Crystal Eyes

Calgary dream popsters Crystal Eyes release their debut LP The Female Imagination later this week, but ahead of its arrival, Exclaim! is giving you the first look at the brand new video for album cut "High Moon."

The video was produced by Evan Pearce, who collaborated with lead vocalist Erin Jenkins to create images based on shapes, colours and patterns from nature, blended with the effects of reflections, bubbles, haze, projection mapping and video feedbacking for added texture.

The clip was shot in the basement dance studio of Calgary's CommunityWise building, and Jenkins calls the location a "total gem."

"It's been serving various social causes since 1911, so it's old and has a bit of a creepy feeling to it when you're there late at night," she explains. "We spent almost 14 consecutive hours on the video, filming until almost 4 a.m., and we definitely started to feel uneasy."

The end result was worth it, though, culminating in a psychedelic swirl of kaleidoscopic imagery that perfectly complements the trippy groove of the song.

Scroll past Crystal Eyes' upcoming shows to check out the video premiere of "High Moon." The Female Imagination is due out July 14 via Sweety Pie Records.

Tour dates:

07/14 Calgary, AB - The Palomino Smokehouse *
07/20 Edmonton, AB - The Buckingham *
07/22 Winnipeg, MB - The Handsome Daughter *
07/25 Hamilton, ON - This Ain't Hollywood *
07/26 Toronto, ON - The Monarch Tavern *
07/27 Peterborough, ON - The Garnet *
07/28 Ottawa, ON - Bar Robo *
07/30 Montreal, QC - La Sala Rossa *
08/03 Fredericton, NB - Read's Cafe
08/04 Moncton, NB - Plan B Lounge
08/09 Charlottetown, PEI - Prince Edward Island Farm Centre
08/10 Halifax, NS - The Seahorse Tavern - Exclaim!

In the bio for Calgary band Crystal Eyes on Sled Island’s website, the act is referenced as providing a “distinctly Calgarian soundtrack to sweltering summer days” that was “played at the same lackadaisical pace as a float down the Bow River.”

The indie band does seem closely linked to the city and its music scene. At one time, they were even referred to as a “Calgary supergroup,” thanks in part to a revolving lineup that included Lab Coast’s Chris Dadge and singer-songwriter Samantha Savage Smith among others.

So it’s perhaps a little surprising that Crystal Eyes’ debut full-length album, The Female Imagination, was conceived nowhere near Calgary. Songwriter and singer Erin Jenkins pulled a Bon Iver and holed up in a cabin on a remote and forested island in southern Ontario to write most of it.

“There’s a family cabin that my great-grandfather built and it’s on a lake island and it’s quite isolated,” says Jenkins. “So I like to go there in the summers as much as I can. I just brought a guitar and went into the woods and wrote all afternoon. There would literally be animals running past me. It was very inspiring. That sense of peacefulness I think maybe comes through a bit.”

Peaceful is not the first description that springs to mind when listening to the eight tracks on The Female Imagination. But the tunes do have a certain dreamy quality to them. And while Jenkins’ dream-pop leanings are occasionally kicked into high gear by some garage-band crunch and the odd ’80s synth-pop rhythm, it’s her wavering voice and searching lyrics that are undeniably at the centre of Crystal Eyes.


Serene nature may be an influence on Jenkin’s writing, but the songs also delve into some unsettling territory. Melancholy opener So Alone in Denver was inspired by Matthew Shepard, the gay student who was beaten to death in 1998 in Wyoming. But most of the songs aren’t that directly topical, Jenkins says.

“I wouldn’t sit down and think ‘I’m going to write a song about this,’ ” Jenkins says. “It’s more about having an inspiration and feeling and it just comes out. Usually, I figure out what it’s actually about later. It’s very stream-of-consciousness. And later on, I can say ‘Oh this is what it’s actually about. This is me frustrated with the lack of a voice that I have in a society that is really f–cked up half the time.’ It comes out and I deconstruct it later.”

But as personal as the songs are, Jenkins admits that her revolving lineup over the years have also given the Crystal Eyes sound a refreshing sense of flux. The album was recorded by Dadge and features Savage Smith and the Outlaws of Ravenhurst’s Kenny Murdoch on guitar and Sunglaciers Mathieu Blanchard on drums.

But other than Jenkins and Murdoch, it will be a different lineup that plays the band’s 10-city Canadian tour that kicks off Friday with a hometown show at the Palomino.

