The Flying Eyes

"...A rotating rainbow of magnified droplets illuminates the background and on stage below, The Flying Eyes tear into an ear-splitting set. As if channeling Jefferson Airplane, this band has captured a 1960’s psychedelic sound with uncanny ease..."


- Stephanie Shapiro

"[The Flying Eyes] opened with three rootsy acoustic numbers before plugging in and playing some heavy psychedelia, complete with a fresh-faced singer/guitarist who opened his mouth and let out a surprisingly deep bellow...The band has upcoming shows booked at hipper spots, such as the Talking Head and Load of Fun, and it'd be interesting to see if those crowds embrace the band as much as the 8X10's audience...They definitely earned the biggest cut of the night..."

- Al Shipley

So there’s this little band out of good ol’ Baltimore that headlined at the Recher in Towson this past Friday, January 9. You may recall them as Terrapin Sound’s numero uno local band of 2008. While the shows they played in College Park consist of mostly radio station and bar shows, the Recher presents a different arena as solely a concert venue. Such a venue gives them the chance to perform in a purely musical setting with an opportunity to show off their true form, and boy did they deliver.
Before we get to the meat of the show, I must say I noticed a few upgrades in their instrumental arsenal. Most notably the little effect boxes that threw sound around the room at their command. Their dazzling new sonic setup is great for fans of their more psychedelic material.

Now onto the show. It’s hard to really say what makes a Flying Eyes show so great. Is it their deep blues base mixed with a more modern drunk grunge? Is it the second-coming of Jim Morrison you hear in Will Kelly’s voice? I wrestled around with it, and came upon the true reason that any Baltimore Ravens fan can talk about for hours. It is called organized chaos. What has always amazed me about this band is their chemistry. No band I have ever seen, which includes Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, and Black Keys among others, has such a chemistry. Their timing and cohesion amidst their own confusion of sounds remains remarkable. Always.

Unlike these elements possessed by many pop-punk live acts, so that they have any claim to a good live show, these guys also add what is most important to the best live shows. What sets them apart is their virtuosity, psychedelic adventures, and most importantly freedom. Jumping around, falling down, borderline chaos, and downright fun they naturally possess in every show, and once agin they don’t disappoint. As a point of reference, their closer this fine night was “Yer Blues” by the Beatles, bringing in guest singer Xavier of former Nautilus fame. It sounded more like they were playing for a house party, but with the ability of more seasoned vets. Honestly, if you can’t catch these guys once in your time spent at College Park you truly are missing out.

The Flying Eyes are currently on a VA/NC tour the rest of winter break, but you can catch them at the Velvet Lounge in DC February 2, the Talking Head in Baltimore February 7, or WMUC Radio Station Feb 20.

Posted by Ben
- Terrapin Sound

“These four guys from Baltimore were the surprise of the evening.
Influenced by late 60s album rock gods like the Doors and Pink Floyd, these very young but very talented kids are still looking for their sound, but they’re quickly finding it. If you get a chance to catch these guys live, go for it.”
- Suicide Right On The Stage (music blog)

What would happen if you got Danzig (Danzig from the classic era of the Misfits that is) to front a Tee Pee Records based psych-rock band? The unusual answer to that query is Baltimore, Maryland’s The Flying Eyes and their debut, S/T recording. They’re an organ drenched, blues riffed rock n’ roll outfit with wayfaring, adventurous songwriting that mines a territory somewhere between current Tee Pee astronauts Weird Owl, the Dead Meadow catalog up to and including Shivering King and Others, Hawkwind, Blue Cheer and the golden material of the vintage Misfits stuff due to the gutsy, high flying bravado of vocalist/guitarist Will Kelly’s singing pipes.

Probably the most offbeat combination of sounds I’ve heard in quite sometime, but one that’s enchanting and enrapturing from start to finish! In fact the pleasant, psychedelic sounds of this record are so in line with what Tee Pee is putting out in droves these days I can’t imagine how the label missed the opportunity to sign these guys. Oddly enough, Trip in Time is a German based label and going through a distribution middle-man in order to send this record far and wide. Don’t get me wrong; as long as a great album is getting a chance to spread its wings and really get out there, I’m not going to spend time complaining about it! I’m just amazed at the ways of the world and felt like running my ever flapping gums about it.

