The Luck of Eden Hall: Alligators eat gumdrops (2012)

The Luck of Eden Hall son una veterana banda de Chicago especializada en facturar un Psych-Rock de alto quilataje. Su música no repara en pequeños detalles, y a la mínima su sonido despega en un vuelo desbordado de musicalidad. Su creatividad está más supeditada al tipo de sonido que elaboran, un tanto apegado a tradiciones tardo-sesenteras, pero el resultado final es, realmente, de notable: Bangalore, Ten meters over the ground, Green faery, Goodnight Anne Berlin, This is strange, Alligators eat gumdrops… con todo su arsenal de sitares, pedales, efectos, arreglos… son auténticos pildorazos de pura energía rockista-psicodélica. En el resto del disco, The Luck of Eden Hall navegan algo más parsimoniosos sobre aguas menos procelosas, pero igualmente identificados con una Psicodelia suave y algo humeante. En cualquier caso, un disco interesante para amantes del género, ya que tras varias escuchas, parece como si esa sensación de deja vù no dejara de acecharnos. Todo nos suena familiar y conocido, y sin embargo, su escucha es de lo más amena y disfrutable.

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“I’ve heard some excellent psych covers from Chicago’s The Luck Of Eden Hall, and have pondered whether their talent extends to song writing as well as production. Their new LP “Alligators Eat Gumdrops” resoundingly demonstrates their flare for writing great tunes, put through a rock, psych, kaleidoscopic filter. 
Imagine Paul McCartney and Geoff Emerick circa Magical Mystery Tour experimenting on an Abbey Road piano and you’ll get an idea of the sound of album opener “High Heeled Flippers”. In fact, let’s get John Lennon doing a rockier Hey Bulldog with George Harrison on sitar, but no less infectious, and you’ll get the feel of The Luck of Eden Hall’s “Bangalore” too. 
But I’d like to stress that while echoing some of these great sounds, The Luck of Eden Hall are no retro act and sound as exciting as any band around. Jack White would be proud of “Ten Meters Over the Ground” whilst “Summertime Girl” is a gorgeous ballad. 
Probably my favourite track is “Amoreena Had Enough Yesterday”, the fizzing simplicity of those guitar riffs and chord sequences tied a mellotron sound is much harder to construct that it seems. “Green Faery” melds laughing gnome sentiment washed down with a tot of Absinthe. 
Lyrics blend psychedelia and reflection with dreamlike ease, “Wasting the Days of Youth” and “Goodnight Anne Berlin” being prime examples. 
Another highlight is the moving “A Carney’s Delirium”, an ode to the State Fair outdoing Soft Bulletin era Flaming Lips. All credit to the whole band’s playing too which is superb. This exemplified by “This is Strange” and closer “Alligators Eat Gumdrops” that take the album to a rockier conclusion. 
And overall? An extremely inventive, beautifully crafted and bewitching album. But most importantly, excellent songs, more please!” (The Strange Brew, UK)

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The Luck of Eden Hall: Butterfly revolutions, Vol.1 (2011)

Cuando oímos material de una banda algo veterana en estas lides no solemos tener la idea de que lo que vamos a oír nos vaya a gustar. Para qué engañarnos. Llamadlo prejuicios pero lo cierto es que mucho material de bandas ya curtidas no suele interesarnos. En el caso de The Luck of Eden Hall, una recomendación llegada a nuestro correo, la cosa es algo diferente. Primero porque aunque son un grupo veterano, éste es tan sólo su cuarto disco. Y segundo, porque el material es muy muy digerible. Sus convicciones son muy claras: no suenan absolutamente a nada que puedas oír en el actual panorama musica. Permanecen absolutamente al margen de cualquier etiqueta o influencia actualmente reconocible. Sus huellas musicales son fáciles de rastrear: el Pop-Psicodélico y los inicios del Rock Progresivo. En base a ello, The Luck of Eden Hall ha construido un disco más que sugerente y atractivo. Doce temas que tienen un desarrollo particular cada uno, mezclándose esos elementos aludidos: el Pop-Psicodélico (Chrysalide, Jupiter, Velvet and corduroy, This weather is better for velvet´s clothes, Silly girl), con el Rock más progresivo (Medicine queen), o sencillamente con señales del Power-Pop más enérgico (Shampoo, She falls down, All her seasick parties). The Luck of Eden Hall acaban de editar este Butterfly revolutions Vol.1 este mismo verano, pero por si te interesan, lo mejor es que prometen la publicación de un segundo volumen para este mismo final de año.

The Luck of Eden Hall – Butterfly revolutions, Vol.1 (2011)

“My influences have always been the same. Everything I have ever heard. If you really want some names out of me, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Hendrix Experience, Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin. Musical sounds are categorized by what is popular at the time, which has always cracked me up. I miss the days of radio when you could hear Sly Stone, The Raspberries, Queen and Dolly Parton all on the same show. I think that’s the same reason why people like their iPods so much now.”
I was curious to hear Curvey’s stance on the record industry and what, all things considered, he feels would be the best way to have his work represented. His response, “it would be nice to work with a label. I would much rather spend my time creating instead of making phone calls and shipping packages. Though I have to say a lot of our problems in the past were due to me turning everything over to someone who didn’t really love my baby as much as I did. Cest la vie. The industry is tasting reality. Too much corporate bull. In the old days if a DJ liked a song the DJ could play the song. That helped many great bands become known to the public. I think iTunes is great. It’s like when I was little, going to the store and buying my favorite 45. If I really dug it I would buy the entire album.”
The Luck of Eden Hall makes music that’s hard to pin point with just a few words, but if pressed to do so, the best words I can find are that the music is a kaleidoscope of psychedelic sounds that hit you like long loved classics no matter how recently created. Listening to the music brought with it a curiosity to find out more about the man behind it. In doing so I learned that Curvey is also an extremely talented painter. When I asked him about this, telling him how beautiful I found his work, and wondering if the inspiration to paint comes from the same place as the inspiration to make music he said “Painting is one of the many things I do for a living and thank you for the compliment. Fortunately people are willing to pay me money to paint for them. Music, painting, cooking, martial arts, gardening, loving, all creativity comes from the same place. Have you ever experienced the loss of time because you were really getting into what you were doing? That’s the same place as well.”
And all of this lead me back to where I started; the April 18th Vintage Vinyl show in Evanston. I wanted to learn how it felt for Curvey running into his old friend once again after 10+ years and if they had been able to pick up where they had once left off:
“It was great to run into him. I was honored that he came to see us. The last time we spoke was backstage at the Aragon Ballroom during ‘Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream tour. I gave a copy of our current album to a mutual friend and he got it to Billy. Billy invited me backstage. Yes it did feel like we picked up right where we left off. Billy is one of my peers. He has always been a friend and always will be.”
In sharing the touching sentiment Billy states, “Watching them play brought back many memories. Greg is a great and influential guitarist and it seems to me now that maybe I stole more from him than I would have admitted to back then” (reverbnation.com)

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