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Four Freshmen Fans like 'iKE' It's another side of the Freshmen's very talented Brian Eichenberger By Mike McCoy

As Four Freshmen fans already know, Brian Eichenberger is a Twin Cities based singer/songwriter and one of the Four Freshmen. But when he's not on the road with that group, he performs as iKE, chosen he says because it recalls his nickname "back in the day."

And Brian's fans will be pleased to know iKE's first album, "one," is now available on CD and mp3.

As his iKEMusic Web site explains: "After 13 years of writing, playing guitar and singing lead for legendary 1950's vocal group The Four Freshmen, iKE was ready to do something completely different.

"He gathered up 10 of his best original tunes and enlisted longtime friend and drummer Tait Cameron and Twin Cities producer Jon Herchert to help him make a record.

"Next came 13 months of tracking, tweaking and polishing the tunes; mining for hooks in the dark confines of Jon's underground recording studio. The three finally emerged in the summer of 2009, pale-faced, squinting their dilated eyes as the sun sparkled off their brand new CD-R master of 'one'.

This record has no filler, no 'B' sides: Just 10 of the tightest, catchiest, well-crafted pop tunes to ever vibrate a speaker cone.

Interested? You can listen free and download here as well as also buy it at iKEMusic.

Here are some comments made online by listeners about his effort. (References to EICH FIVE will be explained below.)

"I fired up my MP3 player after downloading this album and have listened to it over and over since...Brian's vocals are smooth and memorable. He has the kind of voice you instantly recognize and won't soon forget. The tunes are imaginative and fun. It's an amazing first album. My fave is "If You Were Mine"...If you're looking for a new band to get behind, this is the one! Buy the album! You won't regret it."

"Every once in a blue moon, a CD comes out that I'll put in my car and end up listening to week after week, falling more in love as time goes by. Eich Five's CD is one of those.

"At first, I was swept up in the simple joy of singing along to all the catchy pop/rock tunes. Lead singer, Brian Eichenberger, is ridiculous in his vocal ability, with the range of Stevie Wonder, a tone reminiscent of Bobby Caldwell crossed with Gino Vannelli, and a tasteful riffing style a la Jason Mraz.

"As if that weren't enough, time revealed more layers of brilliance: clever, thought-provoking lyrics, interesting arrangements, and the most lovely background vocals. (Can you tell I really love this CD?) You owe it to yourself to add Eich Five to your collection--trust me on this."

"EichFive has such a unique sound. They stand alone, unlike anything I've heard. The vocals are beautiful & I look forward to hearing many new albums in the future!"

So what's with the name? In an Aug. 30 blog post, Brian wrote (staying true to the capitalization as it appears in the blog):

"Hey folks. just thought i'd say a quick word about what's happening with the EiCH FiVE project…

"first, a little background info… our record 'one' was made with Tait Cameron (drums), myself (lots of stuff), and a great Twin Cities producer named Jon Herchert.

"Once the record was done, Tait and I brainstormed for a few weeks on what to call this new 'band' that we were "going to put together." (read that last sentence while making little quotation marks with your fingers.)

After coming up with about 100 names, many of which were totally awesome, and some that weren't half-bad, we landed on EiCH FiVE, thinking that it was going to be a 5-piece band…

"yeah, well, so it didn't exactly work out that way. as it turns out, its tricky to get 5 GOOD guys who all had enough 'free' time to experiment with a new band, and give it enough time to make tunes sound tight live.

"so we went with 4 good guys, did a show, and even with 4, scheduling was becoming a problem. That's the thing with trying to book a gig with good players, they're generally tend to work a lot. (this would all be so much simpler if i could just win the stupid lottery, anyway. . .)

"I turned it around in my head a bit and finally decided that I really want to get this thing rolling, and to do that, I need to play more than just the scattered dates when the whole band would be free. (so someday I could actually AFFORD these guys!)

"I realized that I would be better off if my group was scalable; so I could do a solo gig, or with all 4 guys, or with 5 guys, 10 guys, or with the entire London Philharmonic, and still always call it the same thing. London Phil show as yet not confirmed)

"so I'm going with just iKE, which was my sort of nickname back in the day.

"the tunes on the record are the same, but now with this exciting new packaging! wow!"

Want to check out the 'wow' factor? Just head to iKEMusic and start listening.