When psychedelic rock veterans Greg Curvey (vocals/guitar) and Mark Lofgren (vocals/bass) from The Luck Of Eden Hall sat down with Mike Hagler at Kingsize Sound Labs in Chicago, they had this ambitious idea to produce a double album. They had enough songs. But not enough studio time.
So when the first album, Butterfly Revolutions, Vol. 1, came together perfectly and the second part didn’t hold up, they cut it loose. But now, what may have seemed like a painful decision at the time is starting to look fortuitous.
“Vol. 2 had a couple of its teeth pulled so we could add a few golden crowns,” says Curvey. “I honestly don’t recall which songs were added, but we did remix and cut some length out of Metropolis, which really helped make it a standout track.”
Mertropolis is the perfect intro to a dreamy psychedelic ride.
Metropolis is one of several standout tracks on Butterfly Revolutions, Vol. 2, which has a dreamier and more cohesive feel than the one released last July. It came together with nothing more than bass riff, which Curvey quickly accompanied. They laid it down, memorized the idea, and moved on.
“When we got back to it, Mark had been teaching a class and showed Metropolis to his students that day,” Curvey said. “We started writing lyrics and he had a vocal line that was different from the one I came up with, so he wrote lyrics for his line and I went to another room and wrote lyrics for my line.”
Then they recorded each track separately. They played them back together. Something happened.
Not every track on Butterfly Revolutions, Vol. 2 happened by chance and circumstance. Over the course of their 23-year history together, they’ve learned to work in very different ways. On this album, for example, North Hampton Woods is all Lofgren. A Drop In The Ocean is Curvey.
The early beginnings of a turbulent and triumphant band.
The two longtime bandmates know how they want to produce music, unfettered by times and trends. They have always known it, ever since they first met in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Curvey was playing with Bruce Zimmerman and Tom Null in a band called Midwest. Lofgren was playing in Curvey’s best friend’s band, Murder of Crows.
“He decided to move to Chicago and we started gigging and recording some songs at CRC with the great Iain Burgess (Naked Raygun, Ministry),” said Curvey. “Carlos Mendoza [drummer] joined the band about four years ago when we were promoting the Clock CD. But I think the band sounds better than ever!”
Mendoza wasn’t a stranger to the pair. When other drummers like Paul Healy and Joe Furlong played with The Luck Of Eden Hall, Mendoza was playing in bands that shared bills with them, including The Proud, which was fronted by another friend of Curvey’s.
Butterfly Revolutions, Vol. 2 has several groove-laden standouts.
Curvey is right too. The band that has stood in the center of the Chicago music scene for the better of two decades does sound better with every release. It’s almost as if time has caught up with their noise.
A Drop In The Ocean, a song inspired by climate change and melting ice caps, chugs along effortlessly from one mini jam into another, perfectly spaced by some of Curvey’s finest low and distorted vocals. It’s brilliant. The Ottoman Girl, inspired by his love for all things Middle Eastern, plays deliriously on the double meaning of the word. And the light and airy North Hampton Woods adds in the perfect contrast, much like the piano ballad Henrietta Lacks A Smile.
Even with pulling out more singles, like Flowers or Realization Loop, one thing becomes certain through all their flashes of brilliance or minor imperfections. Curvey, Lofgren, and Mendoza know how to put down an album. On Vol. 1, give a listen to Velvet And Corduroy, Blue Vinyl, and Medicine Queen.
“I like a record that takes you places,” says Curvey. “Fast and loud, slow and dreamy, especially if it’s all in the same song!”
Butterfly Revolutions, Vol. 2 Breezes In At 5.2 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale.
There are some moments that some songs stumble around a bit, but mostly it’s because these guys love to jam and drop stuff in. There is no doubt they love the music. The band even has its head wrapped around its next album. Keep an eye out for Alligators Eat Lollipops*, maybe even here.
You can find Butterfly Revolutions, Vol. 2 by The Luck Of Eden Hall on iTunes. Butterfly Revolutions, Vol. 2 can also be downloaded from Amazon. Give a listen to Butterfly Revolutions, Vol. 1 too. The cover art, by the way, was inked by Curvey, who is an accomplished graphic artist. Lofgren is also a videographer. Mendoza teaches. You’d never know it to see them live.