The singer, whose past work includes fronting Catholic Girls, reckons 15 musicians have passed through the ranks of Crystal Eyes since it formed in 2015.

“It’s great,” she says. “It’s new layers all the time. It definitely shakes up how you see the song. With all the different players, I don’t ever ask anyone to play the exact same thing. I tell them that there is a template you can go off of but they don’t have to be married to it. They can take it in their own direction and they mostly do that. With any Crystal Eyes show you see, it will sound a little bit different. The energy is different. I think it’s cool for the live experience.” - The Calgary Herald

It’s uncertain what you would see if you combined acid with estrogen, but it probably would sound and feel a lot like Crystal Eyes.

Erin Jenkins is the guitarist, vocalist, and central nervous system of the Calgary-based melancholy-pop act. With a whole new series of odd and dream-like sounds to show off, Jenkins is taking the show on the road with a new full-length album, The Female Imagination.

“It’s more the softness, or the sadness, or the dreaminess,” says Jenkins. “The riot grrrl feminist was an amazing breed of feminism. I think this is different. I guess I’m trying to explore that female perspective … beyond just the anger in more of the grey area that life is, not trying to be like a man. I think in some ways, women in rock have been like, ‘to make rock music, we have to be just as loud as the boys.’ I think I’m more trying to say there’s a lot of strength in fragility.”

The Female Imagination is a more matured, maternal, and nurturing sort of pop sound. The tracks often go into a sort of early ’60s era French rock ‘n’ roll sound that Jenkins somehow manages to deftly compliment with a sad, psychedelic voice and at times ethereal falsetto.

The lyrics and themes of the album are likewise soulful and introspective. Take the track “So Alone in Denver,” for instance. Jenkins says it was inspired by the 1998 death of gay rights icon, Matthew Shepard.

“That documentary that was made about him,” Jenkins says. “Be prepared to cry, but it’s a very touching film. At one point, they’re reading entries from his journal from the time he was living in Denver, and he just kind of wrote this one phrase about being so alone in Denver. I just thought it was really poetic. There’s a song in that.”

Jenkins’ musical inculcation began when she got a copy of Hole’s Pretty on the Inside. After moving onto bands like The Cure and The Smiths, her tastes became more experimental.

The structure of Crystal Eyes is likewise experimental. Jenkins is the only permanent member, but it’s by no means a solo project. During the past couple of years, Crystal Eyes has been a brief home for a few musicians, something Jenkins believes has been an asset to her artistic flexibility and consistency.

“We’ve got a full four-piece and I think we’re a little heavier live than we sound on the record,” says Jenkins. “In a live setting, especially lately, we’ve been definitely going for this kind of sonic level. Lots of dynamics, lots of … in your face guitars. I’d say this for Marlaena [Moore] as well. The live show is more in your face.”

Having been kicked out of her high school band for having a voice that was too feminine for rock ‘n’ roll, it’s perhaps poetic that Crystal Eyes should be one of the most overtly feminine bands in the province.

“Basically, for our whole tour we’re playing with bands that feature female members, female-identified members,” says Jenkins. “I’m looking forward to seeing so many amazing women across Canada making music.” - Vue Weekly

CALGARY – To describe the homegrown Crystal Eyes as a one-woman outfit would be accurate, but only to a degree. Erin Jenkins began the project to serve herself creatively, enlisting the help of her partner and other musically minded folks to bring her songs to life. Over the last few years, the band has materialized in several forms, welcoming various musicians to the project who would ultimately aid the construction of an album or play an odd show, filling whatever gap was left by the previously departed.

Even Jenkins, who plays guitar and does vocals, was careful to say the current line up in her band has been consistent for the last few months, explaining, “It’s a polyamorous relationship, for sure. It’s really complicated and convoluted.

Even I don’t know the chronology of the band, so it’s hard to explain what this is sometimes.”

Despite the lapse in a conclusive timeline, Jenkins has put together a second full length through the Crystal Eyes guise. The Female Imagination continues to draw from her affinity for nature through a melancholy pop lens. Musically the album doesn’t deviate far from the band’s first offering, still capturing a smoke-a-cigarette-in-the-bathtub-with-a-glitter-bath-bomb-erupting feel.