Wasting no time in letting the listener know that they are in for a different trip, the old school, bluesy bass groove and country fried guitar twang of “Lay With Me”, sets us off on our journey right proper. Right off the bat, it’s evident that this isn’t a traditional band. Beginning first with the down home, country/blues shuffle bolstered by the roaring, Danzigisms of the vocals, the band shift gears in mood and volume during the middle with a hammering, blues rooted stoner riff supported brilliantly by the thick low-end groove of Mac Hewitt and busy, arm work of drummer Elias Schutzman. Hallucinatory injections of LSD drenched guitar ambience played with mesmerizing determination by Kelly and second guitarist Adam Bufano, wander in shortly after the whiteout riff magic with delicately picked chords, moody utilization of violin and cello and eerie washes of keyboard and organic instrumentation alike. A boisterous crescendo enables the band to walk a fine picket line, amongst a number of genres, while effortlessly nailing them all in the corner pocket.

Entering with the regal bang of a gong and lonely, melodic guitar lines “Better Things” proves to be a different animal than its predecessor. Milking both the psychedelic and riff rock fronts, the band are able to come up with a Jekyll and Hyde mixture that shows tons of lingering, spacious restraint in the verses, but gets loud and drunk for the chorus. Great, up-tempo guitar licks keep an emphasis on booty bending blues, and drags the tune to its abrupt finish, ending on a high note with an interstellar, 70s lead that jukes n’ jives with the mightiest of Iommian aplomb, rocketing into the girth-y riffs and center of the maelstrom vocals of “Bad Blood”. When Will belts out, “Suck my blood,” I can’t help but think of any number of Misfits, Samhain or Danzig tunes…once you hear this shit, you’ll know what I mean. The resemblance is frightening and adds some full blooded power to the act, since many psych rock bands choose to place the vocals far in the back. The Flying Eyes buck this trend, by choosing to showcase Will’s powerful pipes way up in the mix, chalking up another ace in the hole for this stellar act. “Bad Blood” runs full ahead for the majority of its nearly 4 minute run, wrapping its way around classic blues riffs and heroic grooves with admirable dedication, dipping briefly into psychedelic ink before a finish of acidic, noise guitar and one last big blues lick open up the psilocybin skies one last time.

Organ is a larger attraction in this track, and additionally in its successor “Don’t Point your God at Me”; another spectacle of throaty singing and huge blues riffs colliding with a tapestry of intricate guitar work, tabla drumming, Hammond destruction and an all around catchy, calculated flair. Shining all throughout this track is the rhythm section; sporting a slinky bass groove while drummer Schutzman peppers the mix with flashy fills and beats, in addition to his tabla work all throughout. Backing vocal shouts, coupled with the lead vocals make this track the most representative of the Misfits’ influence yet, and the way the myriad of sounds clash one moment and combine in perfect harmony the next, is a true sight to take an ear at. Probably, the best work on the disc, rounded out to perfection by squealing guitar leads that hammer home the message of taking mushrooms on a space shuttle!

Sanding down the rougher edges of their attack, “She Comes to Me” toys with the notion of a country band covering Hawkwind and Dead Meadow tunes. Twang-y arrangements are smooth as silk, building up a repetitive groove that possesses nary a hint of attack element, instead opting to let breathy bass lines flow in calm waves across a sea of transient organ, violin, soothing percussion and subtle guitar melodies. Everything about this tune is a slice of irresistible, constantly moving forward audio that doesn’t let the fact that there are no explosive riffs present undermine its quality. The only instance of considerable volume in the song comes right before the droning endnote, where again Schutzman shows his love for creating his own crescendos by bashing out a steady, relentless roll on his kit giving an extra dose of muscle to the track’s closing.

