Douglas Martin derives most of his sonic inspiration from The Bicuspids.
In the Internet era, where everything you ever needed to know about a band is a few clicks away, it’s almost refreshing that there’s very little information available on The Eeries. Here’s what we know: They’re a trio, they’re from Philadelphia, and they list The Beatles, Cult Ritual, and The Teeth as influences. It’s not that they’re trying to cultivate an air of mystique; their music carries the same jangle and shuffle as a band like Dr. Dog and is just as amiable. If anything, it seems as though the trio is too busy making music to promote it.
These days, lo-fi music is primarily an aesthetic choice, a defiant rejection of the easy accessibility of computer programs such as Pro Tools and Abelton which are made to help your records sound like you spent a million dollars to record it. For The Eeries, however, it seems more of a means to an end. Songs like “Johnny No” and “Ain’t it a Shame” are laconic garage-pop tunes with slurry vocals and tape hiss high in the mix, much like Brooklyn band The Beets, there’s an effortless pop sensibility and pitch-perfect harmonies that seems anachronistic. “Mavis” sounds like The Zombies on a 48-hour absinthe binge. When they speed up the tempo and up the jangle-factor on “Whoa”, they lock in on a groove that perfectly encapsulates the beachiness that most of the new bands in current indie rock fall short of.
In a landscape where droves of 60s-inspired bands are trying to prove they’re worth their weight in girl-group 45s, The Eeries flourish simply by playing it straight.
Download The Eeries’ demos, courtesy of their blog.
