Eisley Cover Stevie Nicks

doors_mirandaBeing from the Eastern side of Texas, I’ve followed Tyler, TX. band Eisley since they first got started many years ago.  While the band has been relativley quiet in recent years, this new video/song covering the Stevie Nicks tune “Silver Springs” popped up on the internet last week.  The song is more of a solo gig by primary Eisley songwriter Stacy Dupree along with Jeremy Larson, Brandon Goodwin, and Darren King (Mute Math) providing the music/recording.  It’s a beautiful little diddy if I do say so myself.  A video version of the tune can be found on the Eisley youtube siteEisley will also be making their way to Austin for our SXSW festival in March.

[audio: https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/SilverSprings_Stacy-Dupree.mp3]

Download: Stacy Dupree – Silver Springs [MP3]

The Boxing Lesson – Wild Streaks & Windy Days

Rating: ★½☆☆☆

For influences, local Austin band The Boxing Lesson could do much worse: the songs off Wild Streaks & Windy Days reveal an appreciation for the hypnotic swirl of The Secret Machines (“Lower,” “Muerta,”), the pop-prog-trips of MuteMath (“Timing,” “Dance with Meow,) and the grandiosity of Muse (“Dark Side of the Moog,” “Scoundrel”). And like these bands, and Minus the Bear, another group with nonsensical song titles, The Boxing Lesson attempt to synthesize these influences into something greater and original.

What The Boxing Lesson is lacking is not simply talent, restraint, or any lyrical insight at all – although throwaway songs like “Hopscotch & Sodapop” and “Freedom” would suggest they’re missing those too.  Their most notable problem is they have no direction. With songs like “Scoundrel” and the title track lasting nearly seven minutes but offering no payoff, no climactic build, The Boxing Lesson aren’t giving us more, they’re making us wait longer for less.

Encompassing Pink Floyd synth washes provide pleasing backdrops for clean guitar lines on nearly every song, but when it takes more than two-and-a-half minutes to get to the opening verse of the title track, only to have it rip off the music and lyrics from the title track of The Secret Machines’ “The Road Leads Where It’s Lead” – albeit slower and with less passion and intent – you can’t help but feel cheated. The Boxing Lesson seem to have their hearts and ears in the right place, but singer Paul Waclawsky’s lyrics go nowhere, and without something to set his voice apart – aggression, passion, any feeling – the album ends up getting carried away, lost in the large-scale but rootless sweeping effect they created.

Read more about The Boxing Lesson and hear songs from the new album on the bands myspace page.