a bottle, a dog, some milk, a bottle

Winfred E. Eye is Aaron Calvert singing, Craig Adams playing a few guitars, Mikel Garmendia playing a few things (but he likes guitar best), Chandan Narayan playing double bass and other bass-like instruments, Josh Kilbourn playing drums, and Dax Pierson playing keyboards. Andy Ward played bass on the first album and has done all the artwork for the band. Garmendia and Calvert met when they were members of other groups. Calvert was in the Los Angeles-based Evergreen, and Garmendia played in the Oakland-bred Cars Get Crushed. Both could loosely be defined as post-punk, and each enjoyed cult followings. However, neither sounded much like Winfred E. Eye does. Winfred E Eye's music is downtempo, often labeled "Americana" in reviews, and it's not nearly sugary enough for the cookie-cutter corporate expectations of early-21st-century American taste. It feels a little boozy, and the vocals scratch and groan, but this isn't Tom Waits. This is more like a few hours after the bourbon ran out, and the headache is approaching. Drawing heavily on the singer/ songwriter tradition and exempting itself from the need to create catchy pop songs, Winfred E Eye plays something like ambient Americana, a music for loneliness, a soundtrack for dusty roads and overnight stays in dingy hotels.