Laughing City
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grain thrower
Vintage Newbie


Whoa so much discussion - which is good! - but now my eyes hurt. Wink Got it on iTunes last night and listened twice and here's my impressions of DEEP SPACE.

I think it was Sherri who threw out the word 'experimental' and as far as I'm concerned, that's a perfectly accurate description. 'Experimental' to me means trying things you don't usuaully do. For example other bands regularly use shifting time signatures within a song. Eisley doesn't, so that makes it experimental for them.

'Lights Out' sounds a lot better here than the YouTube clip I saw, more power and majesty. Chauntelle really shines with about 3 different guitar tone layers, and I always love when Sherri & Stacy trade vocal lines like they do here during the chorus. Great great song.

'Laugh It Off' is the first underwhelming Stacy song I've heard. It's very pretty - check out those falsettos - but kinda formless. And at 4:40, that's about a minute longer than an average Eisley song which is novel. I may appreciate it more the more I hear it.

'Deep Space' is so cool. Love the shifts in dynamics, starting off kinda melancholy and slow, and then suddenly bursting through the atmosphere. More delectable S&S tradeoffs and harmonies. iTunes didn't have a digital booklet so I don't know who wrote what but I'd guess this one was co-written. Another highlight.

'192 Days' with its refinements makes the demo on 'Fire Kite' rather obsolete. So glad she kept in the 'baba da ba's. Love

'One Last Song' is a familiar Sherri song from the mold of 'Combinations' and 'If You're Wondering.' I'm a rock guy - pick any album in my collection, and 9/10 times I'm gonna prefer the rocking stuff to the pure ballads, and with Eisley it's no different. Sherri writes the band's best straight-ahead propulsive rock songs - Invasion, Many Funerals, Sad, Smarter. In fact she writes their ONLY propulsive rock songs, so I feel a twinge of regret whenever she includes a softie in one of her precious song slots. But she likes writing them and that's not going to change, so I hope for a 'Lost At Sea' whenever she does.

In summary, 'Lights Out' and 'Deep Space' are both awesome songs. I should mention Weston somewhere in here - his wicked drumming has some of his biggest influence on these songs. I don't really understand the comparison to the 'Laughing City' EP other than the lyrical imagery - maybe that's all you/they are referring to? Because musically they are apples & oranges. Very happy with this EP, certainly something different from anything else they've done. Right now I would give it 3.5 stars out of 5.

Can't wait for LP 4. Very Happy

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The_Paronomasial_Mattoid
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@Mystic210 Christie sang the harmonies on Laugh It Off.

@Wil Oli asked who wrote what, I was saying that Stacy wrote Kind, not all of it, of course, considering that Jeremy started working on the strings without the band even knowing it. Stacy still wrote it, when it comes down to it. She wrote the basic structure and lyrics. That's what constitutes writing a song, in my book.

Yes, other band members may have helped but it was still her vision for the song and brought it to the table. I still think of Kind as, first and foremost, an Eisley song.

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grain thrower
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grain thrower wrote:
Sherri writes the band's best straight-ahead propulsive rock songs - Invasion, Many Funerals, Sad, Smarter. In fact she writes their ONLY propulsive rock songs,

Before I get skewered - yah, I just remembered ICBTFY. Embarassed

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wilsmith
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The_Paronomasial_Mattoid wrote:
@Mystic210 Christie sang the harmonies on Laugh It Off.

@Wil Oli asked who wrote what, I was saying that Stacy wrote Kind, not all of it, of course, considering that Jeremy started working on the strings without the band even knowing it. Stacy still wrote it, when it comes down to it. She wrote the basic structure and lyrics. That's what constitutes writing a song, in my book.

Yes, other band members may have helped but it was still her vision for the song and brought it to the table. I still think of Kind as, first and foremost, an Eisley song.


I went back and checked what I wrote, cause I was wondering why you were pointing out that Stacy wrote Be Kind when I said she did already, and that's when I saw it... I most have stopped paying attention and put Sherri again instead of Stacy writing it, which I obviously knew cause I mentioned it later re: the discussion of the guitar part in the song.

So yeah, misunderstanding based on MAJOR typo brainfart. Also, it makes my point about contributions to songs seem like it was a retort, when I was just trying to make a point as to how any song they write gets contributions from the other members, and in some cases it's impossible to know how much so because they don't get very specific with who does what given a few members can do multiple things, and do live, but don't have credit in the albums. That's all.

