Living Eyes - Living Large

by Dave Goodwin

published: 14 / 3 / 2015

Label: Agitated Records
Format: CD

Excellent lo-fi and melodic new wave/punk from once abrasive Australian band, the Living Eyes

Review

The Living Eyes are a bunch of lads from Geelong, Australia consisting of Billy Gardner on guitar who. incidentally, runs the record company that have released this, their second full-length album. Dayle Herbert sings along happily and plays bass at the same time, while Nicholas Hill bashes away on his drum kit. These three are then complimented by Mitch Campleman, who expertly strums away on his guitar and also gives a hand singing. It was all recorded in one foul swoop in just a day and a half in Owen Pengelis' Goliath Professional Recording Studio in Sydney and then mixed by Mickey Young after being finished in the lads' bedrooms, I believe. Now these boys have been hailed as sticking to their vitriolic punk roots, but I have to be honest it is more new wave to me and I love it. They apparently take their sounds from bands like the Easybeats, the Hoodoo Gurus and the Hard Ons, and it is actually tempered down a bit if one listens to their self-titled debut album. It comes in a fold-out card CD cover with collage work on the back of the band themselves. When you put it into your CD player, you are hit with "High Standards" which sets the standards for the rest of the album with its twanging guitars. ‘Dry Spell’ is a calmer affair with echoing vocals and jangling guitars, but fear not, the peace is wonderfully shattered with the intro to ‘On Sale’ and the in-the-same-vein ‘Guilty Pleasures’, the latter hiding some Sex Pistols type vocals. ‘Bad Example’ is a good example of the difference between the first album and this which holds a little more melody, and it is all brought to a crashing close with the Dr Feelgood start to ‘Lighten Up’, the longest track on here at just under four minutes. Bloody marvellous!