Style: hard rock, jam, alt rock
Label: Nuyawk Songs Inc.
Year: 2009
Home: New York City
Members: John "Sully" Sullivan ~ lead guitars/vocals
Craig Gottlieb ~ bass
Marcello Pantano ~ drums
It's easy to search the world for a great band...almost too easy these days...but in doing so we forget to turn to our own backyard, which for me is Brooklyn since I live in Manhattan. I look at the schedule for Madison Square Garden for a famous band on tour, but ignore the local bands roughing in local grimy clubs...even though as a rock bassist I've played in some of these local clubs, even including some this particular band has played in & know the future Madison Square headliners are in these clubs. Often the best response to a gig has been a compliment from a a stranger in the crowd. Friends always tell you good things. Strangers are actually paying attention. I regularly tell myself I really should get to more local clubs & be one of those strangers in the crowd. Hearing a band like EOTD I'm reminded of this unfulfilled New Year's resolution. Every band has both strong & weak points. Even Led Zeppelin or the Beatles. But, I'll confess to having a bias to a band with good lyrics & give them a few bonus points. Anyone can learn to play guitar, but you can't learn how to write great lyrics, no matter how many books from Barnes & Nobles you buy that'll tell you differently for $19.95. Lyrics are also often what differentiates one band from sounding like another & good lyrics can do wonders for an okay band of okay musicians with okay arrangements. If you have a band struggling for good lyrics...your search is over - hire the songwriter behind this band. Fun lines like "I'm your vampire baby/ You only see me in the dark/I'm your vampire baby/Come drive a spike through my heart" from "Vampire" or "until the walls come down/we're going underground" from "Underground" immediately hit your ear with their creativity. The lyrics are topically creative, let alone visually interesting in a way I haven't heard since I last listened to Morrissey. Let alone that the lyrics are sung between two different singers - two singers are always good in a band - laid against a bed of shifting rhythms & melodies that constantly bring musical surprises. & the songs are full of breathing room that not just highlights the lyrics but also the different instruments. Breathing in music is often the first thing forgotten in an arrangement & the first to be missed. Just the other night I was thinking I needed to listen to some music that was not all fierce walls of sound. I needed something with more emotion & more influences in it's musical range than just metal. Eye Of The Dawn is a good solution to my audio numbness. Creativity at it's best.