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bigideas
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Someone on a 'puter go to AltPress and link the article where Sherri and Stacy give background on the songs.
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Christian
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Quote:
"Lights Out"
Sherri DuPree-Bemis: With the way the economy is these days, my parents were some of those people that were looking at possibly, quite seriously losing their house. This song is just about dealing with that as a family. It's the house that we moved into when I was 15 so that was 13 years of memories at that point, and it's a really special place for all of us. It was just an emotional ordeal we all went through together. Even though we're all married and moved out, watching them deal with the pain of possibly losing something that special to all of us was really hard. But it also got me thinking about how, bottom line is, yes, it's a huge thing to lose, but at least it's just that, a "thing," not a person and it really doesn't matter where you physically live, as long as you have your friends and family around you all of the time…and it turns out they got to keep the house so it had a happy ending.

"Laugh It Off"
Stacy DuPree: I suppose the sentiment behind this song is deeply relational and most likely inspired by my marriage, but overall, it's a song about the power of hope and how critical it can be in a relationship when things get tough or life just looks really bad, and how beautiful it is when one person helps to pull the other along. The feel of it is dancey and I like that because it mimics the fact that life is just that! A very delicate, sometimes scary but mostly fun dance. Our younger sister Christie sings backup vocals on this one and I was so delighted. She poured her heart out as if it were her own song and it made it that much sweeter and meaningful.

"Deep Space"
Sherri: If you ever had required reading in high school, you probably have read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. He is one of my favorite writers of all time and consistently inspires me. His collection of short stories The Illustrated Man holds a story called The Rocket Man about an astronaut, and it's really moving. Outer space has always fascinated me and I wrote this about a couple leaving Earth to live life in space, knowing they may never see Earth again. I wanted it to build musically so that you're very focused on the story and by the time it gets to the bridge, it literally feels like you're right there with them, feeling that mixture of excitement and sadness as you soar out of the atmosphere.

"192 Days"
Sherri: I was raised on (and absolutely love) old films and music, so I wanted this song to sound like it could be taken out of a 1930s Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie (think Swing Time). Those are some of the best romantic comedies ever made! It's funny that this song pays tribute to vintage film and music, when I met my husband through the internet…technically through emails, (he is in a band, Say Anything, and had asked me to sing on a project he was working on with Chris Conley from Saves the Day called Two Tongues). Even though it was literally a "love at first email" kind of thing (I know…that sounds so silly, but it's the truth), we sort of "email-courted" for about five months before we finally decided to meet in person since we had both recently come out of rough relationships, but this is a song I wrote, literally, 192 days into our courtship….yes, I counted.

"One Last Song"
Sherri: I was thinking one day about songwriting and how a song is something you leave behind forever, like a story in a book, hopefully for generations if you're lucky. And I was mulling over, if I were only able to write one more song in my life, what would I want it to be about? Since I'm hopelessly romantic, I realized quickly that it would have to be for the person I care about most on Earth and that is my husband…so this is a love song. We had never recorded or written a song that had a blatant tempo change in it and I had one in mind for the end of this song, so it was really fun tackling that in the studio and making it work.

http://www.altpress.com/features/entry/track_by_track_eisley_deep_spac e_ep
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wilsmith
Vintage Newbie


^thanks for copying that! good refresher.

Men are from: "What chord is that right there, How long you been playing?"

Women are from: "This song tells the story of... and means... to me."

jk.

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grain thrower
Vintage Newbie


bigideas wrote:
Finally someone recorded Sherri's vocals right - they actually sound like Sherri and not like something is on them and they sound great.

I think so too - she sounds so good on this. More natural somehow.

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Catey
Lost at Forum


I think a good few pages back I said I was underhwlemed by the EP.

Taking that back right now. I found my way to the EP *ahem* and I love it. After a couple of plays, I really do like it. I wasn't like WOAH insane for 192 Days at first but when you put all the songs together, its kinda fab. I think Lights Out and One Last Song are my favourites - and this is coming from a Stacy-stan. I don't know - its a step out and rawer than the usual Eisley we heard with WB, a lot less cleaner and polished sounding. But its working for my ears.
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inorbit
Laughing Citizen


Given it a few listens on the Paste stream at this point-
Impressed- there's some nice stuff on there.

The standout track for me by a wide margin, I think is Laugh it off. It's great. I think it was maybe Grainthrower who said it was a bit formless, and that was my impression on first listen, but after a couple of hearings it gelled nicely- its just subtle enough.

Liking Deep Space too- fun and a little kitschy, but nicely done- very catchy. Kiss from Mars comes to mind, obviously...

192 days didn't bother me nearly as much as it did on the last release of it for some reason- pure self-aware kitsch- def not a single, but kind of fun. don't know how well it would hold up to repeated listens though.

Also, I think Lights out must be the first time I've ever liked a recorded Eisley song better than the live version- the sparser arrangement works better for it, I think. Still not my favorite track on the ep, but listenable.

