Crossed Eyes – “Rattled” – Sorry State

Two hardcore punk 7"s in a row!?  It's a Christmas miracle!

Crossed Eyes were the first band I saw Rich Ivey play in where I thought, “Jesus this guy can write songs” (Rich is the mastermind behind the prolific Whatever Brains). I was a fan of thee Sharks, but didn’t really think they were doing anything spectacular beyond being a very very solid local band that brought cool bands to North Carolina. This record was also one of the first records that I remember making me really stoked on Sorry State Records (who are of course now a hardcore powerhouse). I had bought the Direct Control LP that Daniel did as well as the Koro represses, but when a local record of this caliber came out it became very apparent that Mr. Lupton was doing something special, and at least for me, marked the beginning of the North Carolina music domination that culminated in Double Negative being hands-down my favorite hardcore act in the world (I’m aware that -/- and the Eyes existed during the same period).

The first side of the Crossed Eyes 7” starts with the title track, “Rattled”, a two minute jammer that I always thought sounded more like Marked Men than anything else. There is actually a moment in the song where it’s almost a 90’s pop-punk sounding jammer, but lets all agree to ignore this fact and focus on the sheer power that this very simple record produced. The end of this song veers into a chanting “Crossed eyes, cracked teeth!” that always has me yelling along at home. This side finishes off with a song that isn’t much different that the one previous except for a British sounding guitar solo that dominates the latter half of the track.
For whatever reason, the second side of this record always reminded me of like Hot Snakes, but after listening to it for the first time in a while it actually makes me think of the Buzzcocks. I think it’s the bass line in the first song that jumps out to me as something Mr. Shelley would have written, though these songs lacks the sing-along ability that most of the British bands it references had. In that way, the first song really is much more akin to some of the hardcore records that I know everyone in Crossed Eyes love. The last song on the record, “Scottish Pop”, is probably my favorite. It’s bouncy and upbeat just enough to suck you in, but it also has some really perfect bleakness to it which is a nice change from the previous three tracks of upbeat punk classics. It’s almost like Ian Curtis started writing songs along with all of the punk bands I already compared this record to, except without being whiney little babies.
The art on this 7” is cool, but there is something to be said for not having your cover reflect your band’s name. The printed inside of the sleeve is beautifully and actually feels a little bit like something Nick would end up doing later in the F≠ world. Something I’ve always appreciated was labels' having a distinct center label for their records (specifically the beautiful Small Wonder Records center labels from the late 70’s and early 80’s) which is obviously something Daniel thought about in the first few years of being a label. If you like this record, you can buy one RIGHT NOW for ONE DOLLAR from Sorry State, along with a few more recent things he’s done that any fan of Crossed Eyes will probably enjoy (The #Ones 7”, Whatever Brains third LP, Love Triangle LP, etc).