Human Eye - They Came From the Sky Review

As the tracklisting suggests, a number of the songs on They Came From the Sky address concerns near and dear to the hearts of "Coast to Coast AM" listeners: flying saucers, alien queens, "peopleoids," etc. Whether Human Eye frontman Timmy Vulgar's a self-aware skeptic when it comes to unidentified flying objects or a Fox Mulder acolyte looking to find a few potential converts is up for debate. What's important is that he's able to bridge that gap when addressing his congregation. As far as modern-day garage rock acts go, Human Eye used to be one that had trouble standing out. They could work up a nice head of steam when they wanted, and their fondness for the stuff of Ed Wood features and other B-movie fare was always charming, but their previous two albums were inconsistent slogs through various levels of fidelity and songcraft. On They Came From the Sky, the band's focus on extraterrestrials has been matched by an equally exacting focus on their music.

Granted, the "alien" thing happening on this album is nothing new for Vulgar. This sort of sci-fi schlock has been a trademark throughout most of his recorded work. In fact, one Sky track, "Impregnate the Martian Queen, Pt. 2", is a sequel/rewrite of a track from Vulgar's last album as Timmy's Organism, Rise of the Green Gorilla. Also, a few tracks deal with topics that are slightly more grounded, like the self-explanatory "Brain Zip (Kickin' Back in the Electric Chair)". What makes Sky stand out in Vulgar's discography is the melding of these semi-nostalgic concerns with a sound that hearkens back to those good old days in a refreshing manner. If the intent with Sky was to create an album that could be the sort of Nuggets-worthy vinyl treasure one would find at a garage sale behind a bunch of dog-eared copies of Famous Monsters of Filmland and a Space Ghost tin lunchbox, mission accomplished....full text Every so often, some brave or foolish or utterly unhinged band comes along and tries to reinvent punk rock, making the attempt to push the genre in new directions while trying to get the old beast snarling again. While most bands are content to call it a day after roughing things up a little, it’s clear that for Detroit’s Human Eye, that’s simply not enough. On their third album, They Came from the Sky, the band doesn’t just get in there and slap punk around a little, but rather they feed it LSD and wail on it with whatever happens to be lying around while shouting that the sky is falling, running the whole thing through some kind of ad hoc MK-ULTRA experiment designed to test the genre’s limits. This psychedelic approach pays off for them as they run the raw power of punk through a garage-psych kaleidoscope, with driving jams like “Alien Freaks” alternating between pedal-to-the-metal intensity and Zappa-esque space rock freak-outs. What’s really surprising about this stylistic collision is how effortless the whole thing appears to be. Human Eye isn’t showing off, they’re just letting their freak flag fly and going where the winds take it, as if they’re on a mission to change punk, but they’re not really aware that they’ve been given the job, giving They Came from the Sky a nonchalant weirdness that’s hard to match....full text Detroit’s Human Eye is a futuristic sound world with rock’n’roll roots that aims to assault all the senses. Fronted by Timmy Vulgar (formerly of the Clone Defects), who also released a solo record this past fall on Sacred Bones under the name Timmy Organism, the band’s sonic palate ranges from heavy psychidelia to proto-punk and beyond. Their live shows are primal, chaotic and unpredictable, utilizing home-made props and masks or whatever your local dollar store has to offer. Human Eye’s debut album was released on In the Red records, and the follow-up LP, Fragments of the Universe Nurse is available via Hook Or Crook records.

On this, their 3rd full-length as Human Eye, Timmy is joined by his mainstays Johnny Lzr on keys, Hurricane William on sax and percussion, and Brad Hales on bass. On It Came From the Sky, the band continue to explore the themes of inter-planetary life and travel, aliens/human relationships and horror films, all filtered through an unhinged psychedelic punk juggernaut....full text