The album was recorded with the same players as the first, No Man is an Island, utilizing the talents of Mathieu Blanchard, Chris Dadge, Samantha Savage Smith and Kenny Murdoch to round out the recording crew. The list of musicians involved is collectively and partially responsible for the sugary pop of Samantha Savage Smith, the bizarre, abrasive noise of Bug Incision, and the LARP worshipping joy of Outlaws of Ravenhurst. On their first album, themes of loneliness and isolation where explored in via sad, breathy wisps of guitar alongside droning vocals.

The Female Imagination simply ads another layer, guiding some of the songs into a more definitive sound, keeping a sense of fluidity and femininity at the forefront.

“I’m about juxtaposing happiness and sadness together,” Jenkins muses.

“There is light in sadness and something heavy in happiness. They exist because of each other and are balanced in the background of everything. So the songs have evolved a bit but there’s still that dichotomy. The record strives to be somewhere in the middle.”

With the release of the record, the band will amalgamate in some form to head out on an extensive month-long tour to the maritimes with Marlaena Moore. Andy Flegel will fill in on drums with Will Johnson on bass. When BeatRoute asked about tour essentials, Jenkins thought very carefully about her answer.

“Nothing is going to make a tour super comfortable,” she says, smiling.

“It’s always that balance between not bringing too much and not bringing enough. There are so many unknowns. I do think it’s important to bring something to sleep on. If you can get some sort of rest on tour, I think that’s a success.”

Jenkins spoke proudly of The Female Imagination, but also gave the sense she’s prepared to begin work on something new.

“We’re all really proud of the album and we’re glad it’s coming out,” she shares.

“But it’s a weird delay. I sort of feel like I’ve been done with these songs for awhile. I basically have an entire new album ready to start recording, so when we get back, it’ll definitely be time to record again. We have no idea when that one will be out, but I’m looking forward to it. Recording is really fun.” - Beatroute

The dreamy downer-pop band share their philosophies inspired by Bart Simpson.

In their brief but busy lifespan, Crystal Eyes have enlisted a crack team of members from coast to coast. These include the Calgary power couple Samantha Savage Smith and Chris Dadge (Chad VanGaalen, Lab Coast, a endless list of free-improv guises), Nick Gajewski (Soupcans), Kerri Landry (Play Guitar, Traces), Jesse Powell (The Pine Tarts), and Andy Flegel (Faux Fur, Blanka). Erin Jenkins is the mastermind behind the swoon-worthy downer-pop group, hitting sweet and sour spots with their debut EP No Man Is An Island (released back in May by Victoria’s Shake! Records). The rotating line-ups of the Crystal Eyes live band have proved to be a necessity for Jenkins’ wanderlusting tours from Tofino, BC to the East Coast and back again. They’re on the road again this month with a stop at Pop Montreal. Read on for an interview with the no-brow band giving nods to J.D. Salinger, the Sex Pistols, and Bart Simpson.

AUX: What sorts of pros and cons do you find with a line-up in constant flux?

Erin Jenkins: The logic behind this constant flux is that it allows me to be able to tour and say yes to shows even if Chris and Sam aren’t able to join me. It’s an interesting band model, but the major pro is the flexibility it provides me. I’m also benefitted by the fact that all of the musicians I have played with are excellent, super generous with their time and all bring a fresh energy to the songs. The downside is that it can eat up a lot of time working on old songs when I want to be playing new ones! However, it’s been working really well, and allows me time to write and develop songs with my drummer Mathieu Blanchard, so that I can bring them to the rest of the band fully formed.

I hear this project began when you recorded a solo album called I’m Actually A Really Nice Person (which is a seriously great title) with the sole intention of giving copies to friends. What was that album like? Was it very different than what you’re doing now?

I’m Actually a Really Nice Person included six or seven songs I recorded on GarageBand, mostly because I was stoked that I had a Mac computer finally! I would say it follows the same trajectory as Crystal Eyes, but as an earlier, less-experienced songwriter. The songs were mostly sad, guitar pop, with titles like “Salinger’s Dead” and “Time to Sell the Farm.” They represent my slow transition from being a collaborator towards gaining the confidence to step out as more of a solo artist. I gave it away to friends partly because I think I needed to check with people I trusted if it was any good!

How did things take off from there?

