Show 118 - "Saving Ryan's Privates"

[Rick and Roll]

Here's a blog I did in late December about Ryan Parmenter's first record....sort of a cliff notes......

(myspace blog 12/27/06)

Screw CD Baby. I'm doing a review here. And since I have precious little free time, you must know this must be good if I'm spending time on it..

Ryan Parmenter, frontman of the semi-retired Eyestrings, has a new CD out, "The Noble Knave". Bought it, listened to it, liked it a lot. But then I put on his solo CD from 1995 "Helvetica". After pushing through a very strange track "Assassination Cake" the real fun begins. The next track is "The Computer", a one minute keyboard trip, into the very cool "Conflict". Next is "Supersaturated", an 9:36 instrumental that's amazing. I assume he's playing everything himself...the piece is incredibly intricate, and is never dull. The liner notes say the song contains "inaudible words". I believe Marcel Marceau has a plagarism case!

"Nodrog" about a man named Gordon (don't know how he thought of that) has some absolutely wicked instrumental passages. The words are lots of fun too. Some of the music reminds me of Devo's "Timing X", but much more complicated.

In "Bastard Brine", the piano is awesome! Of course, it's hidden behind a very strange set of lyrics and other instruments. And there's a hint of 70's rock too. Definitely not music to get laid by.

"Bob's Nub" is a short number that reminds me of Happy the Man on speed. Then "Treachery", an instrumental reminiscent of Gentle Giant. A very well-ordered song.

"Caning" is very strange - but riveting. Sort of a Hillage influence, maybe Tom Waits...Uncle Matt may be another influence...there's a character in the song named "Swatman Bart". Bart? Don't they have locals in Singapore that can do the job? Again, GREAT keys.

"Voices" is a great closing song.

Since Ryan is a non-commercial kind of guy, it's a pleasure to give him some pub...and spread the word.

Go to his website, ryanparmenter.com (just glad some asshole didn't take the name), there are some gut-busting items. The faq's are hilarious, and I'm just scratching the surface to the drawings and the short stories!

By the way, "The Noble Knave" is very nice. It's completely different than "Helvetica". In a nutshell (I know a terribly hackneyed saying), it's a prog singer/songwriter record.

So pay the man...and get some great music. And then and only then can you get some Eyestrings.....that's another story!

I'll be playing the discs (or at least most of each) on my show in Jan or Feb. keep an eye out for the bulletins for my set lists...

Enjoy,

Rick