement. It seems to lack the diverse and panoptic song-writing skills of other outfits recording similar styles of music including Royal Baths, who seem to genuinely pick up the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band and cushion them within a veneer of pop craftsmanship whilst retaining bedroom equalizers and a Soundcloud fan-base. The songs here would work better within a more laudable live garage punk setting I suspect.

“Fake Wedding” is catchy, short and acerbic and definitely worth a listen as is the ending track “Escape From that Girl” with a twangy riot grrrl sound which may make a perfect sound track for the recent Slutwalk protests happening all across the United States and beyond.

Crystal –

Escape From that Girl –

Fake Wedding –

Written By: Degarmo

My Rating: 7.7/10
Genre/ Tags: Garage Rock, Lo-Fi, Post Punk
Not Nothing: Tracklist:
1.) Crystal
2.) Nightwalkers
3.) Egyptian Magician
4.) Po’ Jam
5.) Drums Not Dead
6.) Broken Beds
7.) Xray Eyeballs Theme
8.) Big Toe
9.) Kam Sing Nights
10.) Fake Wedding
11.) Escape From that Girl