Well, luckily one of those people I showed it to did think it was good, and encouraged me to start jamming with him (Mathieu Blanchard, who is now the drummer for Crystal Eyes). I decided early on to scrap all of the old material and start writing new songs. We would sort of guerrilla jam whenever we got the chance and wherever we were. I wrote quite a few songs that I threw away until the sound eventually began to ‘crystalize’ (haha) in the right direction to form the six songs that make up the No Man is an Island EP.
How have you managed to pull The Dadge away from his million other projects? Can you tell people a bit about him for the uninitiated?

Great question, I still scratch my head at how both Chris and Sam can fit so much in! Basically, Chris Dadge is the ‘dad’ and a pillar of the Calgary music community, with a special love for all things twee and lo-fi. He heads up the much beloved Calgary band Lab Coast and also plays with Chad VanGaalen and with Samantha Savage Smith, puts on an incredible amount of free-improv and experimental music shows under his Bug Incision series and records albums for tons of Calgary bands on his trusty 8-track.

I had previously recorded with Chris with a band I was in called Seahorse, and had also worked with him at Theatre Junction in Calgary. Early on I knew I wanted to record with him for Crystal Eyes. I set up the sessions and asked if he would play the bass for the recording, never expecting that he would be the permanent bass player (although secretly daring to dream of course!) and much to my pleasant surprise, at the end of the recording, he asked me if I would like for him to join the band on bass and suggested that it would be great to add Sam on guitar as well. So of course, I jumped at the chance to bring them on board, and it’s been great working with them. They’re both such hard-working musicians and I have a ton of respect for them, plus they’re nice and very funny, and our jams are always a good time.

Crystal Eyes is a lot poppier and less hyperactive than your other band Catholic Girls or The Poly Shores before that. Do you feel like you’re mellowing out or will you continue to show your wild side in other guises?

I definitely feel that I couldn’t/wouldn’t have written these songs five or six years ago when I first started playing music. I think maybe the anger of my youth has turned more into sadness as I’ve gotten older, and that’s what comes out in the songs. I don’t necessarily try to muscle a certain sound though, I try to write from a more subconscious, judgment-free place. These songs are more personal for me, where as all my previous bands I played a collaborative role in the songwriting process. However, I still love collaborating and I still love punk music, and I don’t think that will ever change. It’s still inside of me and I expect it will still come out. As Bart Simpson would say, I do what I feel like.

There are some great little Dan Bejar-style references peppered into your songs, from the re-contextualizing of lyrics from “Anarchy in the UK” in your song “The Artist” and a nice little nod to the Velvet Underground in “Here She Comes”. Do you have a lot of fun coming up with those moments?

I do love the idea of re-contextualizing lyrics and themes and re-imagining the ideas of the past in a new way. I think it’s definitely a mark of the post-modern era that we’re living in – nothing is just one style or one genre, but a sort of patchwork of everything that’s come before, then filtered through the unique lens of the specific artist. It’s something I have often done in songs, almost without really thinking about it, but I really love it when I hear other people do it too. Faith Healer does it really well on her song “Acid.” She basically takes the riff from “Crimson and Clover” and takes it in a whole different direction. It’s a great song.

You’ve been touring pretty steadily this year and have gone coast to coast a few times. Do you have a day job in Calgary that allows you to take time off or are you currently untethered?

I actually have a degree in drama and a degree in philosophy and I originally thought I was going to be an actor/director, but then I got bitten by the music bug and totally changed course. However, my day job continued to be in the theatre, which gave me some flexibility to pursue music on the side. I recently left the cushiness of the full time job world to become more of a freelancer/odd-job hustler so that I would have time to make music, tour and travel (I recently went to Japan!). It’s been a bit scary because I’ve always had a steady job since I was 16, even during University, but the freedom I’ve had has been so worth it. I probably will eventually settle back into something more permanent, working with an arts organization. I would love to run a festival or a theatre company some day, when I’m too old to keep touring the country playing music!

What’s next after this tour and Pop Montreal? Are you planning to record a follow-up?

Yes, my focus after we finish the tour will be to finish writing and record a full-length. I have about seven songs already written, and plan to write more in the next few months, and will ideally once again record them with Chris on his 8-track. I’m hoping the full-length will be out by March or April 2016. - Aux

Calgary's Crystal Eyes, led by Erin Jenkins, draws on the gauzy and the gritty. Her songwriting is inspired by the sounds that take a sweet melodic idea then temper it through a wash of distortion: '60s garage rock, '80s dream pop, '90s shoegaze, she lists.

