Band Puts on Wild Release Show for ‘Pools’
By DONNA BALANCIA
Prettiest Eyes isn’t the prettiest-looking band around, but it doesn’t matter. The music is out of this world and the trio is an influential and important group in the So Cal punk scene.
The guys have a new album out, called Pools, and they celebrated with a record release party at The Echo, along with bands Hoover iii and Sister Mantos. Hoover iii brought a great rock and roll set and Sister Mantos revved the room with Brazil 66-style Latin jazz-rock sounds.
The songs on Prettiest Eyes’ new album, Pools, are crazy and the players are equally wild. There’s the cowboy-hat and bolo tie-garbed bass player Marcos, whose hips clearly don’t lie, Patchy, with unorthodox drum style and dapper beaded shirts, and good-natured Paco Casanova, flipping his hair at the keyboards.
‘Pools’ is Prettiest Eyes New Album
Prettiest Eyes played a lot of the songs off the great new Pools release, an electro pop-punk album. The guys opened with “Don’t Call,” and ripped through many of the others on the album. The tunes sound just as good live, which is no small feat. We caught Prettiest Eyes at Desert Daze where they blew the crowd away and got everyone amped up.
Unique Approach to Punk
It was not different at the Echo, where Pachy crowd surfed, Marcos jumped into the audience and moshed around with the audience and Paco kept the band on point not leaving the small stage.
PRETTIEST EYES PLAYED DESERT DAZE – CHECK OUT OUR COVERAGE
As the place was darkly lit, the sparce strips of flourescent color by Snake Chime Zen gave eerie vibes across the faces of the band members. It was fitting and reflected the atmosphere as the Prettiest Eyes music is original and unique in its approach to punk.
This is a new favorite band as The Echo squeezed in a ton of fans who knew the words and sang along with much of the setlist.
After the opener, the guys moved on to “Mira Nena,” the second cut on the album, which kept things moving along. “Robotico,” “No Hands,” “Dandy,” “Untitled,” “Churro” and “Prance” were all the fare for the night.
The Hips Don’t Lie
Marcos the bass player with the cowboy hat captivates the audience, doing totally weird things including eating a plastic dinosaur that maybe he found somewhere, rolling around on the stage, and alternately staring off into space. He does all this while rapid firing on the bass and grinding his lower body around. Marcos seems conflicted: He’s a musical Harrison Ford stuck in a Tom Jones body.
Pachy is a showman also with his staccatto, new wave style voice and drumming, and he drives the beat with unorthodox style. He even stands and walks around to the front of the drum kit, once in a while hitting when the mood strikes him. It seems Paco is the voice of reason with this over-the-top band and thank goodness for that, because any more insanity in the room and people would die from laughing.
Whatever they’re doing, Prettiest Eyes need to keep doing it. They’ve got a devoted fan base and their new album sounds pretty damn good.
Hoover iii Plays Great Rock and Roll
Hoover iii was impressive with its back to basics approach to rock music. There are melodies, verses and choruses to their tunes and while they would likely attract a different audience at a festival, the crowd was impressed.
Bert Hoover and his band Hoover iii are pretty great with some retro rock and roll that sounds like what you would get if you took the country twang out of Marshall Tucker. The world could do with some melodic rock and Hoover iii may be just the answer.
Sister Mantos with its 8-piece ensemble filled the entire stage and kept the audience hopping with its Latin jazz sound. The band is reminicent of Brazil 66 or Herb Alpbert and the Tijuana brass in the smooth approach to the music.