Album Review: Eyes That Hear and Ears That See – The Questions
Over the past year or so, a trio known as The Questions has worked its way into the hearts of MCR staffers via intense, brooding live gigs. On stage, singer/guitarist/rant-master Drew Bardo leads the band’s tangental flailing through blues, demented rockabilly and blasting punk, creating a melting pot that’s aggressive both musically and lyrically. Drummer Will Linna and bassist Dr. Matt Kleinhenn are a crap shoot – if one song has the rhythm section slinking low enough to completely hide behind Bardo’s voice and guitar, the next might just as well find them plugging away hard enough to rattle untended beer bottles in the room. There’s no doubt that Bardo’s manic performances are a solid attention-grabber for the band, and his meandering, panicked vocal inflections hold together this varied album, as well. Perhaps ’scattershot’ is a better word for the material on Eyes That Hear and Ears That See, though.
For example, the collective consciousness of Black Francis, Kurdt Cobain and Blue Cheer flows freely through the scathing sub-three minute blast of “In My Spare Time.” Alone, the song is a triumphant beacon of flailing simplicity. When it’s bookended by a moribund six-minute tragi-pop dirge (“Pregnant in Palenque”) and a jangly, mid-tempo faux-rockabilly number (“The Sun Will Rise Again”) though, it loses some ferocity. Along the same lines, “The Loss of Equilibrium” opens on a moody, Brian Setzer-ish ‘Questions Strut’ bent before abruptly exploding into a screaming basement punk binge (stranger yet is the grimy guitar solo that follows).
The upside to the awkwardness is that The Questions do a fine job of staying versatile on this album, hopping genres and moods without any fear of consequence. Bardo rails out a sordid, gripping acoustic slide guitar song with “Woman Blues,” while Kleinhenn and Linna join in and follow suit behind his harmonica howl on the gee-tar solo enhanced blues-offshoot, “Urban Loki.” “Absynthe and Oysters” is another highlight – a pop song drug through grunge muddle played with rockabilly aesthetics that stands out amongst the Eyes That Hear and Ears That See quaqmire as the truest musical definition of what The Questions aspire to be.
The result to all the musical hum-drum is, of course, an imperfect mess – though one laced with good ideas, drenched with the potential to hash them out more crisply through time. The band is quite vocal (and very proud) of the fact that this entire album was recorded in Jimmy Hoffa’s old house (as a matter of fact, that recording opportunity is legitimately the only reason Eyes That Hear and Ears That See exists). Not bad for a collection of songs based around a curious triviality, indeed. – Gary Blackwell