Electric Owls : Ain't Too Bright + Interview with Andy Herod

"I’m a clairvoyant, babe, listen if you will!" begins Electric Owls’ newest release Ain’t Too Bright, launching an album full of energy, optimism, and high spirits, with the music to back it up!   When Magic Show, the preceding EP, came out late last year, I was instantly attracted to the easy-going sound and inviting nature of the music. I think someone might say it has all of the elements of southern hospitality, as much as music could.

I mean, Andy Herod, frontman of Electric Owls, lulls you into toe-tapping and even singing along to a song about a man who murders and cannibalizes his wife!

Lots of great stuff here, soaring synths belly up to the bar with thoughtful vocal harmonies, folky finger-picked guitars toast to equally folky electronic drumming. I hear influences ranging from Black Sabbath to Bela Fleck or from Rush to Scissor Sisters.

I mean, take, Haint in the Holler, a danceable, country/trad rock/americana, catchy tune, and place it next to the anthemic track Magic Show, and you are really left with an album whose music is unclassified, with surprisingly well-executed diversity.