The production on the EP is gorgeous; somebody put some serious love into that recording- the attention to detail is evident. As much as the production on the Warner releases detracted, the production on this one adds.

I'm not getting the sense of incongruity as much as some of you between writing styles. To me it sounds more coherent than combinations by

Anyway, nice job to them... Whatever they did on the production side for this one they should do more of.



Oh and also, glad to see them booked back at the Granada- and if you are in Dallas I wouldn't wait to get tickets- they were down to about 200 already, and the balcony and seating areas on the sides of the floor are all sold out already (the venue is about 1100 capacity, I think).
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wilsmith
Vintage Newbie


Totally agree with everything, cept Light's Out, cause I'm Always A Sucker for A Good Waltz.

This EP is, how do I put this...

If Eisley had an older cousin who was a bartender, smoked, and lived in a loft, they might make music like this. Laughing

I guess I'm saying this is the most indie rock they've sounded since they were indie rock.

Andy Freeman and Eisley did a bang up job production wise. Vibe for days.

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marshkingsdaughter
Golly, Poster


I'm not getting into the Stacy/Sherri conversation, but I wanted to pop in and say that after a lot more listening, "Laugh It Off" has grown on me like a huge wart. Like a freaking plantars wart. Like I can't get it out of my foot. I mean head.

I also want to say to the 192 Days nay-sayers that, though it's rarely if ever a song I'll jump to, I don't skip it when I'm listening to the EP. It fits dude.

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uncreative
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Just jumping in to give my thoughts.

I love the EP overall. Very happy to have new Eisley. Deep Space is by far my favorite song. Soooooooo good. Love the crunchy guitars. Laugh It Off is beautiful; Stacy is frickin' rad. I enjoy Lights Out a lot, too. The bridge is soooooo cool. One Last Song is a good outro to the EP, and I enjoy it enough to keep listening to it. But man, I really don't like 192 Days Confused Oh well, it's probably the only Eisley song I can say that for. Not a big deal.

Thank you for this effort, Eisley. Keep rockin'.
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tahruh
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inorbit wrote:
I'm not getting the sense of incongruity as much as some of you between writing styles.

inorbit wrote:

The standout track for me by a wide margin, I think is Laugh it off.

---

inorbit wrote:
To me it sounds more coherent than combinations by


I’m not sure what you were going to finish that thought with, but I imagine I’d have a hard time agreeing with it either way. Then again, I haven’t listened to Combinations in a very, very long time. I just know that’s around the time when Stacy took a left and Sherri, a right. I say instead of having to meet somewhere in the middle all of the time, they just keep going in their own directions!

BTW, I tried responding to you last night, Mystic, but my computer died before I could post it, and I had some reading I needed to finish anyway. I kind of forget what I said, but I remember ending it with, “have you ever seen Stacy so free (in reference to Sucre’s music video)?” Again, as a stan, and a selfish person, I just want to see Sucre get all of her attention. Like, what if Bjork never left The Sugarcubes? And Wil probably shouldn’t have reminded me of Stacy wishing she had Beyonce’s confidence...

Re: 192 days -- it reminds me of one of these songs mixed with...I can’t really put my finger on it, but there are a few bands who’ve tried their hands at the ‘30s/ ‘40s thing over the last couple of years. Girl bands. Didn't like that either, so it's not personal. I also know of Paul Reeves, but Paul sounds pretty legit (truer to the era) to me; Sherri just sounds too cheesy (“kitschy”) for my tastes, especially with those lyrics.

It’s really not as bad as the GB demo, though.

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Mystic210
Laughing Citizen


tahruh wrote:


BTW, I tried responding to you last night, Mystic, but my computer died before I could post it, and I had some reading I needed to finish anyway. I kind of forget what I said, but I remember ending it with, “have you ever seen Stacy so free (in reference to Sucre’s music video)?” Again, as a stan, and a selfish person, I just want to see Sucre get all of her attention. Like, what if Bjork never left The Sugarcubes? And Wil probably shouldn’t have reminded me of Stacy wishing she had Beyonce’s confidence...



Well, thanks for the attempt! I will agree, I'm excited for Sucre to see a different creative output musically. From those early leaked (baby) songs to beyond, she always seemed to have an "experimental" (yeah, I know, what does that mean?) pop leaning which was cool. So far most of Sucre's songs I heard seem awesome, and the ones I am iffy about I'm sure the recorded version will make up for them.

Random question to anyone with better speakers/earphones about Deep Space - Anyone else hear some effect-tinkered talking in "Deep Space," right before the guitar break? I almost hear some words like "space" then "Here we go!" I could be totally off about what was said. However, while simple, I like those little touches. I guess just making sure I'm not hearing things. Laughing
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