Wool Over Eyes
New York City, New York, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2011 | SELF
Music
Press
By James Burdick
“O divine poesy, goddess-daughter of Zeus, sustain for me the song of the various minded man…”
This passage from T.E. Lawrence’s translation of Homer’s “Odyssey” entitled “Invocation of the Muse” was the first thing the crowd heard at the Wool Over Eyes show. The Brooklyn-based rock band performed a dynamic and powerful set to a packed room last Saturday at 5th Estate Bar in Park Slope.
Playing a blend of technical grunge and heavy metal, Wool Over Eyes, features Bowen Salkin on guitar, Antonio Hernandez on drums, Max Devlin on bass, and Brooklyn College anthropology undergrad Jared Butler on vocals.
Butler is a recent addition to the band, replacing Bowen Salkin who formerly manned both vocals and guitar.
The band played the show in preparation for their new self-released EP, “Animus,” which will be their first recording with Jared as their frontman.
Because of their technical ability and the cerebral nature of their lyrics and melodies, many fans and critics have likened Wool Over Eyes’ style to iconic bands such as Tool, The Mars Volta, and King Crimson.
Wool Over Eyes’ concise and well-placed stops, epic melodies, and expert musicality from all members of the band make for a poetically charged performance.
Opening for Wool Over Eyes, were Autocatalytica, and Proxima Control. Both opening bands performed impressive and lively sets, but Wool Over Eyes energetically commanded a majority of the fans at the venue.
“They’re easy to get into,” said John Polimeni, guitarist of Proxima Control. “They’re a lot of fun with intuitive rhythms and progressive melodies.”
After Butler’s “Incantation of the Muse,” the band started out with one of their most popular songs, “Big Stick.”
Older versions of the song are available on Bandcamp and YouTube, and while the original is still a fantastic recording, the addition of Jared as the lead singer lends a lively and engaging aspect the song lacked before.
Afterward, the band followed up their classic song primarily with new tracks from their upcoming album. The new songs proved to be a technical step up from those on their 2011 release, “The Come Along EP,” but retained much of the same raw energy.
Most fans dislike when their favorite band plays new songs in lieu the familiar ones from their most cherished albums. The familiarity of a song is especially important for metal bands where the crowd is typically screaming lyrics back at the stage and moshing in time to guitar solos and breakdowns. However, this was not the case at Wool Over Eyes show. While many of the songs that they performed were from the new album, the crowd was still charged and passionate in response to every single song. Some fans even held a higher opinion for the band’s new body of work.
“They’ve definitely stepped up,” said Wool Over Eyes fan Gabe Ramirez. “If you like tight music you should check this band out, no one fucks up.”
After the show, Butler and his bandmates explained how they began to play music together, and a how their new EP came to fruition.
“Me and Max have been friends since fourth grade, and my old band Big Gunz played with Wool Over Eyes a lot, and to be honest, I always kind of wanted to play in Wool Over Eyes,” said Butler.
“Basically, what it boils down to is that we need to do what is in the best interest of the band, and Jared singing was in the best interest of the band, so we made it happen,” added Selkin.
As they were already familiar with Jared as a performer, the band felt it would be a huge help to instate a singer, allowing Selkin to focus on solely on his guitar.
“When Jared’s singing, it provides us the flexibility of either Jared and I co-writing melodies or me writing melodies separate for my guitar,” said Selkin. “It gives Jared the ability and the freedom to do as he pleases with the melody, while still providing that we work on the ‘front’ concept together and it is all gravy.”
“I would say it is heavier and more melodic,” said Hernandez. “Now that we added Jared, as far as the quality of our songs, we’re able to do a lot more technical stuff, and Jared is able to sing more technical melodies.”
Compared to the the band’s previous shows, Butler has brought a new liveliness, allowing the band to play even better than before.
“Animus” boasts exciting tracks for fans both old and new, including Butler’s first songwriting contribution to the band, “Gymnast,” which the band predicts will be the centerpiece of the album.
Set to release sometime this summer, “Animus” will be available for digital download online and for sale at the band’s future shows. For future show listings and more information, follow Wool Over Eyes on Facebook, Twitter and Bandcamp. - The Kingsman
By James Burdick
“O divine poesy, goddess-daughter of Zeus, sustain for me the song of the various minded man…”
This passage from T.E. Lawrence’s translation of Homer’s “Odyssey” entitled “Invocation of the Muse” was the first thing the crowd heard at the Wool Over Eyes show. The Brooklyn-based rock band performed a dynamic and powerful set to a packed room last Saturday at 5th Estate Bar in Park Slope.
Playing a blend of technical grunge and heavy metal, Wool Over Eyes, features Bowen Salkin on guitar, Antonio Hernandez on drums, Max Devlin on bass, and Brooklyn College anthropology undergrad Jared Butler on vocals.