Supported by a band that includes members of Lab Coast and Jenkins' former group, Catholic Girls, Crystal Eyes will soon follow up its 2015 debut EP No Man is an Island with the 8-song collection The Female Imagination.

"The record was written on an isolated lake island in rural ontario," the band writes, "and the songs reflect the sadness and beauty of a colonized Canadian landscape." It is an inspection of dualities: "the songs attempt to find the sadness that lurks in beauty, the fragility of everything we know and the possibilities that exist in the mystery of things we don't understand. It is an attempt to reconcile a world dominated by a so-called 'masculine' energy through an exploration of the dreams of the 'female imagination.'"

Today, we have the first single off The Female Imagination. "Already Gone" is a frenetic run downhill, gathering steam and power as it chugs towards the bottom. You'll want to hit play and ride it all over again. - Chart Attack

With assistance from Mathieu Blanchard on drums and Chris Dadge (of Lab Coast) on bass, Erin Jenkins establishes a Western Canadian beach-head for shoegaze/dream-pop with her own take on the genre. She pushes out in both directions. Her guitar work is grungier than most, but her angelic voice is sublimely sweet. It’s a beautiful dichotomy. She even gives The Lad Mags a run for their garage rock money (“Keep The Faith”).

Upshot: Gritty guitar, even heavy at times, provides a nice counter-point to Jenkins’ sweet dream-pop. - Ride the Tempo

Erin Jenkins’ pretty voice hovers above a rather dour shoegaze rhythm/bass line. It’s a thing of beauty. - Ride the Tempo

CALGARY — You’re doing something right when the SOCAN Songwriting Awards nominated performer behind one of this city’s best indie-folk albums in just about forever joins your side-project as second guitarist. Not even lead guitar, but second, playing songs that were written on one guitar. Erin Jenkins, also of Catholic Girls, has added Samantha Savage Smith, who also plays in Lab Coast, to a line-up that is now at full supergroup status, playing the songs that have always been in her head but couldn’t come out in her electro-punk main band.

“I have always written songs on my own and would record them for fun. I made a for-fun album called I’m Actually A Really Nice Person and I just gave it to friends. I showed it to Mathieu (Blanchard), my boyfriend and the drummer in Catholic Girls. He really encouraged me to turn it into a band. We spent a lot of time jamming because we were touring, everywhere from Tofino to Moncton.”
Over a year the songs took shape into the seven tracks on No Man Is An Island, which you can listen to in its entirety on Bandcamp (or above). When they were ready, Jenkins approached Chris Dadge of Lab Coast, who recorded and stepped in on bass. Dadge just happens to be dating Ms. Savage Smith and subsequently she was added to the line-up earlier this year.

Jenkins describes the songs as “melancholy pop,” influenced by dream-pop act Blouse and singer-songwriter Cate Le Bon, with Shoegaze and garage-rock creeping in around the edges. For all the heavyweight help she’s enlisted it feels very much Jenkin’s project. In No Man… she’s working on the big questions: opener “The Future” tackles free will and humanity’s essential alone-ness, isolated not only from each other but from God, meaning (not just) the bearded guy on a cloud, but anything that can give us a sense of direction (“it’s one of the happier songs on the album,” says Jenkins). “The Artist,” lifts the ‘I am an antichrist/I am an anarchist’ refrain from the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the U.K.,” subverting its meaning into a paean to the self-doubt all artists feel. Even the album’s title references loneliness, through John Donne’s poem “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” itself about the one way in which we’re all linked, in that we’re all going to die.

Crystal Eyes will be playing shows and festivals across Western Canada for the remainder of the summer. Check them out and take comfort in the knowledge that we are all specks of dust floating through oblivion. - Beatroute

As I bounced along the highway in the direction of Calgary a biting cold wind howled its way down from the north. From the direction of Edmonton. A bad omen? Perhaps it was, given that I was headed to Broken City to witness the final performance of an RTT favourite, The Lad Mags.

Broken City is one of those bars that it is stretched thin from front to back. The stage is located, not at one end or the other, but rather in the middle, off to one side. There is a central open area, but to call it a dancefloor would be a tad generous. As awkward as that sounds, the odd configuration somehow added to the evening’s ambiance. The joint was full and the buzz in the air was one of excitement. Despite the sadness of the circumstance, this crowd was in the mood to celebrate.

