SOLAR EYES ‘LIVE FREAKY! DIE FREAKY!’ NEW ALBUM OUT NOW VIA FIERCE PANDA

SOLAR EYES, the psych-shocking, sonics-rocking duo from Birmingham, release their new album ‘Live Freaky! Die Freaky!’ today via Fierce Panda Records HERE.

To celebrate the critically acclaimed release, which The Arts Desk have called “psychedelic indie dance music with a twinkle in its eye,” and Louder Than War stated, “a bold and dizzying album which should see Solar Eyes climbing into the next level,” Solar Eyes have crafted another video for their new single ‘A Couple Of Kisses.’

“It’s probably my favourite track on the album,” says singer and guitarist Glenn Smyth. “It came to me in 10 mins, and it’s got that dream pop, Spector feel. But also, a feeling of desperation that no matter how much you want them too, things aren’t going to work out. Things are transpiring against you or us. Although the second verse is actually about a guy called ‘Mad Malik ‘who used to dance on street corners in Small Heath. He’d have a ghetto blaster and a stick to chase people with!”

Watch the ‘A Couple Of Kisses’ video HERE:

Recorded at Courtyard Studio in Oxfordshire (home of Radiohead, Supergrass and Band of Skulls over the years), the album was co-produced by Ian Davenport and mixed by long term collaborator Jeff Knowler. ‘Live Freaky! Die Freaky!’ was first conceived with the track ‘I See the Sun’ in 2021. Jeff had heard the rough demo of the said track and thought it sounded like it should be on a Tarantino film. He suggested Glenn go watch ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ – which set the frontman on a journey to get to know more about the infamous Manson Family.

After reading the book ‘Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties’, which refers to the covert CIA program Operation CHAOS and investigates the background and motives for the Tate-LaBianca murders committed by the Manson Family in 1969, Glenn then fictionalised/visualised himself as a member of ‘The Family’ – who manages to escape before the murders. So that’s him, driving off into the sunset, on penultimate track ‘An Eagle Flies Alone’

The end result sees Brummies Solar Eyes take the Spaghetti Junction Western vibes of their debut and add in darker, broader, bleaker shades of ragged glory. Smyth himself uses words like ‘sinister’, ‘brutal’ and ‘vicious’ to describe the lyrical themes, for this is an album about heroes lost in battle, an album which squints at the dark side of the West Coast sun, an album influenced by The Doors, The Stooges, BRMC, Ennio Morricone, The Velvet Underground and even a touch of Charlie Manson himself on closer ‘Hello Charlie’.

‘Live Freaky! Die Freaky!’ then. A warped way of life, and then some.

ALBUM TRACKLISTING

1. Murdering Hippies!
2. Time Waits for No One
3. Set the Night on Fire
4. A Couple of Kisses
5. Your Love is Like a Drug
6. Speedball Lovers
7. No Rider on the Horse
8. Rubik’s Cube
9. I See the Sun
10. Mr. Magpie
11. An Eagle Flies Alone
12. Hello Charlie

Catch Solar Eyes live at the following dates in October:

15^th Old Blue Last, London

16^th Kazimier Stockroom, Liverpool

17^th The Hare & Hounds, Birmingham

18^th The Lanes, Bristol

21^st Sidney & Matilda, Sheffield

24^th Supersonic Club, Paris, France

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