Luck Of Eden Hall On This Weeks Anesthetic
Music and conversation this Sunday night at 7:30 with 20-year Chicago music vets, The Luck of Eden Hall. They created somewhat of a splash in the early 90′s with no less than Billy Corgan being a fan. They laid out from recording for over a decade, though, and it’s only been the last five years that the LOEH output has been consistent and of a very high quality.
Butterfly Revolutions, Vol 2 is their second release in less than a year. It’s got the requisite occasional sitar strum and vocal reverb drench but it’s mostly free of the whole PSYCHEDELIC ROCK trappings. Plus, there’s a particular sense of style to what The Luck does. Let’s call it Tastefully Trippy. Find out more on this week’s Local Anesthetic, Sunday night at 7:30. In the meantime, to help you pick up on what I’m laying down about being Tastefully Trippy.
The front of each T-Shirt has been individually hand stenciled by Curvey to create a one-of-a-kind image! On the back is our “Eye” logo. These White 100% Cotton Tees are available in two sizes: Adult Medium & Adult Extra Large. (All colors will vary because of the unique nature of these hand crafted garments.)
Ordering Information:
Shirts are $25 (+ $1 shipping per each shirt ordered) We use PayPal!
Please contact us at luckofedenhall@gmail.com and title your mail “Tee Shirts”. THANK YOU!
’11 could have wrapped up as the Year of the Butterfly in certain circles. Topping off a flurry of activity, The Luck of Eden Hall spread their wings wider with The Butterfly Revolutions, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, back-to-back sweetness that goes down as smooth as cream…and floats right to the top-shelf. Stir in a batch of singles with an appearance on Keep Off the Grassand you have a full box of ‘rock and rollisms‘ yearning for you stick your fingers in. LOEH’s Gregory Curvey gives the skinny on their own butterfly effect; making psych sweetness filler and fat-free.
ma:Richard Hamilton said, “Pop Art is: popular, transient, expendable, low-cost, mass-produced, young, witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous, and Big Business.” True? Does that apply to ‘pop’ music?
Gregory Curvey: Low cost? It’s all relative, but I would agree with that for about 99%. There are a handful of pop songs that definitely transcend his description, but yeah, it’s mostly treated as a vehicle for catchy hooks. Bad or good.
ma: You hear a lot of bitching about the ‘music business’ being to blame for the state of pop music today, etc, etc…Don’t people get what they want, really?
GC: I don’t know. People eat what they’re fed. Right FOX? I suppose the machine had figured out how to spoon feed people what they wanted the people to purchase…or they polled different selected groups and focused in on the lowest common denominator…or the stations played the corporate stuff so they could continue to get perks and backstage passes from big corporate artists…but there have always been really great stand out tracks in every genre of music, yes? Or art for that matter. An artist produces a masterpiece, if they’re lucky, and then keeps trying to top it or at least live up to it. If an artist’s work (and it is work, folks) becomes something the masses want….it shouldn’t necessarily be condemned.
ma: Do you consider LOEH a ‘pop’ band? What’s your basis for ‘pop?’ And, psych for that matter?
GC:Popped Psychedelic Rock and Rollisms are what The Luck of Eden Hall creates. Pop? Yes, because I was weaned on the stuff and can’t seem to shake it. Psychedelic because it’s look, feel, sound and imagery still stir my soul. Pop is anything with a hook, I guess. Psych? I’m very honored when The Luck of Eden Hall is described as psych and I’m happy to see another psych movement happening. Though I do hope it doesn’t become a limited, extra reverberated, wafer thin slice of psychedelia. It should be about expansion, yes?
ma: I would hope it’s about expansion. It’s been around long enough it’s a tradition for the most part. And I think by the nature of that, there aren’t any finite stopping points. It has to grow…What were you weaned on? Anything we need to know?
GC: When I was around six years old, my Grand Mother on my Mom’s side was having a yard sale and selling off, among other things, some records left behind by one of my Aunts (Sue). I was allowed to pick through and take anything that interested me. Being six I had no idea what I was looking at so I picked the 45′s with the coolest labels. The colorful, psychedelic ones. London, Capitol, Karma Sutra, Bang, Columbia. I really nabbed a great bunch of stuff. Rolling Stones, Beatles, Beach Boys, Tommy James, and a couple of Monkees LPs, to name a few. I was spinning 19th Nervous Breakdown on my Mickey Mouse record player!
ma: Why two volumes of Butterfly Revolutions rather than one double album? Both play as a whole, but there is a difference in shade between the two…Vol. 2 seems a bit more melancholy than Vol. 1.
