A touch of Reverend Horton Heat? Reminiscent of Reverend Glasseye. Jerry Jerry and the Sons of Rhythm Orchestra also came to mind. I have no idea what in the heck is going on. A band that toes the line between genius and insane, matching the frantic antics of Thee Oh Sees with off-kilter eccentricities of Black Lips and Fat White Family. Titillating in every sense of the word, the new full-length is a freight train of explosive riffs and unbridled synergy. Just for fun, let’s throw in Manraygun with their smooth guitar work.
1https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG8p7_2kMGA
Thirsty Eyes present a collection of songs, A Certain Regard, written by Samuel Ebner and produced by fellow band member Philipp Moosbrugger. The band enjoyed independence while they craft-brewed their debut record. Each track sits comfortably within its niche and encompasses a wide array of musical influences along the way, with Chickenbeat, a reference to garage rock vets, The Monks. Pop Sent was initially composed for a 17-piece jazz orchestra. The spine-tinglingly ominous focus track Alaska is a tribute to jazz gods Stan Getz and Benny Golson.
Amidst the rich and wily capital of swaggering riffs, steel guitars and low-strung vocals, Thirsty Eyes‘ debut is inoculated with hard-hitting themes such as homelessness (Honolulu Homicide), chauvinistic fathers (In Viagra), questioning your childhood values (838) and loving someone with Asperger’s (Sweet Marian). Despite these small keyhole insights of the thoughtful lyricism of Thirsty Eyes, they want the album to be as much the audiences as their own:
“We see this title as a sort of canvas, it speaks for itself, and the viewer is invited to use his/her own imagination. We do not wish to interfere with this process by stressing it with further explanations.”
Deliberately aberrant, rough, and unpolished, Thirsty Eyes are recognized as one of the significant pillars in the falling masonry of Vienna‘s modern raunch, damning contemporary prepossessions for the self-important, humourless, and dull. After five years of fine-tuning, the Austrian rawk-n-rollers bestow their debut album A Certain Regard.
The Thirsty Eyes message addresses the growing materialistic culture of modern society, where people are increasingly driven by the external, the flashy and the superficial. With a particular focus on the indoctrinating power of social media, the group coined their name from the act of staring longingly at other people’s lifestyles and belongings or being thirsty-eyed.
This motif of questioning the world is carried into the debut album, characterizing “Storm and stress, decency and humility.” With its title derived from the Cannes Film Festival category Un Certain Regard. A prize given to filmmakers whose work is unusual and not easily categorized, Thirsty Eyes set the tone of their debut album in three simple words, A Certain Regard.
I love this album from start to finish, and the lyrical content is an array of themes from the mundane to the tragic. Play A Certain Regard, and play it often. A Certain Regard will quench the thirst for music. Thirsty Eyes for thirsty ears. Bartender set up another round.
I love the vocals on Pop Sent; it sends shivers up and down my spine.
Pop Sent drops on 4th March 2022, and following is A Certain Regard on 25th March 2022, both released on Haldern Pop Recordings.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG8p7_2kMGA
Weathered Music 