Second Annual Firebrand Recording Showcase, Nov. 13

Dear Friends,

In an effort to better serve you, we have compiled a list of important reasons for you, the music fan, to attend the second annual Firebrand Recording Showcase at Off Broadway on Saturday, November 13th.

1. We'll make you feel guilty if you don't come! Firebrand Recording has been an important part of the local music community, working on albums from local favorites including Strawfoot, Fattback, Sex Robots, Cross Examination, and Pat Sajak Assassins in addition to all of the bands on the bill on November 13. They always go above and beyond the call of duty, and this show is our [the bands] way of saying thanks for all the great work.

2. Sweet Merch Giveaways! The price of entry and your willingness to write your name on a scrap of paper gives you a chance to win a monster haul of goodies from from Firebrand Recording and the bands who have recorded there, and ONE LUCKY WINNER will walk out with a totally sweet FIREBRAND official electric guitar!

3. Award winners! Firebrand was named "Best Recording Studio" in 2010. Kentucky Knife Fight was the winner of the "Album of the Year" in the 2009 RFT Music Awards, and their latest album is a consistent best-seller on local music charts! The Humanoids are a consistent "Best Punk Band" winner (and all-around sexy dudes), and The Blind Eyes were named "Best Pop Band" in both the 2010 Riverfront Times Music Awards AND the "Best of St. Louis" awards! You won't find a more decorated bill all weekend.

4. We will be debuting a new song! You should come to this show so when said song reaches #1 on the charts, you can brag about how you were there the first time we ever played it.

5. We were going to make it 10, but we feel like we're losing your attention. Anyway, please come out if you can.

Sincerely,

the Blind Eyes

2010 FIREBRAND RECORDING SHOWCASE

The Blind Eyes

Kentucky Knife Fight

The Humanoids

@ Off Broadway

Saturday November 13

$10 cover

Blind Eyes At The Pageant, October 23rd

We're excited to be playing our first show ever at The Pageant! It's a FREE show, it's Saturday night, and most importantly, it's with 4 amazing local bands!

Airplanes: 8-8:40
Bruiser Queen: 9-9:40
Blind Eyes: 10-10:40
Tilts: 11-11:40

Doors are at 7pm, show 8pm. All Ages! Free w/voucher or ticket if 21+ ($5 cover if under 21).

Click here for a free voucher to get you in to the show, or email us at theblindeyes@gmail.com with your address and we will mail you as many tickets as you want! We'll also throw in some Blind Eyes stickers FREE with every ticket request!

"Lo-Fi Sessions" Reviews

Click to read some very cool reviews of our recent set on Lo-Fi St. Louis!

*St. Louis Post-Dispatch

*5-Score Pachyderm

Blind Eyes Voted "Best Pop Band" in 2010 "Best Of St. Louis" Awards

Wowzers. A massive thank you once again to the people of St. Louis and the good folks over at the Riverfront Times for voting us "Best of St. Louis" for the second year in a row. We are truly honored. Click the link or read below:

"Pop" is a meaningless descriptor these days. But in the case of the Blind Eyes' brand of rock & roll, the term is apt. The power trio has the knack for constructing tunes that don't overstay their welcome, thanks to airtight choruses, concise verses and measured bridges. Ted Leo's agit-punk, Elvis Costello's brusque pop and the Jam's mod Britpop are all touchstones, while the group's Fleetwood Mac covers set at this year's An Under Cover Weekend hinted at a not-so-concealed love of gooey AM Gold. Newer Blind Eyes songs are just as catchy as those on its 2009 album,Modernity — and beyond that, it's clear the band's becoming more comfortable in its own skin.

Lo-Fi Sessions Video Available Now

The acoustic session we shot inside the gutted remains of an airplane dangling 50 feet up in the air at the City Museum for Lo-Fi St. Louis is online now! Thanks to Bill Streeter for making it happen. It sounds better than it has any right to.

