THE SIGHTS
''GOT WHAT WE WANT''
JUN 2002
37:20
1/Don't Want You Back
Eddie Baranek/3:21
2/Be Like Normal
Eddie Baranek/2:50
3/Sorry Revisited
Eddie Baranek/3:14
4/It'd Be Nice (To Have You Around)
Eddie Baranek/2:39
5/One and Only
Eddie Baranek/2:40
6/Got What I Want
Dave Shettler/2:23
7/Last Chance
Eddie Baranek/2:45
8/Everyone's a Poet
Eddie Baranek / Mark Leahey/3:04
9/Sick and Tired
Eddie Baranek/4:09
10/Sweet Little Woman
Zach Curd / Mark Leahey/2:46
11/Nobody
Eddie Baranek/7:29
Eddie Baranek /Guitar, Vocals
Bobby Emmet /Organ
Jim Diamond /Guitar, Guitar (12 String), Guitar (Electric), Producer
Mark Leahey /Bass, Vocals
Dave Shettler /Drums, Guitar, Mellotron, Organ, Vocals
REVIEW
by Bryan Thomas
Got What We Want is a melodically complex and accomplished album, and ample evidence that this young band from Detroit have a tacit understanding of what made primal '60s garage rock and early-'70s power pop so exhilarating and memorable in the first place. Not only do the Sights seem like they've educated themselves with repeated listenings to albums from a Rock History 101 syllabus, but they have an audible confidence and forcefulness that one usually only finds in bands who've been playing together for many years. Indeed, they have: Eddie Baranek (vocals/guitars/keyboards) and Mark Leahey (bass/vocals) have been making music together since 1995, when both were classmates at De LaSalle Collegiate High in Detroit. In October 2001 -- a few short months before they were to enter Ghetto Recorders to record this sophomore effort for L.A.'s Fall of Rome -- Baranek and Leahey made the decision to replace longtime bandmate Eugene Strobe (now playing with the Witches and the Alphabet) with a new drummer, Dave Shettler (ex-Moods For Moderns). This last-minute switch-out might have slowed the band's momentum, but now seems to have renewed their resolve to successfully accomplish the task at hand. Consequently, Got What We Want is a concentrated and well-produced group effort with strong and varied songs. The super-charged power pop numbers -- "Don't Want You Back," "Be Like Normal," "Sweet Little Woman" -- are rife with crunchy guitars, catchy percussive elements, and memorable hooks. Meanwhile, the title song, "Got What We Want," and the last track, "Nobody," recall the bombastic heaviosity of Mott the Hoople, Humble Pie, and Led Zeppelin at their most glorious. The main bass riff from the blues-soaked "Nobody," in fact, plays like an homage to Zeppelin's "How Many More Times?" (the song -- with lyrics purloined from Albert King's "The Hunter" -- may have also provided the Sights with their moniker). There's also an enjoyable assortment of keyboards on the album; drummer Dave Shettler contributed Hammond organ and swirling Mellotron. The fathoms-deep Got What We Want should provide the Sights with a promising and (hopefully) propitious future once the world discovers its many treasures.
BIOGRAPHY
by Bryan Thomas
The Sights' lead guitarist/vocalist Eddie Baranek and bassist Mark Leahey (who both share songwriting and vocal duties) have been playing music together since the age of 13, forming this band at the beginning of their senior year of high school. They played their first shows together in early 1998. Baranek and Leahey were still under the age of 18 at the time, and were not old enough to remember firsthand the bands that seem to have had the biggest influence on them, including edgy late-'70s punk/new wave acts like the Buzzcocks and early Jam, and certainly did not remember those bands' influences: British mods like the early Who or the Creation. In late 1999, drummer Eugene Strobe came on board, replacing a series of drummers, adding a raucously wild Keith Moon-like quality to their live performances. The youthful trio recorded songs for a debut album, Are You Green?, at Jim Diamond's Ghetto Recorders that same year. The album was issued in 2000 by Spectator Records, but the small Detroit-based indie folded not too long afterwards. Fall of Rome Records in Los Angeles reissued Are You Green? in 2001, as well as The Sights' 2002 follow-up, Got What We Want. Three years later, the band released a self-titled album on New Line/Scratchie. The band returned in 2010 with the release of Most of What Follows Is True.