Butler is a recent addition to the band, replacing Bowen Salkin who formerly manned both vocals and guitar.
The band played the show in preparation for their new self-released EP, “Animus,” which will be their first recording with Jared as their frontman.
Because of their technical ability and the cerebral nature of their lyrics and melodies, many fans and critics have likened Wool Over Eyes’ style to iconic bands such as Tool, The Mars Volta, and King Crimson.
Wool Over Eyes’ concise and well-placed stops, epic melodies, and expert musicality from all members of the band make for a poetically charged performance.
Opening for Wool Over Eyes, were Autocatalytica, and Proxima Control. Both opening bands performed impressive and lively sets, but Wool Over Eyes energetically commanded a majority of the fans at the venue.
“They’re easy to get into,” said John Polimeni, guitarist of Proxima Control. “They’re a lot of fun with intuitive rhythms and progressive melodies.”
After Butler’s “Incantation of the Muse,” the band started out with one of their most popular songs, “Big Stick.”
Older versions of the song are available on Bandcamp and YouTube, and while the original is still a fantastic recording, the addition of Jared as the lead singer lends a lively and engaging aspect the song lacked before.
Afterward, the band followed up their classic song primarily with new tracks from their upcoming album. The new songs proved to be a technical step up from those on their 2011 release, “The Come Along EP,” but retained much of the same raw energy.
Most fans dislike when their favorite band plays new songs in lieu the familiar ones from their most cherished albums. The familiarity of a song is especially important for metal bands where the crowd is typically screaming lyrics back at the stage and moshing in time to guitar solos and breakdowns. However, this was not the case at Wool Over Eyes show. While many of the songs that they performed were from the new album, the crowd was still charged and passionate in response to every single song. Some fans even held a higher opinion for the band’s new body of work.
“They’ve definitely stepped up,” said Wool Over Eyes fan Gabe Ramirez. “If you like tight music you should check this band out, no one fucks up.”
After the show, Butler and his bandmates explained how they began to play music together, and a how their new EP came to fruition.
“Me and Max have been friends since fourth grade, and my old band Big Gunz played with Wool Over Eyes a lot, and to be honest, I always kind of wanted to play in Wool Over Eyes,” said Butler.
“Basically, what it boils down to is that we need to do what is in the best interest of the band, and Jared singing was in the best interest of the band, so we made it happen,” added Selkin.
As they were already familiar with Jared as a performer, the band felt it would be a huge help to instate a singer, allowing Selkin to focus on solely on his guitar.
“When Jared’s singing, it provides us the flexibility of either Jared and I co-writing melodies or me writing melodies separate for my guitar,” said Selkin. “It gives Jared the ability and the freedom to do as he pleases with the melody, while still providing that we work on the ‘front’ concept together and it is all gravy.”
“I would say it is heavier and more melodic,” said Hernandez. “Now that we added Jared, as far as the quality of our songs, we’re able to do a lot more technical stuff, and Jared is able to sing more technical melodies.”
Compared to the the band’s previous shows, Butler has brought a new liveliness, allowing the band to play even better than before.
“Animus” boasts exciting tracks for fans both old and new, including Butler’s first songwriting contribution to the band, “Gymnast,” which the band predicts will be the centerpiece of the album.
Set to release sometime this summer, “Animus” will be available for digital download online and for sale at the band’s future shows. For future show listings and more information, follow Wool Over Eyes on Facebook, Twitter and Bandcamp. - The Kingsman
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
Photos
Bio
Though the earliest Wool Over Eyes songs had been in the works since 2005, the band took footing in 2009 when Bowen Salkin (Guitar, Upstate NY, 23) recruited Max Devlin (bass, Brooklyn, 23) and Antonio Hernadez (drums, Brooklyn, 20) to bring such long forming ideas into existence. They later joined forces with Max's childhood friend, Jared Butler (Vocals, Brooklyn, 22), to finalize the lineup. This move which brought WOE into its current form, unfettered the compromising limitations of having a guitarist sing, thus allowing the band to move forward with its fullest potential.
They have put out 2 EP's through their own label Wool Over Eyes Records, LLC. The latter of whichAnimus, August 2013being the first release album as a four-piece. As a Studio Composition graduate from SUNY Purchase, and a current student in NYUs school of Music Technology, Bowen produced, engineered, and mixed both releases himself, the first at his home, and the second at Dubway Studios, in Manhattan. Wool Over Eyes funnels an eclectic reservoir of influences into their definitively audible incarnation of raw emotion and discord. They consider themselves a Grunge-metal band, a group of perfectionists, and an uncompromising pack of no-bullshit expressionists.
They have nothing but the desire to share their music with the world, and have never been more motivated to make it a reality. The details are in the music.
Band Members
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