An Undercover Weekend- This Friday

The 2010 Undercover Weekend series starts tomorrow night at the Firebird! We're very excited to be involved once again this year. As you may have heard, we'll be taking on Fleetwood Mac, with the help of some special guests from around the local scene. We can't tell you what songs we're doing or who is going to be helping out, so make sure you check it out live!

For more info, check out this interview with Seth online at STLtoday, and the excellent show preview over at the Riverfront Times.

Also- it's not too late to win free tickets to the show!

Hope to see you all tomorrow.

An Undercover Weekend 2010

The Blind Eyes are excited to once again be playing An Undercover Weekend at the Firebird! What band will we we covering? We can't tell you. What we can tell you, however, is that all three nights will be nothing short of epic. We'll be playing the first night (September 10th). More info on who is playing here, plus an official AUCW website and Facebook page is coming soon. Stay tuned for details.

New "Modernity" Review Available Online

New review of "Modernity" (and a nice shout-out for Vintage Vinyl) posted on Whale in a Cubicle!

This Saturday- Pop Luck 2010

Don't forget- This Saturday (July 31st) is the first annual "pop luck" show at Off Broadway! Doors at noon, show at 1pm. $10 at the door gets you five great bands plus food from Black Bear Bakery AND a bbq and cheap drinks! There is no better way to spend a Saturday afternoon, period.

The lineup:

1PM- Beth Bombara & the Robotic Foundation

2PM- Foundry Field Recordings (Columbia, MO)

3PM- Sleepy Kitty

4PM- The Blind Eyes

5PM- Tight Pants Syndrome

7/26 UPDATE: New article on the Pop Luck at Metromix!

7/26 UPDATE #2: More coverage courtesy of Speakers In Code!

7/29 UPDATE: New article from the Riverfront Times!

7/29 UPDATE #2: Eleven Magazine weighs in!

See you there!

Indie Rock Ice Cream Social

Thanks to everyone who came out last weekend to make the 2010 Indie Rock Ice Cream Social a totally awesome dance party! Check out some great pictures from the event here and a nice writeup here.

And, of course, big thanks to the other bands (The Breaks, Wyoming Street, and Union Tree Review) and the Firebird for hosting.

New Show Review Online

Very cool article on the Riverfront Times Music Awards show at the Tap Room courtesy of examiner.com!

The highlight of the night was the winner of the Best Pop Band category. Calling the Blind Eyes ‘pop’ is a bit of a stretch as they do echo the pop artists of the 1960’s (one could easily get them mixed up with the Rolling Stones), but don’t quite fall into the pop genre that we have come to know today. Nonetheless their brand of indie music is upbeat and sweet sounding and is a highlight of the Saint Louis music scene.

Photos From 6/25 At Off Broadway

A huge thanks to everyone that came out to Off Broadway for an amazing show this past Saturday! You chose little ol' us (and, of course, the immensely awesome Sleepy Kitty and the LIVERS) over such luminaries as Tool, Bret Michaels, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and many more- and we appreciate it. Check out some great pics from the show here!

Blind Eyes Voted "Best Pop Band" In 2010 RFT Music Awards

Thank you, St. Louis, for voting The Blind Eyes "Best Pop Band" in the 2010 Riverfront Times Music awards! We really appreciate the support. Big thanks to all the people at the RFT for making this event happen, and major props to all the other bands that were nominated in our category. All are as deserving of this award as anyone. Cheers to all of you and see you next year!

Seth, Matt, & Kevin

New "Modernity" Review Available Online

Click here for a great new review of "Modernity" courtesy of Don't criticize the music on my iPod. It's MY iPod, or read below!