“She Comes to Me” wraps up what is dubbed as Part A: Bad Blood” on the record, which will move us into the second half titled, “Part B: Winter”. “We are not alive” continues to rip out the blues riffage and beatnik, 70s guitar leads with motivated rhythms and oodles of background noise fleshing out the mix. There’s some wildly eerie organ and guitar breaks in this one, especially the total, psychedelic mindfuck that comprises the track’s last ¼, but everything else is a slab of high caliber, well chiseled riff n’ roll. Changing up the method again, the band melds sneaky, almost funk driven verses with huge walls of riffage in the back alley lurker that is “Red Sheets”. The bass tone in this one is in the red, and filled with threatening fuzz, while the whole affair reeks with the groovy tenacity of Blue Cheer’s best work. This is a song meant for prowling the streets at night, picking up hookers and drinking beers in strange bars. While I don’t indulge in one of the certain three activities in question, for those who enjoy all three, put this on and then let me know how it fares in elevating the experience. The triad of “Around the Bend”, “Winter” and “King of Nowhere” close out the album; with the outer bracket coloring in a hazy nebula of sparse instrumentation and blissful calm, while the middle child pounds away with the brooding, belligerent riffs and momentary psychedelic excursions that the band’s louder numbers so diligently embrace and carry out.

The Flying Eyes turned out to be a great surprise. Upon opening the package and taking a gander at the tripped out artwork, I had an inkling that this was going to be something good, but it actually turned out to be something great. Anyone who digs the 70s psych rock movement will find something to like on this record, and the warm, natural tone of the instruments is befitting of the era of yore, making sure that even the recording quality lives up to the era’s lofty standards. While Danzig-esque vocals are pretty much untested in the annals of psych rock to my knowledge, they proved to be the secret weapon in scoring the knockout for The Flying Eyes. No complaints here, only praise; if you like where Tee Pee Records has been heading in recent years, you’re going to shit a brick over this one. Recommended? Damn straight!
- Hellride Music

Before I took the (literally) three seconds to fact-find on the situation with Baltimore psych-blues rockers The Flying Eyes’ self-titled Trip in Time debut, the fact that the album was split into two parts had me searching for some conceptual or sonic split between them, mining the tracklist for clues and trying to understand what it was about the first five tracks the band would want to call Bad Blood and what about the back half that would lead the four-piece to dub it Winter. It was an exhaustive search. The significance of three out of the five Bad Blood tracks end with the word “Me” in the title grew with each listen. I thought for sure “Red Sheets” (track seven of the total 10) held a clue beneath its retro fuzz riffing. Certainly the peacocks in Kiryk Drewinski’s album art mean something.

But yeah, it’s a compilation of two EPs, one named Bad Blood and one named Winter. Less thrilling than an underlying spiritual union of metaphysical sonics, perhaps, but at least it’s a fucking answer.

Two immediate thoughts when listening to The Flying Eyes opener “Lay with Me,” in order: (1.) alright, that acoustic guitar is pretty cool, and (2.) wow, this guy sounds like Jim Morrison. The “this guy” in question is guitarist/vocalist Will Kelly, whose powerful vocals not only are reminiscent of the spindly “poet” whose work still mesmerizes would-be deep 13 year olds the world over, but also are a good portion of the reason The Flying Eyes pull off their sound. The brazenness of his approach, backed by bassist/vocalist Mac Hewitt on the more compact, atmospheric “Better Things,” is a means of putting the listener precisely where the band wants and a constant that provides a connection between the sundry musical shifts beneath. Almost wistful notes on “Better Things” give way to organ and riff dance hall stomp on the first EP’s title cut — both of which can be attributed to guitarist/organist Adam Bufano — but Kelly’s voice links the two tracks with each other and with the rest of Bad Blood and Winter.

Likewise, the adaptability of percussionist Elias Schutzman, who takes the rhythmic foreground on “Don’t Point Your God at Me,” is an essential component to making the stylistic shifts work. He rocks a straightforward beat where he needs to and adds flourishes and fills with a loose sensibility that adds to the early psychedelic feel of the band. Even on the subtle, more melodic EP closers “She Comes to Me” and “King of Nowhere” from Winter, Schutzman knows where to position himself to enhance the mood just so. As Bad Blood shifts into Winter with the more guitar-led “We are Not Alive,” his free arms give a seamless feeling to the change. So much so that it might lead one to wonder — if one didn’t know about the whole two-EPs thing — why the hell The Flying Eyes had divided up the record in the first place.

