INWARD EYE

Brothers Dave, Kyle and Anders Erickson make up Inward Eye, one of Winnipeg’s most successful current local bands. Formed in 1999, they were performing covers of bands like The Who at small talent shows at the West End Cultural Centre by 2001.

Fast-forward to 2010, Inward Eye has been a little busier with gigs including the East Pacific Music Forum in Hong Kong, playing with other Canadian talent, including delhi 2 dublin and Jully Black and, more notably, a widely broadcast set at the prestigious closing ceremonies at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Their most recent album, Throwing Bricks Instead of Kisses, which includes songs such as Shame, Heroin Heart and Never Mind The Hipsters, was actually recorded five years ago, but released in 2009 due to snags in the release process.

The band has been touring with these songs, but to them, they’re old news.

“It didn’t really feel fresh to us,” said David Erickson, the band’s bassist and lead vocalist, in regards to touring on an album that was written and recorded so long ago.

But with a brand new five-song EP recorded with a new producer, Inward Eye has more recordings to share. The producer has been encouraging them to be more experimental in their recording, Erickson said.

“We’ve got a whole bunch of new stuff, and it’s not really in our classic, punk kind of vein,” he said.

Reminiscent of its humble beginnings, Inward Eye will play the West End Cultural Centre on Friday, Sept. 17, but this time, they’ll be headlining. Impressive, considering the talent in the accompanying acts: The Bokononists, Sons of York and Cashgrab.

Visit www.inwardeye.com.

—Samuel Swanson

HAYES CARLL

Consider this: the average temperature back in Hayes Carll’s hometown of Austin, Texas, is still a steamy 32 C. The forecasted temperature for his show in Winnipeg on Sept. 17 is 17 C.

Still, Carll seems to be handling the cool temperatures as he makes his way north for a slew of shows across western Canada.

“It’s too damn hot (in Texas),” Carll said in a recent interview with BeatRoute, an Alberta music magazine. “I’m looking forward to (getting) up there.”

Carll learned how to play the guitar at 14. However, his career burned slow as he found success in writing songs for other people rather than for himself.

Trouble in Mind, his label debut, quickly changed that. The combination of folk, country and rock with brainy, quirky lyrics earned him considerable praise, and the #1 spot on Amazon’s country charts in 2008.

His satirical song She Left Me For Jesus earned him the song of the year title at the 7th Annual Americana Music Association Honors & Awards, and Don Imus – before being fired from his radio gig for using a racial slur – called it the “greatest country song ever.”

Before writing his first song when he was 18, Carll wrote poetry and short stories.

“That opened a door as I always loved music and singing and realized that I could put all these feelings down quicker in three minutes than a 300-page novel,” he said. “So, I combined the two and it took off.”

Watch Carll perform at the Park Theatre on Friday, Sept. 17. Visit www.hayescarll.com.

—Matt Preprost

THE FLAMING LIPS

Since 1983, these Oklahoma City natives have released 13 albums, and have been called one of “50 Bands to See Before You Die” by Q Magazine, the U.K.’s biggest music magazine.

The Lips’s infamous live show has made them a staple of the U.S. and international festival circuit over the years, where their show has grown to include costumes, balloons, puppets, video projections, complicated light shows and front man Wayne Coyne’s famous man-sized plastic bubble.

But despite their longevity and circus-like live performances, the Flaming Lips have only had one U.S. hit single, She Don’t Use Jelly and two very successful albums, The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.

The band has won two Grammy awards for Best Rock Instrumental Performance: in 2002 for Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon (Utopia Planitia), and again in 2006 for The Wizard Turns On…The Giant Silver Flashlight and Puts on His Werewolf Moccasins.

The Lips have been crossing the globe in 2010 in support of their 2009 releases: Embryonic and The Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs with Henry Rollins and Peaches Doing The Dark Side of the Moon.

Coyne describes their 2010 tour – which included headlining the Bonnaroo Music Festival in June – as “more impossibly Orange (like the sunshine) than ever,” according to a recent press release.

You can see the Flaming Lips at the Burton Cummings Theatre on Tuesday, Sept. 21. Visit www.flaminglips.com.

—Robin Dudgeon