GC: When Mark and I had enough songs to start putting together this project we laid them all out and realized two distinct categories developing. Perhaps a side A and B concept, but we kept writing and decided to go for a double album. When we thought it was finished we went into Kingsize to do the mastering and while listening back to the final cuts we both felt that record 1 was a keeper and record 2 wasn’t up to snuff. We decided to go ahead with the release of the first record and take some more time to polish up existing tracks and do a bit of rewriting and replacing for the second. Since the songs on the second one were written and recorded at the same time we decided on a 2 volume approach. I can’t remember what the working title for the project originally was but we changed it to Butterfly Revolutions and I started working on the cover art.
ma: Now that it’s out there up to snuff and fighting fair and square, has one volume grown on you over the other? Or are you already letting it go and moving on…?
GC: I like the whole thing as one. It represents a Hell of a lot of work, and like any big project, it’s good to be finished with it. Well not really finished with it. We’re rehearsing and getting all the Vol. 2 songs ready for live performances…Right now I’m very excited about the new material I’ve been working on, but we’ll leave that for another conversation…
ma: Now, the name alone, let alone the ‘volume’ extension just seems to beg for a concept. Is there one there, or are you keeping it mum?
GC: I have no idea where this madness will take us…and I’ve lost me Mum.
ma: You hear that the ‘album’ is dead. True, the issue of the physical component aside? LOEH seem to think it’s alive, the sequencing alone of the records shores that up to me. Like I said, Vol. 2 seems a touch more melancholy than Vol. 1, but each holds together and as a pair. A nice pair…
GC: Thank you for the compliment. Album is dead. Vinyl is dead. Rock is dead. Perhaps one can use those limitations as inspiration or perhaps we’ll be another failed attempt at niche marketing…Speaking for myself, I’ve decided my art is going to be what makes me happy. Pure and simple. Everyone is welcome to feast on cookies brought to you straight from the Curvey kitchen. Some may only eat just one. I’m betting that those who enjoy it will need a box…an album.
ma: It’s sad that now you can put so much music on one disc, let’s say for a some physical component. The idea of ‘album’ would seem to have flourished, grown…but everybody’s attention span diminished…Angry Young Man to Bitter Old Bastard in no time…I’ll throw out that just the other day I was listening to something and thought it was good. Nothing pushed my particular buttons right away. But the more I listened to it, the more I was hooked because it was a good album. What makes an album hang together for you?
GC: That’s a hard one to answer. I must admit I own many records that have a side that was rarely played. Sound Garden double LPs, Smashing Pumpkins triple LPs. I’d put on a side and then move on to another artist. Maybe a Bernard Herman soundtrack or whatever. And one of my all time favorite albums is the Beatles White Album. It’s all over the place. Kind of like The Luck of Eden Hall, hmmm? Maybe that answers the question!
ma: You take your name from that exalted ‘luxury drinking glass.’ We could get into how the gilded decoration, the ornateness, relate to your music, the fairy drinkers, etc…But the real question is, is the glass half empty or half full?
GC: The bowl is emptied out each day.
ma: If we could go back to Eden Hall before it was demolished, and had the requisite serving glass, who would you invite to dinner?
GC: Salvador Dali, Chief Quannah Parker, Jimi Hendrix, Houdini…
ma:She Comes in Colours EP, Lucifer Sam, Love is Only Sleeping, Keep Off the Grass, Vol. 1 and 2…lots of activity of late. Timing just right?
GC: Keith and Andy at Fruits de Mer Records have helped jump-start our blunderbuss. Very inspirational, those Gentlemen. We’ve had many attempts at liftoff in the past and always a losing fight with gravity. This time we’re trying to remain grounded and my head’s pressing against the ceiling…go figure.
ma: You just wrapped up a good run there…any plans yet for ’12? Or is it really going to end next year?
GC: Oh, there’s a couple more in store from FdM that we’re included on. We’ve only just released Butterfly Revolutions Vol. 2 and Mark and I have about enough songs for the next album to start the recording process. I have a project that I recorded with my friend Dean Madonia in Nashville last Summer coming out real soon, titled Pretty Little Horses. And The Luck of Eden Hall will be shooting a video for Flowers as soon as we can get some snow on the ground in Chicago!
