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The Eyelids | 'Suffer' EP | Music Release Artwork & Photography | Rockabilly and Garage Rock Music Cornwall

ABOVE : The inside of the gatefold cover for The Eyelids EP 'Suffer'

It is always great to be asked to use a photograph by a band for their new release or as part of their promo material and The Eyelids, a psychobilly garage rock band from Cornwall, have done a cracking job with their new EP. Featuring some original artwork by Half Human designs on the cover, depicting a neon bogey green Praying Mantis and the Eyelids red schlock horror logo, the gate fold CD opens out to reveal a plethora of live shots inside, with a couple by myself and the rest by the talented Shirin Hodgson-Watt and Gerry Wood. In a nice little touch revealing the attention to detail, you can see singer Kelly Green's highway masked visage staring out at you thru the CD's punch hole when you have the disc in place.

ABOVE : The Eyelids tear up The Junction in Plymouth with a Garage Rockabilly Storm

I have had work commissioned and featured on about a dozen albums and EP's now and it is still really nice to see your work in print, when as a photographer nowadays so much work never leaves the screen. I have had billboards and who knows how many flyers and posters, but there is still something special about music releases when that is where your heart lies. I look forward to 'Virus' featuring one of my images on their new release later this year, and thought I would give the new Eyelids EP a spin, as well as re posting some images I have shot of them over the years for this blog post today.

ABOVE : The Eyelids 'Suffer' EP released on July 12th 2019

The Eyelids – Suffer EP

Curated Oblivion – A rollicking romp to the mummification of the selfie obsessed instagram graves we build for ourselves. Sharon Kellaway stakes out her riffs in neat rows while Kelly Green takes us on a tour of the tomblike sci-fi dystopia we seem to have inadvertently built for ourselves in the 21st century. There is this 50's B-movie feel throughout the EP in which the theramins audio globules drip and soar alternately, pulling the bass slapping snare cracking jive along, and into strange dark rooms illuminated by lyrics that shed a light on the human condition as if witnessed by the undead, or at least someone who has the odd pint with banshees, bogeymen , ghouls and zombies. Anyone who has at some point worked in an office should know how that feels.

ABOVE : The Eyelids singer Kelly Green at The Thistle Park Tavern during Plymouth Punx Picnic

You make me a Zombie – a song about the brain deadening effects of love, continues this theme and slows things down with a surf rock opening that would not be out of place as the soundtrack to a Tarantino film . No more channelling Brenda Lee, and Wanda Jackson, than PJ Harvey is aping Patti Smith. It is easy to make lazy comparisons but there is I think something abut the wildness of the westcountry and the willingness to strip things down that ties these together. Humour is used as a clever artifice and 'Love me like the undead' is a fantastic outro. Check out the brilliant video by Tam Johnstone here

ABOVE : Louise Fowler on Double Bass for The Eyelids

Last Time - Here the bones or skeletons of this EP are celebrated and exposed with John Cornfields clever engineering and it is all the better for it. More White Stripes, than 'The Sharks' (though there is a great use of the musical rest here which the Bath Billies often employed brilliantly) the rock influence gets a big nod here giving the band an expanded canvas on which to paint. It features a lovely theramin and wobbly guitar twinned solo that feels like the green preying mantis from the cover artwork is dragging you into the blue vortex behind it.

ABOVE : Kelly Green singing with The Eyelids at a Plymouth Gig

Suffer – The title track opens with a riff that feels like manically pedalling up, and then riding down the hill on your chopper, with your gang on the way to your den. The bone rattling journey continues into another sci-fi heavy musical break before this dark but groovy garage rock four piece hammer the nails back into the living coffin they opened up with 'Curated Oblivion.'

ABOVE : The Theramin's Warbles really helps The Eyelids conjure up Sci-fi imagery

Ignore them at your peril. The Eyelids will be scaring the Bejesus out of punters and leading them in an immortal zombie dance at festivals across Cornwall this summer

Check out their 'Live' appearances here

You can buy the EP here

ABOVE : Sharon Kellaway weilds her telecaster live. She has the chops that help define The Eyelids sound.

BELOW : The Eyelids Rock Drummer Michelle Fowler playing at The Thistle in Plymouth

ABOVE : Great details like lining up singer Kelly Green's face with the CD punch hole

ABOVE :'The Eyelids' coming to a festival near you this summer