Everyone rose to the occasion, including the opening act, the enigmatic Forever (I say that because they have zero internet presence). Consisting of members of former local acts (Modern Aquatics, Seahorse, The Slabs) these guys were poised and well-polished. Javier Palomino assumed centre stage (quite literally), taking on both lead guitar and vocal duties. Their shoegaze was suitably haunting and augmented by some psychedelic guitar wandering by Palomino and the occasional keyboard flourish from Joleen Toner. Unfortunately, rumour has it that this band is about to split up. So much for their band name.

Crystal Eyes demonstrated just how versatile they are. Based on their recorded dream pop material, I expected a low-key navel-gazing affair. Gloomy even. But the band was, in fact, high-spirited and energetic, thanks to the performance of front woman Erin Jenkins, who is quite the compact dynamo. Her voice is pretty and well-suited to the dreamier side of their music, but it is also strong, giving backbone to the band’s more forceful moments. Jenkins even got down to some guitar shredding during flights of pysch-rock fancy. Also notable (although not particularly noticeable) was the presence of new member Samantha Savage Smith, who has to be commended for maintaining a low profile despite the fact that she is a star in her own right.

(On a side note, there was a fair amount of feedback in the sound system. I thought it was perhaps just the opening act’s equipment but it wasn’t. The noise was persistent throughout the entire evening. It didn’t mar the event, but it sure was annoying.)

The Lad Mags hit the stage with confidence. This is a fully matured band, at the peak of its game. It may have been their swan song, but what better time to capture the vitality of this group, really? You probably need to know them a little bit to realize that this is essentially Amelia Aspen’s baby, as that fact isn’t in evidence on stage, where things are quite democratic. All members sing back-up (except the drummer, I believe) and the lead vocals are shared between Aspen, Ashley Hollands (guitar) and Dara Humniski (keys). These three also played musical chairs throughout the evening, rotating through the two centre spots and stage left (the keyboard). Lost in the shadows to the right (unfortunately) was the all-important bassist, Candice Kelly. Her throbbing rhythms played high in the mix, and so they should given the garage/surf/psych nature of the music.

The Lad Mags repertoire is well-known to fans (“Hypnotized”, “You Don’t Love Me”, “Dig My Grave”, etc.) and these songs were performed with exactly the right blend of polish and live ‘grit’. We were also treated to a new track (“Shame”) from a split with Betrayers that hasn’t been released yet.

Technically, not everything went according to plan. Aside from the aforementioned feedback, some of the vocals were too low in the mix and got lost, particularly Hollands’. There was also a problem with Hollands’ guitar (don’t know what it was) and she had to borrow a replacement from Crystal Eyes (not sure whether it was Jenkins’ or Smith’s). Overall, it all still sounded like heaven to this listener’s ears. Apparently I wasn’t alone in this opinion as the crowd insisted on an encore, even after Aspen protested that they had played everything they knew. Gracious to the end, The Lad Mags dug out a tune that they had been practicing together.

And so I retreated back out to the streets of downtown Calgary with mixed feelings. Thrilled, of course, to have heard such a great band in their prime, but saddened by the fact that I’d probably never see them perform again. - Ride the Tempo

Artistic fluidity comes naturally for Erin Jenkins, founder of Calgary’s pseudo-solo project, Crystal Eyes. Spawning from “guerrilla jams” held across Canada, Jenkins takes humble credit for the music created with the diverse collection of musicians contributing to the project.

“It’s not a real solo project, because I get so much help from everyone around me,” Jenkins explains. “I really draw on those people, but it’s the first chance I’ve had to do songs that are exclusively mine, as opposed to other bands I’ve been in where I play more of a collaborative role.”

Any time you may have seen the dreamy, melancholy pop group play, it’s most likely been with a different lineup. Jenkins utilizes the talents of numerous musicians ranging from her hometown to Montréal. The two group members that have remained the most consistent include Samantha Savage Smith and Chris Dadge, who records with several artists in Calgary.

“The upcoming Edmonton show gets yet another unique lineup. Jesse Powell is going to play bass. I’ve got Kenny Murdoch, who is in Outlaws of Ravenhurst and a really, really great guitar player, so that’s fun,” Jenkins adds. “Andy Flegel, who is a great drummer, has been living in Montréal, but he’s back in Calgary, and I jumped at the chance to [have] him play a few shows. Plus, we’ll have some back-up vocals on stage, so it’s a motley crew, but a really talented group.”

