Human Eye | Cake Shop | NY, NY
In their classic mysterious/sly/screwy way, Detroit’s Human Eye snuck into Manhattan Sunday night, fairly unannounced to even the local noise punks that follow their every screech. Human Eye is about to do a few dates with Awesome Color, and this lil’ gig at Cake Shop was a warm-up. Actually, their set made most eardrums in attendance a notch or six above “warm,” as this usually loud venue was especially crackling. Which suits Human Eye’s searing, slashing space punk just fine. Singer Tim Vulgar started slow, trying to get someone to turn on a stage light while figuring out what patch chord goes where. It is Vulgar’s general distaste for the electronics he employs that make Human Eye (and his previous band, Clone Defects) so intruiging. If some guitar pedal doesn’t work, just crank up the amp; love a punk riff, then break it apart and wah-wah it into oblivion; suddenly trip upon a catchy chorus, then burp, scream, and put your vocals through some echo box and hope the audience can’t make out all the lyrics about being raped in space by a female robot. Or something.
Keeping the Eye bloodshot is their sickening drummer, whose left hand, stick held jazz-style, moves so fast it looks like it ain’t moving at all, while the rest of him flails like he’s the cornea of this Eye just sliced and fraying away. If his beats are the most consistent part of this band, they’re simultaneously the the most surreal—and that’s saying something. This time they didn’t even mic a vaccum cleaner or broken slide trombone into the mix.
If Wolf Eyes and the Liars are the grad students of modern art-punk, Human Eye are the community college drop-outs. Excellent!! >>>ERIC DAVIDSON
Photos: Dani Golomb
