An Old Burner for Your Grainy* Friday Afternoon: Black Eyes' Self-Titled 2003 Dischord Debut

The Internet does not want you to know about amazing old Dischord band Black Eyes. It wants you to know about the Black Eyed Peas. You search for Black Eyes, and the Internet is all, "BOOM BOOM POW, HERE ARE THE HUMPS YOU WERE LOOKING FOR." Thanks for nothing, Ask Jeeves! But I want you to know about Black Eyes! (Largely because I just listened to their self-titled 2003 Dischord debut all the way through again for the first time in years, and I'm all fired up by how amazing it still sounds today.)

Black Eyes flashed up in the early '00s and, along with contemporaries Q and Not U, injected some much needed post-punk craziness and kineticism to the DC label's line-up. They were a five piece band with dual vocalists (one screechier than the other, who has since gone on to form the band Mi Ami) and more basses and drums than you'd expect, and they made a totally unhinged dance punk racket. "House of Jealous Lovers" set on fire, with rats in the walls, knocked down by wrecking balls. Their lyrics were erudite, poetic and political (and touching on issues of gender and identity without being anything like didactic), and they were also screamed and spoken and cackled. The above song is a good one, but all of Black Eyes and follow-up Cough AND ESPECIALLY the 7" single "Some Boys" are essential as well. I would kill for Seattle to have just one band like this right now.

*That's gray + rainy.