“Circus”
from the album The Sights
2005
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In the summer of 1998 — brought together by a slew of disparate-yet-alluring musical reference points — high school friends Eddie Baranek (vocals/guitar), Mike Trombley (drums), and Mark Leahey (bass/vocals) formed The Sights. The trio began playing around their hometown of Detroit shortly thereafter, around which time Trombley, founding drummer, headed to California for what would come to be a three-year respite from the band and also the impetus for a revolving door of drummers, bassist and keyboard players. Undaunted, The Sights took to the studio and began recording their debut album, Are You Green?, at Jim Diamond’s Ghetto Recorders in Detroit.
 The Sights |
Originally released in June 1999, Are You Green? was picked up by L.A.-based Fall of Rome Records and re-released the following year. Never big on rest, The Sights went to work on their sophomore album, Got What We Want (released in 2002). With this, the band’s freakishly precocious ability to blend frenetic garage rock, Motown and ’60s pop into something equal parts classic and catchy got them noticed. Got What We Want was released in the U.K. a year later, garnering them some very nice words from both the British press (NME: “(The album) is a revelation — a treasure trove of sparky and wildly immediate songwriting”) and the not-so British press (Rolling Stone: “At last– a new Detroit-garage band that comes in colors”). The Sights hit the road for a year of touring both countries, including a 10-week stint sleeping inside the group’s 1991 Ford Econoline van and stealing bagels for sustenance.
In the spring of 2004, The Sights — now including relative newbie Bobby Emmett as organist/bassist and Keith Fox as drummer — caught the ear of ex-Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha, who signed them to his own Scratchie Records (an imprint of New Line Records). And with that, the band headed back to Ghetto Recorders to record their self-titled third LP, The Sights, released in April 2005. No small feat, the album combines the unobtrusive honesty of The Band with slivers of influence from The Sights’ own personal record collections: Ike & Tina, Solomon Burke, Everly Brothers, Bob Seger, Tim Hardin and all manner of raucous songwriting. The end result is an album that’s classic, not derivative — filled with swagger and deference — and ridiculously catchy. Really.