sore eyes

July 15, 2009, 1:03PM

Sore Eyes is performing at HogsPalace.When it comes to music, Tennessee is generally known for country and blues, but lately such Volunteer State bands as Shinedown, Saliva, Framing Hanley and Egypt Central have all had success on the mainstream rock charts.
The latter three all have performed in the Jackson area, thanks to Kings of Rock Entertainment, a Jackson-based booking agency. A recent addition to the company's roster is Memphis band Sore Eyes, which is playing Thursday at HogsPalace in Leoni Township.

If you go
• What: Royal Bliss, Ashes of Soma, Sore Eyes and more

• When: 7 p.m. Thursday

• Where: HogsPalace, 101 N. Falahee Road, Leoni Township

• Cost: $8 in advance, $10 at the door

• Details: 764-2820 or www.hogspalace.com.

The essentials

• Who: Sore Eyes

• Members: Shi Eubank, vocals; Landon

Fox, bass; Jeremiah Lipscomb, guitar; Chris Whitham, drums

• Founded: 2006 in Memphis, Tenn.

• Style: Alternative rock, punk-pop

• Influences: The Used, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Incubus, Hopes Fall, Paramore

• Recordings: A self-titled, four-track EP (2009)

• Online: www.myspace.com/
listentosoreeyes


Shinedown guitarist Zach Myers is Sore Eyes' manager, a connection that has opened all kinds of doors for the up-and-coming band, from a gig at MTV's Spring Break headquarters in Panama City, Fla., to a sponsorship deal with Dr Pepper.

"He's been working wonders," singer Shi Eubank said.

Eubank said Myers arranged for Sore Eyes to play two dates opening for Shinedown at The Machine Shop in Flint as a sort of tryout. Those shows were the band's first time playing in Michigan, "and we've been dying to come back ever since," Eubank said.

The band has recorded a four-track EP and is preparing to record a second disc of radio-friendly rock. Eubank said the group strives to be both accessible and sincere.

"If you're writing to appeal to someone, you're overthinking it," he said. "If you're writing because that's how you feel, that's when it comes out right."

Likewise, the band avoids being overly serious on stage.

"We definitely keep it lighthearted," he said.

Bassist Landon Fox, the most recent addition to the band, has helped in that regard.

Eubank called him the band's "comic relief," citing Fox's strange obsession with the famous monster truck Grave Digger.

"It is hilarious," Eubank said. "In radio interviews he's always talking about it."

— Read Bill Chapin's blog at blog.mlive.com/citpat-pluggedin.
- Jon E. Carlisle

The Leaf Chronicle - Clarksville, Tenn.
Author: STACY LEISER
Date: May 22, 2009


Sore Eyes, Memphis-based rock band, is hoping to follow the rose-petal-lined path of pals Framing Hanley. Once possessed of a darker sound, Sore Eyes is now producing rounder sounds with broader appeal.

"It's grown a lot" since the beginning, says vocalist Shi Eubank. "We started off a lot heavier. Growing and maturing we started writing a little more poppy and a little more poppy. Our fan base started to go crazy."

If Sore Eyes lands a mammoth hit like Framing Hanley's "Lollipop," crazy will be redefined. Eubank, drummer Chris Whitham, 19, bassist Landon Fox, 20, and guitarist Jeremiah Lipscomb, 23, are working with Brett Hestla, the former Creed bassist who lifted Framing Hanley into the light.

"He was able to hone where we were as a band, take our finer points and capitalize on them," Eubank says of Hestla.

Sore Eyes intends to win people over one by one at tonight's show at The Warehouse, which sandwiches them between Beautifully Crude, Flight Case for Sushi and headliner Framing Hanley.

"We definitely like to engage our crowd," Eubank says. "We really make sure they have a good time instead of just going up there, playing your songs and walking off."

Eubank says he has been into music since the pots and pans of toddlerhood, but it was a brain thing that made it stick.

"I have a thing with poor memory," he says. "When you hear a song it jogs your memory, takes you back to a time and place. I wanted to give that back to somebody."

Copies of the band's self-titled debut CD, for sale online as well as in Hot Topic stores, also will be available tonight at The Warehouse. If you're coming out to see Framing Hanley, Eubank understands the attraction.

"They're so much fun to play with, it's ridiculous," Eubank says of the headliner.

But he also urges you to come early, get every cent of your $15 worth, and watch the whole night unfold, band after band.

- The Leaf Chronicle