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| press - Sunday, May 24, 2009PRESS
"Pop in Jack With One Eye's debut full-length The Bad Sleep Well, and you might forget that it comes from a Dallas band. In fact, the album sounds like it would be much more suited to sport the name 4AD down the spine—and I don't mean the current incarnation of 4AD; I mean that classic, fucking-loud-in-some-spots-melodically-hooky-in-others shoegaze that would have something by Vaughan Oliver or just an image of blood on the cover. That balance of half dirt-angry, half luxurious that 4AD and bands like Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine and Lush (on a good day) were known for, is where Jack With One Eye—Mila Hamilton, Ian Hamilton (Nervous Curtains) and Benjamin Burt—excels. But that nod to the past doesn't pigeonhole Jack as out-of-date. If anything, the band has paid homage and updated that tortured and often misused label of shoegaze to something less intentionally sentimental, less faux ethereal and more powerful. The Hamiltons' shared vocals are, at times, appropriately married ("The Vultures Are Circling") and, at others, perfectly absent for instrumental forays that mold a moody hybrid of organ jazz with drone ("Theme Pour L'Obscurite") while never becoming tiresome.You could call The Bad Sleep Well ambient, angry, romantic, urgent and noisy depending on the track. But you can't call it predictable."
-Merritt Martin
Dallas Observer
"Jack With One Eye- Quite possibly one of the best local groups that has released something this year. Their debut, The Bad Sleep Well, has, in my opinion, gone without any of the press coverage that it deserves. Their music is reminiscent of early 90s shoegaze groups like My Bloody Valentine, Lush, and Ride, which almost seems like a turn off these days considering every band and their dog is making music of that nature. Not that I'm jaded, its just most of the time these bands sound like crappy cover bands instead of a band with original material. But alas, Jack With One Eye is different. The three-piece creates much more than slow melodies drenched in reverb (much like their predecessors). Instead they make textured pop songs that reflect the 60s surf sound The Jesus and Mary Chain indulged in Psychocandy if JAMC had completely different effects pedals ("Sun In Glass") and good ol' guitar drone with southern organ undertones ("I Stole This Controll"). In fact, the band goes beyond the shoegaze roots with the punk influenced "Double R." And if that isn't enough for you, the album closes with an atmospheric 13 minute slowcore jam ("The Great Shanty Town Flood of 1914"). Hooray for good local bands!"
-Freak Flag Flies Again
"I hope Jack With One Eye continues to write more tracks like "Sun In Glass." The song is so upbeat in the midst of all of the distortion that it's almost perverse."
-We Shot JR
"If a band is going to reference Twin Peaks in its name, the music better be mind-blowing -- lest the players take the fate of Laura Palmer, washed up naked on the shore with the chill of brutal death upon them. We're not issuing any real threats to less-talented David Lynch fans. It's just that the twisted mill-town murder mystery soap opera was so deliciously artful, and the soundtrack so zany and perfect, any claim to its fame carries the weight of greatness. DFW has two experimental groups who tread on Twin Peaks territory with references to the show in their names: Denton's The Black Lodge, and Dallas' Jack With One Eye, who makes hazy lullabies for an eager, sleepless Audrey Horne. Fans of My Bloody Valentine, Ulrich Schnauss, and Slowdive should have their interests, ahem, piqued."
-Lindsay Knecht Milne
"JACK WITH ONE EYE- one guitarist reverbed way out, while another frequents from keys to guitar and back again on top of a early punk influenced style of shoegaze drumming. But don't think theyre just a shoegaze band, they rock out pysch to kraut style and frequently go into little jams in the midst of playing their songs."
-North Texas Bullshit
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