eternal me
When The Eternals’ Heavy International first showed up on the site I was suspicious. The genres were listed as “Indie Rock, Roots Reggae, Punk, Alternative.” It seemed at first like an error — were there any bands left that were still so omnivorous?
A few days later, I interviewed James Spooner, the director of the documentary Afro-Punk, for an eMusic Dozen, and The Eternals were at the top of his list. Now doubly intrigued by both his rave as well as the information that “the bass player devised his own tuning,” I decided to check out the band’s New York show this past weekend.
I was not let down; opening with the eerie, ominous “Astra 3B,” the band were a jittery, over-caffeinated thrill, held together by the charisma of frontman Damon Locks (ex of undersung Chicago band Trenchmouth, which also featured Fred Armisen). The patchwork nature of their songs is perfectly suited to the live setting, weird and riveting all at once.
What say you about that first track? It seems to be…a …self-reflexive meditation on the utter ‘whoooa’ of the studio mixing process done in a frenetic fusion-y style? My gut response was - total cheese! I used to spin the Eternals all the time at my little avant/classical/freejazz/postpunk DJ shindig. I was bummed.