Shedding Some Light On The Blind Eyes

“We’re just a rock and roll band. We just want you to dance.”
- Matt Picker, drummer of The Blind Eyes

Like many of the other bands I’ve stumbled upon on MySpace…The Blind Eyes have a rather unique sound. I’ve heard one explanation of their sound that I totally agree with though: Frank Sinatra + The Jam = The Blind Eyes. For anyone who doesn’t know, The Jam were an English alternative punk rock group from the 70’s….you might know their song “That’s Entertainment”. Yes, they have an interesting sound, one that immediately convinced me that I should get my hands on their debut album Modernity.

The Blind Eyes are just a group of guys from St. Louis that love to play music. They told me that the band is really all about having a good time and everything else is just icing on the cake. The Blind Eyes used to all be in a different band together but that fizzled out and after a while the three of them got together and started writing the songs that would eventually become Modernity.

Modernity opens with the song that made me want to get this album, “January”. I remember listening to this track back in April, when spring was finally starting and that was a good thing because “January” is all about spring, surprisingly. Lead vocalist Seth Porter sings “The end of the world may be coming soon, but it’s hard to care on a sunny afternoon when you’ve got tailpipes spewin’, doom and gloomin’, you hear a rap-tap-tat-tat-a-tat on your door!” through the chorus. Their track “Forget About Everything” immediately reminds me of The Clash, with its quicker, more urgent and English punk-sounding chorus being shouted by bassist Kevin Schneider: “Forget about everything that you ever believed in!!!” The Clash similarities continue on their shuffling, rollicking song about life in the city, “The High Life”. The slow groove of “A New Original” is great change of pace as Porter sings about trying to write a song that would “stand the test of time.” One of my favorite songs on this album was undoubtedly the closer “Go Right Now”. I really can’t help but sing along with the chorus as Porter shouts that you should “crawl before you walk before run before you fly, wink before you think before you go before you try; times not up I’m starting to think that nothing’s gonna happen unless I go right now!”

To sum up The Blind Eyes for you: they’re a great power-pop band. They cite their major influences as being Elvis Costello, The Clash, The Jam and Thin Lizzy…a veritable Who’s Who of English power-pop and mod-punk. Their album Modernity is great to work out to or to listen to when the sun is finally starting to come out. I highly recommend you check out The Blind Eyes, you won’t be disappointed.

It's No "Windows Paint", But...

The Sleepy Kitty folks are hard at work on an amazing poster for the June 26th show at Off Broadway. Here's a sneak peek...

Live Footage From KDHX Online Now

Some footage of the Blind Eyes' live set on KDHX's "Space Parlour Live" series is now on Youtube. Go check it out!

Blind Eyes Nominated "Best Pop Band" 2010

The Blind Eyes have been nominated in the category of "Best Pop Band" in the 2010 Riverfront Times Music Awards!

The online ballot is up now, so go vote!

KDHX Live Set- Streaming Audio Available

Missed out on our recent live set on KDHX's Space Parlour Live series? Fret not, for it is available online- with a few bonus songs that didn't air! Go check it out! Video from the studio of a few songs will also be posted soon.

Jam Of The Day

The Blind Eyes' "January" has been designated today's "Jam of the Day" by the good people over at Speakers in Code! An MP3 is available along with a great review. Go give it a listen!

PlaybackSTL Show Review

A great review of Wednesday night's show at the Firebird is up now on PlaybackSTL!

The Blind Eyes took the stage first and got the already good-sized crowd more than fired up. This is one of the tightest local bands – guitarist/vocalist Seth Porter, bassist/vocalist Kevin Schneider and drummer Matt Picker work together like a well-oiled machine, ripping through catchy indie rock-power pop tunes like “January,” “Go Right Now,” and “The High Life” from their 2009 release Modernity and closing their set with a killer new tune called “Hold Down the Fort,” which Picker tells me will be released on their upcoming album, due in late summer.

Read the rest of it here!

Pics From The Firebird, 4/7

A few shots from last night's show at Firebird:

Tomorrow Night At The Firebird

Just a quick reminder- in case you didn't already know- that we are playing a show tomorrow night at the Firebird!

"But it's on a Wednesday!", you say. "We have to work the next morning!"