If there is a difference to be found between the two complementing parts of The Flying Eyes’ The Flying Eyes, it’s that on Winter, the band seems less apprehensive to embrace their heavier side. Both “We are Not Alive” and “Red Sheets” seem well armed to take on stoner rock convention while not forsaking the added quirks and intricacies that made the Bad Blood stand out. If anything, the blues of “Better Things” and “Bad Blood” is only enhanced on “Red Sheets,” and when “Around the Bend” steps back from the livelier feel for a moment of ‘60s western transfixion, the changes that came before and Kelly’s vocals make it just another turn The Flying Eyes are taking. One of many.

Winter’s title track is a bass heavy freakout, rich in its tones and meandering without getting lost as so much of this record expertly does, and the mellow send-off “King of Nowhere” provides one last chance to get lost in The Flying Eyes’ expansive feel, (presumably) Hewitt taking the lead vocally and adding a late-‘80s alternative vibe to the gentle organ melody. The Flying Eyes eases itself closed and although maybe you don’t realize it the first couple times through, what gradually dawns on you through repeat listens is the full span of the journey on which you’ve just been taken. Most bands start in reality and go from there; The Flying Eyes kick off in an alternate dimension. Everything is fluid, everything is radiating. I don’t know what to say other than “highly recommended.” - The Obelisk

Young Baltimore rockers The Flying Eyes offer bag-packed voyage-ready psychedelia amid one of the world’s most potent and vibrant doom scenes. If this makes them stand out, they hardly seem concerned. Their recent collection of two EPs, released as a self-titled full-length through Trip in Time, shows heavy blues American melancholy mixed with smart and urgent rock. They groove well beyond their years.

The story (as seen after the jump) goes that drummer Elias Schutzman, guitarist Adam Bufano and bassist/vocalist Mac Hewitt still considered themselves incomplete until vocalist/guitarist Will Kelly came along. Perhaps it’s that unwillingness to be — like so many others — a trio without a frontman that sets The Flying Eyes apart from their rocking peers. Whatever it is, the energy and vibrancy of their music stands testament to the success of the “getting together” process. When it’s the right people, it just sounds better.

Schutzman took time out recently for a Q&A exchange that’s available for checking out immediately after the jump. Hope you dig and thanks for reading.

Give me the back-story of the band. How did you all get together, when did everything start to take shape, etc. If you were superheroes, this would be the “secret origins” question.

Well, first you should know that me, Mac and Adam have been friends since we were using coloring books. We all went to the same school, the Waldorf School of Baltimore (kind of an alternative place with rainbow walls), from kindergarten to eighth grade and have stayed great friends since then. In the summer before my junior year of high school, my hands felt a calling to play drums and Adam had already picked up the guitar so we began to jam a couple times a month. At some point Mac picked up the bass and a week later he was in the band, so we were basically all learning our instruments while we wrote our first primitive songs. After about three years of playing with a slew of other wonderful musicians and friends we sort of came to a crossroads where everything fell apart and the band would either end or rise from the ashes as a new beast. In short we needed a new singer to carry us. By some stroke of fate this wide-eyed highschooler (who looked like he walked out of the Dazed and Confused movie) stumbled into an “audition practice” and when we started jamming it just clicked. It was eerie really, like a spirit incantation revealing the future. We also made him sing (although he didn’t really want to) and it turns out this kid has the voice of a 40 year old delta blues singer from a lost southern town. Will Kelly has been our singer our singer and guitarist from that point on and it was then we started taking the band seriously. Our sound had already started to evolve from loose hippy rock and with his arrival we plowed ahead into the moody, acid tinged, heavy blues that we play today.

How did reissuing the two EPs come about through Trip in Time? Had you released them before on your own?

Both of these EPs had been self produced and independently released over the last two years. For Bad Blood we did a run of about 450 CDs (which are all gone) and for Winter we printed 1,000 CDs, which we released at our festival last summer. We first got connected with Trip in Time when they asked us to release “Lay With Me” on their Psychedelic Adventures on Planet Earth Vol. 3 compilation. From the very first moment they contacted us I could tell these guys had the best intentions. So last summer I sent them the tracks on our newest EP and they wrote back saying they’d like to do a full-length release for us compiling both of our EPs. Naturally, we had no complaints with that.