This fantastic sign was created for us by our friend George at G.H.Boyd Systems. We picked ultra violet eye popping purple, but he makes his signs in a very large array of colors.
Please follow this link to get a FREE download of the latest compilation released by Your Psych Tunes. Volume 8 is titled The Day Breaks At Dawn, has some real cool cover artwork by Celina O and includes 15 tracks by underground psych acts such as The Luck of Eden Hall, Los Tentakills, The Jesus Loves Heroin Band, Al Hotchkiss, The Red Plastic Buddha and more.
Share it. Spread the word. See the light.
Follow this link to an interview with Curvey and Carlos promoting Butterfly Revolutions Vol.1 on Fearless Radio. Hidden amidst the ramblings that hot day, like well placed Easter eggs, you’ll find some sticky sweet gems: Chrysalide, This Weather’s Better For Velvet Clothes and Silly Girl.
On April 18th, 2009 a band by the name of The Luck Of Eden Hall was taking to Vintage Vinyl, a record store in Evanston, IL, to play a show in support of their new album ‘When The Clock Starts to Wake Up We Go to Sleep’. As it so happened, one of the attendees at this show was a long time friend of the band who wanted to stop by and see how they had changed in the 10+ years it had been since he had last seen them. That friend was none other than Billy Corgan. On getting the chance to see the band play live again Billy says, “‘Watching them play together again was quite emotional for me. Greg was one of my few ‘friends’ in the Chicago musical scene. By and large the local bands didn’t like what we were doing style-wise, but our 2 bands really connected.”
Originally from Kalamazoo, MI Gregory Curvey, lead singer and guitarist for The Luck of Eden Hall relocated to Chicago and it was there that Curvey first met The Smashing Pumpkins front man. The first meeting was a chance one that ended with Billy Corgan ultimately replacing Curvey in a band that went by the name of Deep Blue Dream. They met again when the Smashing Pumpkins and The Luck of Eden Hall shared a bill. When asked how that came to be Curvey said “I think the club asked us all to do that acoustic set together. ‘Smashing Pumpkins’ and ‘The Luck of Eden Hall’ were on the same label then.” and continued on to say, “I can’t recall exactly when, but let’s say pre-’Gish’ era. Billy, Jeff Lescher (Green), and I each played an acoustic set on the small back room stage at the ‘Avalon’, which was located at Belmont and Sheffield in Chicago.”
Commenting on how the experience of playing a small, intimate show with Billy Corgan, Gregory states that “if any of the three of us had anything close to star status at that point, it might have been Jeff. I could listen to Billy and Jeff play all night. I recall Billy covering Lou Reed’s ‘Satellite of Love’. I recall Billy smiling at me and playing a few bars of one of my songs, ‘Another Tuesday’, as well.”
Like Billy Corgan and the Smashing Pumpkins, Gregory Curvey and The Luck of Eden Hall were on the scene just as the alternative/grunge movement was getting ready to explode. The music went on to saturate all facets of society in the late 80s and early 90s as a bold contrast to the grandeur and self-indulgence of the heavy metal / hair metal scene. In terms of being right in the thick of things in the Chicago scene, Curvey had this to say “The grunge movement didn’t seem to be anything new to me. Punk rock had taken everything to top speed and grunge was shifting alternative music back into low gear. I had some friends in Michigan, ‘Jim Jones And The Kool Aid Kids’, who were tuning down and playing slow way before grunge happened. ‘The Luck of Eden Hall’ has always been tinged with psychedelic nuances.”
Gregory goes on to say “unfortunately at that time, Mark and I wanted to play quieter dreamy music in our set and everyone else was turning it up to eleven. After clearing a few rooms during the quiet numbers we decided to just play loud as well. Besides it was almost impossible to rehearse in a room next to a band that was beating down God.” ”
On that note Billy adds “They were then and still are an excellent psychedelic band. Their song ‘hook, line, and sinker’ is still one of my all time favourites.