Well, so do we. But we can honestly say that THIS show is worth a little a.m. grogginess on Thursday. For never in history has there been a more awesome Wednesday night lineup: Atlanta's legendary BLACK LIPS, Omaha's BOX ELDERS, and St. Louis' BLIND EYES!

Whew. We almost had our socks rocked off by just proofreading that last paragraph! Luckily Kevin's socks are held firmly in place by a pair of his dad's old sock-suspenders, and Seth rarely wears socks (or underwear).

Details:
Wed 4/7
The Firebird
Doors: 8:30 pm / Show: 9:00 pm
18+ ($12.00 - $14.00)
Advance tickets available

Hope to see you there.
Love,
tBE

Just Announced: May 14th At The Wedge

Just announced: The Blind Eyes and the Hibernauts at The Wedge in South St. Louis on Friday, May 14th!

We highly recommend that, if you want to see the show, you get there early. The Wedge is small and will fill up very fast.

Friday, May 14th
The Wedge
442 Bates St.
$5/21+

Next Show: April 7 W/ Black Lips

Never in history has there been a more awesome lineup of three bands who's names all start with "B". Witness history on April 7th at the Firebird, when Atlanta's BLACK LIPS, Omaha's BOX ELDERS, and St. Louis' BLIND EYES rock together for the first and probably only time!

Wednesday April 7

The Firebird

Doors: 8:30 pm / Show: 9:00 pm

18+ ($12.00 - $14.00)

Advance tickets available here

Be sure to RSVP on our Facebook page!

Blind Eyes News, March 1st

Hey all,

Happy March! Happy almost-spring! Just a quick few notes to bring you up to speed on what is happening:

First off, thanks to everyone who came out to the Firebird this past Saturday for the Elsinore/We Landed On The Moon show! What a great time. Awesome bands and amazing crowd. It gets no better, and we appreciate it.

Secondly, the cat is officially out of the bag: The Blind Eyes will be playing alongside the one and only Black Lips and Box Elders on April 7th at the Firebird! This should be a totally insane show that you really should not miss.

In the meantime, we will be doing a live set and interview on KDHX for Space Parlour on March 11th. It should air around 9, so tune in! We'll be playing a few songs from our upcoming album as well as some old favorites.

More shows, album news, and lots more coming soon!

Saturday Night At The Firebird

Just a quick note to remind you that we will be playing tomorrow night at the Firebird with our pals Elsinore and We Landed On The Moon! It'll be an amazing show that you should not miss. Plus, the price of admission gets you a totally FREE digital download of Elsinore's "Chemicals" EP!

This is our first time at the Firebird in a good long while, so it'd be great to see all your smiling faces.

Saturday, Feb 27

the Firebird- 2706 Olive St

Doors 8:30/Show 9

18+/ $8 at the door ($2 minor surcharge)

The Blind Eyes "In The Studio" RFT Feature

Inside scoop on the new album... The Blind Eyes "In the Studio" RFT story is up! Go check it out!

The First Hot Rock Show Of 2010

Thanks to everyone who came out and braved the slush to pack Off Broadway for our first show of 2010! It was a great show to start out what is going to be a big year for the band. Thanks also to the other bands, both of whom brought the thunder. It was non-stop fun. Hopefully no one got stranded outside. If you did, you should come see us on February 27th at the Firebird!

Check out more photos of the event here!

Recording

This is what happens at Firebrand Recording around 1 am after about 48 hours of working on a new album. More pics coming soon!

Recording Starts Tonight

We're starting work tonight on our sophomore album, and it will continue on through the whole of the weekend and likely into parts of February before it's all finished.

Tomorrow we really begin the arduous process of trying to record thirteen brand new songs in about two days. It should be fun. We'll be keeping you all up to date via our band Twitter and on here as well. If all goes according to plan, look for it to come out sometime this summer!

