I've written all sorts of articles for this site, from movie and game reviews to random stuff about giant swords and alarm clocks and idol DVD's, but until now I've usually avoided writing about music. (I wrote about that Fonzie's Favorites album to make fun of it, and about that weird Dr. Re-Animator song simply because I couldn't resist saying something about its silly absurdity; those are the only two exceptions that I can think of). This is mainly because...well, I'm not sure, exactly. Maybe it's because I'm not especially keen on advertising my strange taste in music all over the place, or maybe it's just because it's easier to crack a few jokes about a bad movie or an 80's cartoon than it is to write something serious. I don't know. Whatever the reason, the result has been a paucity of music-related articles around here. So, to make up for it a little, here's a (very) short review of an EP I recently bought, by a California-based alt-rockish band called Eyeshine.

Anime fans will probably be familiar with Eyeshine's lead singer, Johnny Yong Bosch: after a fairly lengthy stint as Adam (the Black Ranger, and I think later the Green Ranger) on Power Rangers, he moved into voiceover work and landed some swell dub roles (he played Vash in Trigun and Kaneda in Akira, for example). I've long been a fan of his work; the guy is, in my opinion, one of the best voice actors working today, in the same league as Tara Strong, Scott Menville, Wendee Lee, and Steven Blum. His singing, fortunately, is on par with his other work: his voice is well-suited to singing the kind of pop-rock music the band performs. Drummer Maurice Salmin and bassist Alex Orantes make up the rest of the band, meanwhile, and both distinguish themselves here (Salmin's drumming in "Summertime" and towards the end of "Cellophane Heart Girl" stands out especially).

The EP, titled How About That?, features eight songs (including one instrumental and one hidden track). Most of these are up-tempo pop-rock numbers, the notable exception being "Not Really Good", which is more of a ballad, and which is also arguably the best track. They're all pretty catchy and fast-paced, and sound professionally produced. "Drama Queen" and "In My Eye" are probably the strongest songs here besides "Not Really Good"; both melodies struck me, at least, as just slightly more interesting than the others.

As much as I liked some of these tunes for their energy and sheer catchy appeal, however, I have to admit I wasn't too impressed -- for the most part, anyway -- by their lyrics. This is a common complaint of mine when it comes to modern music, though, so I'm not sure it's fair to single Eyeshine out on it...let's just say that some of the band's lyrics are a bit more ambiguous and extravagantly poetic than is my taste (you can check them out and decide for yourself by clicking your way over here). Granted, most people probably aren't as picky about this sort of thing as I am, but I figured I'd mention it, anyway.

All in all, I came away with a pretty favorable impression of this group. They've got a new album on the way; based on what I've heard here, I'm looking forward to checking it out.

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