JOHN CAMERON MITCHELL & EYELIDS – "TURNING TIME AROUND" EP: A love Letter to Lou Reed [COLOR VINYL] – New 12"

From John Cameron Mitchell: Lou Reed is probably my favorite musical artist. Hal Willner and Laurie Anderson asked me and my "Anthem: Homunculus" composer Bryan Weller to sing "Turning Time Around" (from Lou's album Ecstasy) and my favorite Velvet Underground ballad "I Found a Reason" at a special Lou Reed Day at Lincoln Center. I extrapolated on Lou's melody and, inspired by performance artist Justin Vivian Bond, mashed it up with WB Yeats' poem "The Second Coming" rewriting "what rough beast slouches towards Bethlehem to be born" as "what orange beast..." Who could that refer to I wonder? My buddy Chris Slusarenko, who produced our Hedwig tribute album "Wig in a Box", invited me to sing Turning with his wonderful Portland Oregon band Eyelids. Bryan suggested we record it as a benefit disc for my Mom's Alzheimer's care. We added "I Found" and my late boyfriend Jack Steeb's favorite Lou song "Waves of Fear" (Jack used to work for Lou). REM guitarist Peter Buck hopped on as producer, Hedwig designer Miguel Villalobos came up with killer cover art and here we are! I love Eyelids and Lou and my Mom and I hope you will too.

From Eyelids: As you know we are leading up to the release of our 3rd LP “The Accidental Falls” which comes out in Feb. 2020. But something happened on the way and it’s coming out right and sweetly. After John Cameron Mitchell (of Hedwig & The Angry Inch) joined us on stage at our last record release show for a slew of covers we headed into the studio the following week. Covering three Lou Reed songs (some quite obscure) and putting our own stamp on them we present to you the “Turning Time Around” EP. All profits from this recording will go to the immediate health care costs of John Cameron Mitchell’s mom, Joan.


Again we thank you for all the support and John thanks you from the bottom of his heart for the support for his Mom.