Music Review: Mushman - Eddie Do
Published November 16, 2007
Akin to the same effect of a lit match on a perfectly sunny day, producing a subsequent yuxtaposing of both lights. There is a melodic overabundance pouring from this debut album by alternative Acoustic Folk/Pop-rock band Mushman and their leaders, actors, and musicians Patrick Fugit and and David Fetzer from Salt Lake City.
David Fetzer plays the guitar, the harmonica, some additonal keys, the guitar-banjo, and he's the main singer. Patrick Fugit plays the guitar, the Flamenco guitar, the harmonica, and occasionally he dares to sing a bit. Camden Chamberlain plays the bass and he's the recording wizard who does the mixing and mastering of the songs. Doug Grose plays the keys and Ian Aldous is the drummer. Their influences are varied: Iron and Wine, Elliott Smith, Nick Drake, The Shins, Grandaddy, Neil Young, Cat Stevens, etc.
The band's name refers to movie star Steve McQueen, who used it as an alias: "He would check into hotels under the name Harvey Mushman", Fugit said, "McQueen was pretty cool, and we couldn't think of anything better. So it stuck."

Their debut album Eddie Do, released on November 2, 2007 is a quirky compilation of stories of the life of a fictional kid. “Eddie is sort of a... um... metaphor for my neurosis in relation to girls. I think it’s manifested as a 6 year old boy – that’s my emotional maturity when it comes to dating” -David Fetzer tries to explain the biographical origins of Eddie in an interview.
The record contains thirteen tracks written by Mushman, except "From the ground, Looking up," which is by David and Scott Fetzer and "Brennan's Theme" composed by Seth Bernard (Earthworkmusic.com). His contrasts broaden the emotional childlike roller coaster vibe providing a naughty comfort while listening and even quite time after listening to it.
The first track, "Eddie's Balloon" has a similar atmosphere and melodic line to a song called "Spaceman," "Eddie was afraid to die but didn't know why" introduces in the fearfull mind of Eddie the young lonely antihero: "from his window" he waited, maybe a revelation looking at a distant high heaven, with a sad choir extending in a mute and inconclusive instrumental silt.
The second, "It's Too High" is like a brief joke through a vocal counting up (6,7,8).
Third song, "I don't Know" was featured in the hilarious comedy film Bickford Schmeckler's Cool Ideas (2006) by Scott Lew and is about the continuous doubting by the paranoid kid: "I don't know if you tell the truth, I don't know if I want you too... I don't know what to do, what to do with you, I don't know you." It makes him look like a particularly traumatized boy by mercurial femenine behaviour.
In the fourth "Pirate Pete" Fetzer would confess: “I was going to school at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan for acting and theater. I was in a production where I was playing a character that had syphilis and so I was in a strange mind-set during that production. There is a certain scene where he is loosing his mind and it was really messing with me. At the same time, my roommate had this figurine of a pirate with a provocative looking telescope... the two sort of combined and then I wrote the song”. Certainly, a weird inspiration for a song whose obsessive request is "I wish you were my friend".
- Music Review: Mushman - Eddie Do
- Published: November 16, 2007
- Type: Review
- Section: Music
- Writer: Kendra
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Comments
thank you! I forgot to mention the cool artwork and layout of the record by Susan Fawcett.






Hey, Kendra.
Thanks for the great review!
Susan