The Flying Eyes feel like an anomaly in the Baltimore scene, which seems (at least to an outsider) geared more toward the heavier end of psychedelia and doom. Do you ever find you have trouble fitting in, or does the fact that you’re not so explicitly “metal” allow you a wider breadth of bands to play with?

Well, we consider ourselves a very heavy band. I don’t think it comes across on the album as much, but live we are known to send some people running for the exit. However our heaviness isn’t metal, but rather a warm kind of explosion that’s not only loud but also transient. We don’t play with many metal bands ever but our friends Vincent Black Shadow, who we play with a lot for example, are one of the heaviest bands I know. Sometimes it’s hard for us to fit in because we are too “rock n’ roll” for the hipsters and to “weird” for people who like mainstream rock. We definitely appeal to psychedelic music heads as well as those who love the essence of classic rock or blues and are willing to follow us on a darker, stranger kind of trip.

What are the differences for you guys from Bad Blood to Winter? Were there any changes in the creative process or how the songs came together? Anything you wanted to do differently from one to the other?

Both EPs were created at almost extreme opposites. Bad Blood started before Will was even in the band so a lot of the vocal lines were shaped as he recorded them. Even the songs themselves evolved in the studio because we were almost a new band again. We tracked all the instruments separately and then built up the track piece by piece. In a way it was almost like painting, a shade of organ here, a stroked of backwards guitar there until we could feel the song was finished. For Winter we took a completely different approach. Now that had been playing live for a while and had done our first tour, we were confident in these songs and knew going in what we wanted to do. That didn’t stop us from experimenting of course, but before we laid down a single track the songs were already finished products in our minds. We also really wanted a much more “live” feel that Bad Blood really lacked, so we recorded the drums, bass and Will’s rhythm guitar all at the same time in isolated rooms. Then with a solid rhythm track, we overdubbed all the vocals, Adam’s guitar solos and all the other psychedelic wizardry.

In terms of the writing, with an expansive but straightforward sound, how do elements get added to the mix? Have you ever found yourselves thinking a part or a song simply has too much going on? How much of these songs comes from straight jamming in a rehearsal room?

Our songwriting process is nothing but collaborative. Very rarely does someone bring in a finished song and then teach it to the rest. It usually begins with some interesting riff or chord progression that we jam with for a while and slowly start to expand upon. The sonic quality of the instruments is also very important to us; we spend a lot time defining the guitar effects to produce the right mood and energy. We really are perfectionists when it comes to writing. Sometimes we will spend a whole four hour practice just finishing one song, and later we change it again of course. We never play a song live unless we think it is ready. And yes we are always looking to simplify our music and make sure things aren’t getting cluttered. Our music isn’t at all about complex guitars or insanely tight bass and drum parts. It’s about the audience experience it as an overwhelming whole so they don’t even think about what they individuals are playing.

Will there be a future full-length, and if so, will that be through Trip in Time or someone else? Is there anything you’d want to change about the sound from these two EPs going forward or a particular progression you’d like to see happen in the band?

Every time we release a recording we look back and say, “We could have done that so much better!” but that’s because we’ve heard these tracks a million times and (to our advantage I think) we are extremely self-critical. Also by the time we finished and released both EPs, half the songs were outdated to us because we’ve written new and better ones. We already have enough material for a full-length album so we are waiting for the right time to make it happen. We are actually kind of fed up with producing our own recordings, so we are hoping for our “first real” full-length we’ll have someone on the other side of the glass. We love the Trip in Time label and we are definitely going to work with them in the future but there has been no talk yet about releasing our next record. Right now we really need to find a good US label as well to help us advance our careers because from the business side of things, it’s incredibly hard to do it your self.

How important is it to the band that each song has some unique element to it? The songs on these two EPs, each one has something about it that separates it from the rest. How much of that is on purpose, or is it something you guys don’t really think about?

This is something we struggle with all the time. We want every song to be unique in and of it self but we also have a unified sound to our music that we have to maintain. Sometimes we right a song that is just too much of an oddity for our sound and we throw it out. Sometimes we right a song that just sounds to similar to something we’ve done before and we throw it out. It’s a fine line to tread. This might be why we right songs pretty slowly, but I’m proud of that because we haven’t written a filler song yet. I’d rather put out one album every three years that is amazing, than churn out a record every year that isn’t the best it could be.

