Bar None is still basking in the glow of Kathy McCarty's Dead Dog's Eyeball. We consider her first solo album, a collection of Daniel Johnston songs, to be one of our finest releases. And if we seem biased, as parents who think their child interminably golden, her slot in the Village Voice's Critic's Poll as the 36th best album of 1994 should quell any doubts. The EP, Sorry Entertainer is McCarty's 2nd release as a solo artist, was released in November 1995.
The title song of "Sorry Entertainer", a re-release from Dead Dog's Eyeball, leads off the EP with McCarty singing "Where the wind blows/ That's where I go/ Where the moon is/ That's where I am... I'm a loner/ I'm a sorry entertainer". The lyrics are Daniel Johnston's, but Kathy truly is a player in many settings and of different roles. For instance you might mistake her for Axl Rose inside her new CD cover, where she's pictured in male drag. The cover art was taken from her self- produced video for the title song. She stars in her video with Scott Marcus (drummer of their former band Glass Eye), though neither appear as themselves. McCarty plays a bearded butt-smokin' rock dude while Marcus stars as the "Sorry Entertainer" himself in a variety of disguises. Both Kathy and Scott also moonlighted as movie stars when they starred in Slacker, the moving picture anthem of Generation X.
"Rocket Ship" is another re-release off her first album (for which McCarty self-produced another video) and there's a new studio version of "The Creature", also a re-release. "Exodus Song" is a previously unreleased Glass Eye song, and though McCarty embarks upon a new chapter in her career as solo artist, the back pages of her involvement with Glass Eye are still worth touching upon. Bar None plans to combine the former band's first album Huge; Marlo, the EP prior to that; and their fourth and unreleased album in a single CD re-release of all three, due sometime in the near future.
The three songs taken from Dead Dog's Eyeball were among the edgier rock songs, but set into the current EP they blend. Where McCarty's first album was "frequently acoustic", Sorry Entertainer is more a rock fest, prone to college radio airplay. And if the sound isn't enough to thump your feet, the lyrics of slower tempoed songs like "Worried Shoes" will sink your heart into your soles.
On the Bar None Records sampler "Time For A Change" originally released in l989, K. McCarty performed a simple guitar and vocal rendition of Daniel Johnston's song "Living Life." At the time K. a k a Kathy was a singer/guitarist/writer for Glass Eye the Austin Texas based band considered by many to be one of the finest most original talents to come out of that city.Their art-damaged punk rock had many fans including Daniel Johnston, who once listed Glass Eye's "Bent By Nature" in his Top Ten along with nine Beatles albums. The Glass Eye songs "Come Back" and "Kicking the Dog" were inspired by the band's friendship with Daniel. Both songs were covered by Daniel on an album he made with Jad Fair.
Glass Eye put out three albums before going on what has been a long hiatus. K. McCarty took time out from musical endeavors to play the part of the anarchists daughter in the cult hit movie "Slackers." Impressed with the results of "Living Life" Bar None pestered Ms. McCarty for three years to record an album of Daniel Johnston songs.
Daniel Johnston's recordings were almost exclusively done in his parents basement on a simple cassette recorder and chronicled on a long series of self released album-length cassette tapes. The homemade releases featured xerox cartoon illustrations by Daniel. Some of the recordings were ultimately released on CD by Homestead with additional recordings on Shimmy Disc. Daniel has developed a strong international cult following. His songs have been covered by Sonic Youth, firehose, the Dead Milkmen and Yo La Tengo (who did "Speeding Motorcycle" for Bar None). The late Kurt Cobain was a fan who was often seen on MTV sporting his "Hi How Are You" T-Shirt.
Along with longtime Glass Eye collaborator Brian Beattie, K. McCarty went through the hundreds of songs in the Johnston catalog. While staying true to the original inspiration of Daniel Johnston's low-fi basement recordings, the pair built a remarkable album of elaborate productions that bring a technicolor brilliance to Daniel's songs. Each song receives a special treatment that finds the album running the gamut from Beatle's psychedelia, to lounge standards, to Broadway Show tunes, to Beefheart skronk. There are even a couple of numbers that sound suspiciously like Glass Eye.
Meanwhile Daniel Johnston has released his major label debut on Atlantic Records produced by the Butthole Surfers' Paul Leary.