''GOT WHAT WE WANT''
JUN 2002
37:20
1/Don't Want You Back
Eddie Baranek/3:21
2/Be Like Normal
Eddie Baranek/2:50
3/Sorry Revisited
Eddie Baranek/3:14
4/It'd Be Nice (To Have You Around)
Eddie Baranek/2:39
5/One and Only
Eddie Baranek/2:40
6/Got What I Want
Dave Shettler/2:23
7/Last Chance
Eddie Baranek/2:45
8/Everyone's a Poet
Eddie Baranek / Mark Leahey/3:04
9/Sick and Tired
Eddie Baranek/4:09
10/Sweet Little Woman
Zach Curd / Mark Leahey/2:46
11/Nobody
Eddie Baranek/7:29
Eddie Baranek /Guitar, Vocals
Bobby Emmet /Organ
Jim Diamond /Guitar, Guitar (12 String), Guitar (Electric), Producer
Mark Leahey /Bass, Vocals
Dave Shettler /Drums, Guitar, Mellotron, Organ, Vocals
REVIEW
by Bryan Thomas
Got What We Want is a melodically complex and accomplished album, and ample evidence that this young band from Detroit have a tacit understanding of what made primal '60s garage rock and early-'70s power pop so exhilarating and memorable in the first place. Not only do the Sights seem like they've educated themselves with repeated listenings to albums from a Rock History 101 syllabus, but they have an audible confidence and forcefulness that one usually only finds in bands who've been playing together for many years. Indeed, they have: Eddie Baranek (vocals/guitars/keyboards) and Mark Leahey (bass/vocals) have been making music together since 1995, when both were classmates at De LaSalle Collegiate High in Detroit. In October 2001 -- a few short months before they were to enter Ghetto Recorders to record this sophomore effort for L.A.'s Fall of Rome -- Baranek and Leahey made the decision to replace longtime bandmate Eugene Strobe (now playing with the Witches and the Alphabet) with a new drummer, Dave Shettler (ex-Moods For Moderns). This last-minute switch-out might have slowed the band's momentum, but now seems to have renewed their resolve to successfully accomplish the task at hand. Consequently, Got What We Want is a concentrated and well-produced group effort with strong and varied songs. The super-charged power pop numbers -- "Don't Want You Back," "Be Like Normal," "Sweet Little Woman" -- are rife with crunchy guitars, catchy percussive elements, and memorable hooks. Meanwhile, the title song, "Got What We Want," and the last track, "Nobody," recall the bombastic heaviosity of Mott the Hoople, Humble Pie, and Led Zeppelin at their most glorious. The main bass riff from the blues-soaked "Nobody," in fact, plays like an homage to Zeppelin's "How Many More Times?" (the song -- with lyrics purloined from Albert King's "The Hunter" -- may have also provided the Sights with their moniker). There's also an enjoyable assortment of keyboards on the album; drummer Dave Shettler contributed Hammond organ and swirling Mellotron. The fathoms-deep Got What We Want should provide the Sights with a promising and (hopefully) propitious future once the world discovers its many treasures.
BIOGRAPHY
by Bryan Thomas
The Sights' lead guitarist/vocalist Eddie Baranek and bassist Mark Leahey (who both share songwriting and vocal duties) have been playing music together since the age of 13, forming this band at the beginning of their senior year of high school. They played their first shows together in early 1998. Baranek and Leahey were still under the age of 18 at the time, and were not old enough to remember firsthand the bands that seem to have had the biggest influence on them, including edgy late-'70s punk/new wave acts like the Buzzcocks and early Jam, and certainly did not remember those bands' influences: British mods like the early Who or the Creation. In late 1999, drummer Eugene Strobe came on board, replacing a series of drummers, adding a raucously wild Keith Moon-like quality to their live performances. The youthful trio recorded songs for a debut album, Are You Green?, at Jim Diamond's Ghetto Recorders that same year. The album was issued in 2000 by Spectator Records, but the small Detroit-based indie folded not too long afterwards. Fall of Rome Records in Los Angeles reissued Are You Green? in 2001, as well as The Sights' 2002 follow-up, Got What We Want. Three years later, the band released a self-titled album on New Line/Scratchie. The band returned in 2010 with the release of Most of What Follows Is True.
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