Part of a past Western Michigan University class will reunite on the stage of The Club Soda when Maryz Eyez and Leisure McCorkle & the Empire of Sound perform Friday. The performance will also mark the release of a Maryz Eyez's EP, titled, 10 Wasted Minutes.
McCorkle is a past WMU graduate instructor of comparative religion. Maryz Eyez drummer Mike Burlett attended McCorkle's class, which is where the connection was made between the two future stage-sharing acts, according to Maryz Eyez bassist/vocalist Eric Wagler.

"We became very good friends because of the similar interest in music," Wagler said. "We just kept in touch ever since he moved back to North Carolina."

Wagler said the band has future performances with McCorkle planned, as well.

"We're actually going out there to do some shows with him over Christmas Break," he said.

Wagler said Maryz Eyez -- which also includes guitarist/vocalist Ryan Wagler, Eric's brother, and guitarist/vocalist Mike Nichols -- has good expectations for its upcoming release.

"So far, everybody's really liked it a lot," he said. "We got some play on 103.3-FM WKFR. They did 'Smash it or Trash it' and it had a really good success there. The response has been well so far."

Wagler describes Maryz Eyez as an energizing pop-punk band .

"We try to make the shows very humorous and we even have a mascot," he said. "We have a guy who dresses up in a chicken outfit and a diaper. We try to put on a good show and people have been enjoying it so far."

The band's release, 10 Wasted Minutes, which includes six tracks and three full songs, was recorded in Kalamazoo at Broadside Productions. However, the material on the EP isn't entirely new.

"This is the second time we recorded them," Wagler said of the three full-length songs on the EP. "We recorded them independently once and we weren't happy with the sound quality, so we went back to Roach and redid it."

Wagler said the first time the songs were released, the band took full production responsibility.

"We had access to a studio where my brother used to go to school," he said. "That was at Sienna Heights. We just redid two out of the three songs, added another one, went to Roach and had him engineer it."

Before that, Maryz Eyez released a full-length album five years ago, titled Mary Go Round. Wagler said the band's sound has changed dramatically since then.

This time around, Wagler said Maryz Eyez is planning on releasing 500 copies of the EP, with more on the way if sales go as the band members are anticipating. Wagler also said another full-length album might be in the band's future.

"People have been riding us for a long time to get some new material on a CD but it's something that we wanted to do also," he said. "We were in the process of scheduling a full-length album, but we didn't feel that the songs were strong enough. We're writing some more that we feel are better than the ones we we're going to do. So, we're going to hold off for a couple more months to make another full-length album."

If the band's album sales do fare well and Maryz Eyez finds itself on tour with larger national acts, Wagler said he knew just who it should be.

"We all grew up, all throughout high school, being really big Nirvana fans, so I guess what comes to my head first is Dave Grohl," Wagler said, acknowledging the fact that the current Foo Fighters frontman/Queens of the Stone Age drummer may be quite a bit older than the members of Maryz Eyez. "He'll still be rockin'."

Wagler said performing with McCorkle should definitely prove to be an entertaining experience for people both on and off the stage.

"Leisure puts on a very good show," he said. "That's why we asked him to come back out and play with us. They're just a good, fun band."

Maryz Eyez and McCorkle have performed together once before at The Club Soda for Julius Bragg's CD release party on Aug. 29.

Before that show, though, McCorkle said his first impression of Maryz Eyez was a little different from what the band actually turned out to be.

"I thought they were going to be a heavy metal band," he said.

McCorkle, who said Eliot Smith, Spiritualized, Thursday, Del Amitri and The Vines are currently on rotation in his stereo, described his band as a power trio with a musical style that mixes Elvis Costello and Urge Overkill.

"We're part of this '70s meets '80s new wave movement behind The Strokes and stuff that's not as popular yet," he said.

Leisure McCorkle & the Empire of Sound, which also includes drummer Gary Guthrie and bassist Randall Johnson released a full-length album on MoRisen Records on Nov. 5, titled Jet Set Baby.

"After we released the album, sales went off the hook for Amazon.com and the Billboard indie charts," McCorkle said.

McCorkle, who currently teaches in the religion department at a private school in North Carolina, said he talked his label into getting tickets to one of his shows for his entire class. He said there was a striking difference between what his students expected of him in the classroom and what they saw at the concert.

"It was like night and day," McCorkle said.

The upcoming show with Maryz Eyez might have a few surprises, too, McCorkle said, as he is occasionally known to incorporate pyro-technic confetti streamers into his performance.

"Anything we can do to blow up things is good," McCorkle said. "We have light boxes that are 1,500 watts. When you stand on them you just emit light like a god."

Maryz Eyez's CD release show with Leisure McCorkle will begin at 8 p.m. Friday at The Club Soda. For more information, call The Club Soda at 342-8067.

by Matt Russell
A&E Editor
December 03, 2002