New Digs

The Blind Eyes HQ has moved! Yes; after many years, we have traded the cozy, cold, stone-walled confines of the rock dungeon for a new, admittedly less cold, less stone practice pad. Let's take a quick tour, shall we?


So here we have the old dungeon, pre-move. This room, in which we wrote 99% of our material to date, is about the size of a walk-in closet, and located under a front porch. On particularly cold days, you could see your breath as you played! Good times.


















Next, we see a nice, arty shot of one of our original song lists in the dumpster following a semi-thorough dungeon cleansing. "Never Gonna Do It Again"? What's that? Also, we fully expect some sort of award for this photo.


















Finally; we have a shot of our new, clean, warm practice pad! It has electrical outlets and everything. And check out Matt's sweet plywood Apollo drum kit! If you were at the first ever Blind Eyes show, you might have seen this set in action. Trivia fact: it was used to get that huge, awesome sound on "The High Life". Ever wonder how we can manage such an mind-blowing tone? That's the secret: plywood.

Video Action

The kids up in St. Louis who call themselves The Blind Eyes rock. Now, I won't go on and on pretending I know how to review music. All I know is they are good.

Just Announced- Feb 5th @ Off Broadway

The Blind Eyes will be kicking off the new year (albeit a couple of months late) in style with a FREE (yes- totally free) show at Off Broadway with Jon Hardy & the Public! Opening the show will be the inimitable Jon Bonham and Friends. I'm sorry to say that we have no one named Jon in our band, so the middle part of the show will be totally Jon-free. We will be the meat in what will undoubtedly be a delicious Jon sandwich. But enough of that. Be there!

Oh yeah, this show is also sponsored by PBR, so, you know, drink it when you get there.

Friday February 5
Door: 8:30pm Show:9pm
FREE SHOW!
21 & Over Only
Sponsored by Pabst Blue Ribbon

2010

Woo! It’s a new year. It's also very, very cold outside. Hope you all made it through safe and sound.

2010 is shaping up to be a big year for the Blind Eyes. We have lots of awesome stuff in store. First off, as you probably know (or maybe you don't) we’re going to be heading back in to the studio at the end of January to start recording our sophomore album. It’s shaping up to be amazing. We’ve spent the last month or so writing a few last minute add-on songs, putting on the finishing touches, and getting ready to record. If we can keep Seth from getting off on too many Randy Newman-related tangents, the recording should go off without a hitch. We’ll also be doing live updates from the studio here and on our Twitter page, so stay tuned for all that good stuff.

Speaking of albums, we want to say thanks for all the accolades our debut album, Modernity, received over the last month or so! Not only was it named one of the top 10 local albums of the year by the Riverfront Times, it also made the top ten lists for not one- not two- but three KDHX radio shows (Afternoon Delight, Uncontrollable Urge, and Pop! The Beat Bubble Burst, respectively), earning it a hallowed position of #5 in the Top Local Spins of 2009 and #35 in overall Top Spins of 2009- along with several other personal lists posted online. We really do appreciate it and hope you like the next one as much as you liked Modernity. And don’t forget, you can pick up your very own copy of the record online at iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby, and more (see sidebar). Or, buy it at your local record store- if you live in St. Louis, that is. And, you can always get it from us at shows, which of course is the method we all prefer.

While 2010 is still taking shape; we do have a couple of concrete things lined up. First off, we’ll be playing on Saturday, February 27th at the Firebird with our pals Elsinore. This is the release show for their “Chemicals” EP, so needless to say we’re super excited to be on the bill.

We will also be doing a live set and interview on KDHX on March 11th for the 2010 Space Parlour live series! Barring anything catastrophic happening, or just the off-chance that we might totally suck, one or two of the songs from this set will appear on the Space Parlour Live CD compilation that comes out every year. So, you should definitely tune in to that.

That’s it for now. Stay glued to this page and all those other outlets of Blind Eyes-related information for more as it happens!

Love ya
tBE