Crystal Eyes has been particularly prolific since its inception last year. In May 2015 the group released an EP titled No Man is an Island, and immediately began touring, hitting Shake-O-Rama on the West Coast and, later in the summer, went east to POP Montréal, among other dates in several cities.

Since returning home, the focus has been predominantly on creating a new record.

Until then, watch for a few live appearances from Crystal Eyes, including the Big Winter Classic Festival in Calgary at the end of the month.

“It was May when we released the newest album, and we’re working on a new one right now that will hopefully be a full length,” Jenkins says. “It’s going pretty well. It’s two-thirds of the way written, there are scratch demos and hopefully the recording process will start pretty soon. I’d love to release it come spring.”

Fri, Jan 15 (9 pm)
With Gender Poutine, Strange Fires, Shukov
9910, $8 in advance, $10 at the door - Vue Weekly

From the sticky note musings of Mackenzie Smedmor:

Goth kids have a romantic side. An afternoon of warm fuzzed guitar sunshine makes a great escape from the ceaseless marching of high school hallways, where you take your crush to the hillside and weave conversations into a euphonious scrapbook of everything from renaissance literature to rock’n roll.

Their sweet yet glassy eyes make you swoon and ponder just where these wonderful melodies form and where they will go. Will you ever dive to the depths of their dark sea of thought? Or will you float on this cloud of distorted ambiguity to the unknown… - Weird Canada

Crystal Eyes, out of Calgary,released their debut EP last year and are on their way to follow up this up with their first full length album. They’ve got a nice and dreamy aesthetic to their sound– complete with sun bleached guitars and high-pitched female gang vocals. You’ll hear a perfect example of this sound on “Already Gone–” their latest single, which you can take a listen to below. It opens with cutting guitars, and before the vocals even kick in, you know you’re in for a hit. Check out the track and get stoked for The Female Imagination, which will be out soon. - Austin Town Hall

Comprised of founding members Erin Jenkins and Mathieu Blanchard and recent recruits Chris Dadge (bass), who has had stints in Lab Coast, Alvvays and Chad VanGaalen‘s backing band; and renowned singer/songwriter and guitarist Samantha Savage Smith joining a guitarist, Canadian band Crystal Eyes can trace their origins to the melancholic dream pop the duo wrote while nomadically bouncing back and forth between Tofino, British Columbia and Halifax, Nova Scotia — dream pop that the band’s founding duo has claimed has drawn from Francoise Hardy, Guided by Voices. As a relatively constituted quartet, the band has continued to tour across their native Canada, including consecutive appearances at Pop Montreal.

The band’s latest effort The Female Imagination was written while the band spent time on a lake island in rural Ontario and was recorded on a Tascam 388. And according to the band, the album thematically focuses on and explores the other side of ourselves that we can never quite seem to reach. The album’s latest single “Already Gone” consists dreamy and ethereal harmonies with layers of shimmering guitars played through copious amounts of reverb and delay pedal and a persistent, driving rhythm and in some way, the song sounds as though it were equally influenced by 60s garage psych — i.e., much like contemporary acts like Raccoon Fighter, The Black Angels, early Dum Dum Girls, Death Valley Girls and countless others but with a moody and sensual feel. - The Joy of Violent Movement

This stellar band out of Calgary are an absolute force. Crystal Eyes make glorious rock music - loud, fast, awesome. The vocals are fantastic and have the greatest hollow echo vibe, and the drums are so fast and raw we can't even believe. We will be sharing more from Crystal Eyes soon! Look out! - Fingers on Blast

Uh oh. Another tape from Shake! Records. AND another tape featuring Chris Dadge. Seriously, between those two, we have another cassette storage crisis at the CCPS office.

But it's worth it for this one, which is a new project from Erin Jenkins - it's kind of the opposite of the last thing we featured that involved her, the gothi-y Catholic Girls. This tape is all summertime pop. perfect songs for floating down the Bow River, naively following the currents and blissfully aware of the rapids ahead.

The band has since picked up Samantha Savage Smith on second guitar since they recorded this, and it would be lazy of us to compare this to SSS's idyllic second album... but we are, if anything, lazy. Our favourite track on here is "Here She Comes," which we're assuming is meant to sound like a re-working of the Velvet Underground's "Here She Comes Now."

We've seen this tape at Hot Wax (surprise!), or you can get it from the Crystal Eyes bandcamp. - Calgary Cassette Preservation Society