Between that time and today The Luck of Eden Hall took a break (1995-1997), changed names (1997-2002), and then returned back to their roots and began releasing music under The Luck of Eden Hall moniker once again. Wanting some imagery to help mentally put me in the audience of one of their shows, I first asked about how it felt during the original run of the band to step out on stage and perform. Curvey says “Opening for larger acts was always a gas, but the most memorable show happened during one of our stops on a tour. Bessemer is a small town in the upper peninsula of Michigan and we were asked to play by the owner of ‘The Booby Hatch’, who had our current album on the jukebox. It was opening night for deer hunting season and the place was packed with orange and camouflaged clad warriors, none of who had probably ever heard of ‘The Luck of Eden Hall’. Thankfully there were four or five tables up front filled with fans. At some point about halfway through our set a fight broke out between two lovely ladies. Hair pulling, nail scratching, some glass was broken. No guns were fired. A very memorable show indeed.” In terms of the band’s first show, Gregory remarked that “stepping on stage for the first time is very vague. I remember Mark and I each drinking a quart of beer right before we had to play. ”
So what lead to the reunion and the release of 2006′s ‘Subterrene’ and 2009′s ‘When The Clock Starts to Wake Up We Go to Sleep’ ? Curvey says “When I returned from India, Mark and I started writing together again. We would bring ideas to each other and flush them out into finished songs. We picked the best ones and made ‘Subterrene’. We didn’t play any shows to promote it. I sold almost every copy online. As soon as we finished ‘When The Clock Starts To Wake Up We Go To Sleep’ we knew it was time to start performing again.”
Weighing in on the staying power of the band Billy says, “They represent what being in a band is supposed to be about; friendship, togetherness, and a shared goal. It’s not without irony that they are still together in that journey and I’ve lost all my original soldiers who I once called friends.”
With a career that spans over more than two generations it made me wonder what kind of influences this group, who seems to pull inspiration from so many different directions, might have. “My influences have always been the same. Everything I have ever heard. If you really want some names out of me, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Hendrix Experience, Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin. Musical sounds are categorized by what is popular at the time, which has always cracked me up. I miss the days of radio when you could hear Sly Stone, The Raspberries, Queen and Dolly Parton all on the same show. I think that’s the same reason why people like their iPods so much now.”
I was curious to hear Curvey’s stance on the record industry and what, all things considered, he feels would be the best way to have his work represented. His response, “it would be nice to work with a label. I would much rather spend my time creating instead of making phone calls and shipping packages. Though I have to say a lot of our problems in the past were due to me turning everything over to someone who didn’t really love my baby as much as I did. Cest la vie. The industry is tasting reality. Too much corporate bull. In the old days if a DJ liked a song the DJ could play the song. That helped many great bands become known to the public. I think iTunes is great. It’s like when I was little, going to the store and buying my favorite 45. If I really dug it I would buy the entire album.”
The Luck of Eden Hall makes music that’s hard to pin point with just a few words, but if pressed to do so, the best words I can find are that the music is a kaleidoscope of psychedelic sounds that hit you like long loved classics no matter how recently created. Listening to the music brought with it a curiosity to find out more about the man behind it. In doing so I learned that Curvey is also an extremely talented painter. When I asked him about this, telling him how beautiful I found his work, and wondering if the inspiration to paint comes from the same place as the inspiration to make music he said “Painting is one of the many things I do for a living and thank you for the compliment. Fortunately people are willing to pay me money to paint for them. Music, painting, cooking, martial arts, gardening, loving, all creativity comes from the same place. Have you ever experienced the loss of time because you were really getting into what you were doing? That’s the same place as well.”
And all of this lead me back to where I started; the April 18th Vintage Vinyl show in Evanston. I wanted to learn how it felt for Curvey running into his old friend once again after 10+ years and if they had been able to pick up where they had once left off:
“It was great to run into him. I was honored that he came to see us. The last time we spoke was backstage at the Aragon Ballroom during ‘Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream tour. I gave a copy of our current album to a mutual friend and he got it to Billy. Billy invited me backstage. Yes it did feel like we picked up right where we left off. Billy is one of my peers. He has always been a friend and always will be.”
In sharing the touching sentiment Billy states, “Watching them play brought back many memories. Greg is a great and influential guitarist and it seems to me now that maybe I stole more from him than I would have admitted to back then”
To learn more about The Luck of Eden Hall please visit their Myspace page
GC: I like the whole thing as one. It represents a Hell of a lot of work, and like any big project, it’s good to be finished with it. Well not really finished with it. We’re rehearsing and getting all the Vol. 2 songs ready for live performances…Right now I’m very excited about the new material I’ve been working on, but we’ll leave that for another conversation…
