***Roadrunners by EUREKA CALIFORNIA comes a decade in for the band, and it’s a record only possible to write by having had that span of time to cycle through members, tour and sleep on endless floors or when there are no floors in the van at rest stops or Wal-Mart parking lots, argue over where to eat, turn around after missing exits, log those relentless hours of driving all day to get to the venue only to sit around hours and hours more ‘til performing. A decade of side hustles and and soul-sucking jobs just to be able to go on the road and continue the grind for those handful of minutes you get to perform or to record. Roadrunners, their fourth album in six years, had Eureka California returning to Leeds, UK, to record again with MJ of the band Hookworms at his Suburban Home Studios, and this second time around you can hear Eureka California being a bit more at home in the studio. The “play it hard and fast and whatever gets left behind… oh well, it should have kept up” attitude from their last album Versus has been replaced with layered guitars and vocals, sonic experiments, and the extra time to try to get every song just right. No filler, all hooks, loud drums, and smart lyrics. It’s a record made by a band who live for live performance, who work to tour, who tour to create.
LP $17.75
05/11/2018
CD $11.00
05/11/2018
***In just under a year since releasing their last album Versus, EUREKA CALIFORNIA are back with a new single, “Wigwam.” The band had a set plan in mind when going into the studio: get in and knock it out and release a single to hold over ‘til recording the next full length. With Versus they went overseas to the UK and recorded with MJ at Suburban Home, but for “Wigwam” they decided to record here in their hometown of Athens, Georgia, with DAVE BARBE (Sugar / Mercyland / Dave Barbe & the Quick Hooks) at his Chase Park Transduction Studio. Wasting no time, they recorded and mixed the single in one afternoon. A single on a tight budget, three tracks in under 8 minutes, hand-decorated sleeves—everything about this is economical. Eureka California have two brand new tracks, “Wigwam” and “Only Birds (No Feathers),” and a cover of Superchunk’s “Slack Motherfucker.”
7" $4.90
03/03/2017
***‘Summer’s here and the time is right for getting blackout drunk in the street.’ EUREKA CALIFORNIA's going way too fast, and if they don’t slow down they’re gonna crash. Like peak Elvis Costello, they think if they keep the wisecracks and the puns coming fast enough they can avoid facing the truth—that death comes for everyone and nothing dies faster than dreams. Versus, their 3rd album in 3 years, is the first one recorded in a studio and it gives EC a power they’ve never had before. It’s incredible that two people can make such a big sound, but JAKE WARD and MARIE A. UHLER have developed a near-telepathic ability after years of playing together, and while they’ve always been good, Versus is their first stab at greatness, soaked in television and gin and the kind of language you hear everyday but you never heard quite like this. Endlessly self-referential and endlessly self-destructive, stuck on an endless treadmill of tension and release, of megalomania and doubt. Versus is agoraphobic fight songs, songs about loving television more than people because people always let you down and the static from the set makes more sense than the static coming out of their mouths. EC songs exist in a world where ordering a pizza is fraught with anxiety and you have to laugh to keep from dying.
LP $15.50
03/25/2016
CD $9.25
03/25/2016
MC $6.45
03/25/2016
***Crunch marks the second EUREKA CALIFORNIA album in 18 months, eleven more songs you can't stop humming. In an age where everything's overplanned and under thought, underwhelming and overwrought, EC's spontaneity feels like a breath of fresh air. They walk the fine line between not giving a fuck and not giving a shit and come down on the right side every time. Crunch moves with an easy, breezy confidence. Just when you think they're only tossing off, they turn around and toss off a powerpop classic like 'This Ain't No A-Side,' that can stand proudly alongside early Jam or Plimsouls. Like a baseball pitcher who knows how to change speeds, EC works the corners of the plate, leaving the listener dizzy and off-balance, entertained but needing to go back and listen again.
LP $14.00
06/03/2014
CD $9.25
06/03/2014
***Only the young truly know what it means to age, when every torn calendar page mocks you—it whispers in your ear that your dreams are a fraud, that you’re going to end up as defeated and disappointed as your parents whether you like it or not. This fear fills the songs of EUREKA CALIFORNIA with a dark humor and a sense of yearning that is rare in today’s scene. The songs push and they keep on pushing. While their peers sit around getting stoned, throwing the kind of tantrums that only the lazy & privileged can ever find meaningful, Eureka California knows that there are millions of people out there who work for a living, and they stand in solidarity with the workers. When the Taco Bell workers unionize next year and go on strike for a living wage, the agitated garage pop of Eureka California will be the soundtrack to their bonfires. RIYL: Superchunk, Sugar, Archers of Loaf. Limited to 300 copies with in a three-color silkscreen sleeve. Includes a digital download.
7" $6.30
03/29/2011