How do you relate live performances to the recordings of this material? How different is what happens at a show from what is heard on disc?

Extremely different; our live performance rocks a lot more. I like our recordings so far but we haven’t figure out yet how to make them “rock” the way they do live. Live there’s even more fuzz and much more energy. We also become pretty possessed on stage; we don’t just stand around but we release our bodies to the will of the music. We also try to have our performances be a fluid experience, songs flowing in and out of each other like a continual trance. Talking on stage isn’t our forte.

Is there any touring in the works? You have a couple shows scheduled in the Baltimore area, but are there plans for any weekends out or that kind of thing?

No confirmed plans as of now. There are different places we like to play who are good to us like Richmond, VA (we are playing there on January 14th), Charlotte, NC, Cleveland, OH and sometimes New York. We also love Austin, Texas and have always gotten great audience responses there but that’s a far haul. We’d love to go back there for SXSW to play some parties like we did last year but that tour is very uncertain.

Any other plans or closing words you want to mention?

We do have a 7” single in the works that I hope will be released on Trip in Time but it has to be finished at first. We are really hoping to go overseas to tour in Germany and around Europe to further promote the record. If we do that tour I can die happy… - The Obelisk

Shortly before the end of 2009, I got this brilliant album from the guys at Trip In Time Records. Well, actually, this album is a compilation consisting of their two EP's 'Bad Blood' and 'Winter', but I can well imagine that most of the Cosmic Lava readers as well as for myself, haven't heard one of this releases before. Therefore, it has been an excellent idea from Trip In Time/World In Sound to make them accessible to the general public. Hailing from Baltimore, Maryland, THE FLYING EYES' heavy psychedelic rock is deeply ingrained in the late 1960's. Of course, one is immediately reminded of The Doors, Damnation of Adam Blessing, Steppenwolf or The 13th Floor Elevators, but nevertheless THE FLYING EYES have managed to keep their own identity. One of the reasons for this is the band's striking talent to write exciting and profound songs. An added strength is the dark and vigorous voice of Will Kelly. His timbre is comparable to Jim Morrison during the 'Morrison Hotel'/'L.A. Woman' period, but he doesn't sound like any rip off. Will Kelly's voice is significantly more complex, which leads to the fact that he isn't always close to Morrison's style. Furthermore, it should not go unnoticed that the remaining three guys are doing a flawless job, too.

The album's opener 'Lay With Me' proves impressively that THE FLYING EYES are able to captivate the listener. They create an atmospheric, melancholic ambience that slowly creeps under your skin. The good old blues is always present, but the band is open minded for further influences. 'Bad Blood' starts with a funky guitar riff before it turns into a heavy psychedelic monster, while 'Don't Point Your God At Me' is a good combination of hardrock, blues and acid rock. Once again, Will Kelly shows that he's a gifted singer. Damn, I love his voice. 'She Comes To Me' is much quieter and surprises with an additional organ and cello. Another great song is 'Red Sheets' with some killer guitar playing by Adam Bufano. It's way cool including some powerful hooks. Finally, I would like to say a few words about 'Around The Bend', which for me is one of the most intense songs on this album. It's saturated with deep emotions and perfectly embodies the mood of a lonely winter evening. All in all, this is a round, often melancholically swinging album with compositions made up of artistic beauty. A must-buy for fans of heavy, acid-tinged blues rock cooked with melodic, psychedelic pop. - Cosmic Lava

Wow… this is a damn cool band from Baltimore, MD. This CD features the bands two previously released EPs; "Bad Blood" and "Winter". The band plays psychedelic blues and has a very cool singer who reminds me of a mix between Jim Morrison, Glenn Danzig and Elvis. The bio describes the band as heavy psych but that is not at all what this CD is about, perhaps that is a new direction that band is going for. There is nothing very heavy on this EP but a dark trip to the blueside of your mind, back when the bands used to drink too much, take too many drugs and play the blues! Great songs.

http://www.worldinsoound.de http://www.myspace.com/theflyingeyes
If you dig: The Doors, Danzig, Tom Waits
4 Stars - Lowcut