Chair of Smith music department, professor of music and of American studies and lead guitarist of a band that has been playing shows around the Valley for over two years, Steve Waksman is extremely humble — and for those unfamiliar with either department — a hidden gem. Under the moniker “The Dr. of Rock” he has, for “going on ten years” been filling historical spots on local radio station The River.
Overall a rock band, The Electric Eyes is influenced by indie rock of the ’80s and ’90s and psychedelic rock of the ’60s and ’70s, laced in places with punk and metal — and all blended into one smooth onward-rolling sensation. The variation is apparent and enjoyable.
The Electric Eyes had a very enthusiastic release party for their first album, When Will This Be Yours, at The Parlour Room in Northampton on Wednesday, April 3. Regional rock trio Walking Ghosts opened the show, with much cheering, to a full house. Performing at The Parlour Room, which is tied to esteemed record label Signature Sounds (a feature of Northampton since 1995) is itself noteworthy.
The Florence Pie Bar was present backstage to service head-banging and knee-jigging induced hunger pangs, and as The Parlour Room is bring-your-own-bottle, State Street Liquor Store — a car park away, diagonally — takes precedence for thirst. To a newcomer, this venue is an exciting blend of the mysterious world of record label, and the intimate feeling of house-gig.
Between songs, The Electric Eyes graciously lead rigorous rounds of applause for all who had supported them and their album. The music was satisfyingly frame permeating and seemed to come from the floor, walls, and ceiling at once, far louder than the bands (more indie rock and folk rock, and less straightforward rock) that usually play there. Their songs were a mix of clear strength layered over by increasing build-ups of intricate tangles, which Waksman and his guitar were responsible for. Songwriter and vocalist Matt Medeiros was effectively distant, neither invasive nor indistinct, his voice another instrument present alternately at the front or the back of the music. Understanding only certain soaring and repeated lines and losing track of other lyrics behind the noise of guitars and drum was not frustrating, but pleasantly dreamlike.
Professor Waksman explained that Medeiros’ style of songwriting is “suggestive, subtle, and subdued,” well-suited to the band’s purpose of having a familiar “concept or scenario” to build sounds around, whereafter each musician is able to design his own part. Distinct lyrical messages not sought after, The Electric Eyes can present more of a undivided body of sound. “Return” was written by Medeiros after he had been watching AMC’s The Walking Dead — and it is about a person wondering about dying and becoming a zombie, and in that sense returning to life. The song “Marelago” references a reoccuring drop in the ocean of national and international media — Donald Trump’s golf club, resort, or “winter” White House. Their lyrics tend to look at “existential questions” and Mar-a-Lago straying back and forth across American periphery certainly stands for more than can be logically articulated.
Rather than being friends beforehand, the band members amalgamated over time and local music events. Joe Pater, professor and chair of Linguistics at Umass and Waksman were playing together first. After a few months they unexpectedly booked a show as a Bowie cover band, on a tribute night for the deceased singer, and it was here they ran into Matt Medeiros. And then, in April 2016, during the Easthampton Book Fest, there was a panel on the musician Iggy Pop where Waksman spoke. Afterwards there was to be live music from Iggy Pop’s band, The Stooges, and — joined this time by Medeiros — they, again unexpectedly, performed the covers themselves. Adam Douthwright, who plays the bass for The Electric Eyes, and Frederico Fernandes, the drummer, had been friends since high school. They also joined the band circumstantially, one after the other, through Fernandes renting a space out to the others to play in. Joe Pater moved on to play in his own band, Les Dérailleurs. All of the circumstantial members of The Electric Eyes “have day jobs and are tolerant of schedules” —“don’t rehearse every week” and have “fluidity and flexibility” of not being bandmates first and foremost. Previously Waksman had been in a cover band (no longer in existence) called The Distractions, made up of other time-pressed Smith academics — professors Alexandra Keller, Kevin Rozario, Michael Thurston, and Floyd Cheung.
Professor Waksman can play around a stunning 2,500 songs and taught himself by ear, playing along to records — always having the “facsimile” of a band around him, and as a result never struggled in finding or keeping rhythm when playing with other musicians. He developed his own improvisation over the records’ guitar solos. This improvisation is certainly a second nature to him, and was a remarkable thing to see in evidence, blurred hands speeding around and then slowing down all in moments a hair’s-breadth apart. The Electric Eyes have given Professor Waksman (and his hair) space to show people mad guitar solos, which are some of the most exciting things to watch.
To an outside (and non-Electric) eye, it seems surprising that someone like Steve who has been playing guitar since he was nine, and has published extremely well received books and essays, is just now involved in releasing an album. A scholar, he is aware of the unspoken racial complexities of music in America, and of the locked-in image of the self destructive and egoistic a-thousand-women-to-one-man guitarist. Understanding these dark sides have naturally made him not want to accidentally embody them. Steve said that he was, for a long while, ambivalent about being a performer — not having time, having stage fright, and being very self-critical despite himself enjoying imperfect live guitarists. Teaching and public speaking have brought him all the time closer to it, and audiences in Massachusetts definitely will be very pleased about that when they see and hear The Electric Eyes.
Unfortunately, having live rock bands play here on Smith campus is not easy to accomplish, which is a shame, and enough to water down the “liberal” and the “arts” of any college. Administrative hoops abound, a place must be designated and a sponsorship and insurance (which requires money) are needed for the event to happen. It took a year to arrange a single show for the now considerably famous band of Smith alumnae, Potty Mouth, who have played across the US from SXSW in Texas, to the Sculpture Garden of MoMA in New York. However, President McCartney has shown much more interest than those before her in hopefully expediting the process.
For their part, The Electric Eyes are going to “keep on playing” “to promote their album” and to try and “make the CD available for purchase” online. When Will This Be Yours and older demos can be streamed or purchased as a digital album on the website Bandcamp, or from it’s app. When Will This Be Yours, recorded at Sonelab in Easthampton, was something of a happy accident, the musicians taking advantage of an opportunity to be recorded as they were playing. The Electric Eyes did not lay out each track specifically while recording — which, if they were to make another album, says Waksman, they might then do. In the meantime, anything of theirs . . . planned or unplanned, live or not, is definitely worth the listen.
