Glass Eye ruled
Austin’s indie music scene as one of the most popular and influential bands in
the “New Sincerity” movement of the Eighties (along with Daniel Johnston and
Timbuk 3.) Johnston played his first gig
opening for Glass Eye, and lead singer Kathy McCarty would later record an
album of Johnston’s quirky compositions as her first Bar/None solo album. Glass
Eye is remembered as a ‘critic’s band’ and an ‘art band,’ but what really set
the group apart was its passion to be unique and the desire to communicate with
its audience.
Kathy McCarty: Glass Eye were the toast of Austin, and once we started touring, Philadelphia. And San Francisco. We were big in the all the alternate cities, but not the big cities. I remember we made an EP in our hometown by ourselves. It’s so strange to be talking about those times now. Back then, you had to make a record to get people to hear your music. There were cassettes, but you really weren’t anybody if you only had a cassette, you had to make a record. So we made an EP and got signed to a label in town called Wrestler Records, but the minute they signed us, they moved to L.A. So we made another EP and started sending it around to see if anyone would sign us, because we knew, the way the music industry was structured, that you had to have people working your record if you wanted to get on radio and play bigger places on tour. No major labels were interested in us at all, we were considered way too weird, but we talked to a number of independent labels and we liked Bar/None. They had a good reputation and good acts, and Glenn was really nice to us, so that’s what we did. And then we broke up, because we were just spinning our wheels at that point, so I decided to make a solo record. Dead Dog’s Eyeball was really just a project between me and (Glass Eye’s) Brian Beattie, since he was moving at that point into being more of a producer.
Kathy McCarty: Glass Eye were the toast of Austin, and once we started touring, Philadelphia. And San Francisco. We were big in the all the alternate cities, but not the big cities. I remember we made an EP in our hometown by ourselves. It’s so strange to be talking about those times now. Back then, you had to make a record to get people to hear your music. There were cassettes, but you really weren’t anybody if you only had a cassette, you had to make a record. So we made an EP and got signed to a label in town called Wrestler Records, but the minute they signed us, they moved to L.A. So we made another EP and started sending it around to see if anyone would sign us, because we knew, the way the music industry was structured, that you had to have people working your record if you wanted to get on radio and play bigger places on tour. No major labels were interested in us at all, we were considered way too weird, but we talked to a number of independent labels and we liked Bar/None. They had a good reputation and good acts, and Glenn was really nice to us, so that’s what we did. And then we broke up, because we were just spinning our wheels at that point, so I decided to make a solo record. Dead Dog’s Eyeball was really just a project between me and (Glass Eye’s) Brian Beattie, since he was moving at that point into being more of a producer.
Glass Eye – http://www.bar-none.com/glass-eye
Kathy McCarty – http://www.bar-none.com/k-mccarty/
Dead Dog’s Eyeball - http://www.bar-none.com/store/kathy-mccarty-dead-dogs-eyeball
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