The Lotos Eaters have just released their self-titled debut, and they couldn’t be any happier with the results. The Des Moines quintet have risen above other local bands behind being named Cityview’s Best Des Moines Band and receiving great reviews from The Register’s Patrick Beach.

“He even likes us, and he’s pretty hard to please,” lead singer Shawn McAninch said. “It’s no secret that he’s not into progressive music, but he’s into us. Everyone’s been really good to us.”

Well, maybe not everyone. According to McAninch, a member of the Rathbones recently wrote into Cityview claiming the Lotos Eaters bought their crowning of best band. “That’s bullshit about Todd [Ferson] buying it,” McAninch explained.

Part of the jealousy from other bands comes from the success The Lotos Eaters have had with entrepenuer Todd Ferson. The manager took over The Eaters in 1994 and has since produced the band’s CD and created a masterpiece marketing campaign.

“The letter read something like, ‘Just goes to show what money can do, while all the real hard-working bands have been struggling for years,'” McAninch said. “What people who claim this don’t understand is that The Lotos Eaters have been around since 1988 and even longer than that behind other names.”

“We know about struggling as much as any other band. We’ve just been really fortunate to get Todd to help us.”

Ferson is a good friend of McAninch: the two have worked together for six years. Ferson owns a number of successful businesses, including Lazer X and Century Systems. The Lotos Eaters are currently appearing in a commercial for Ferson’s limousine service.

“I knew Todd for a long time, but he never knew I could sing,” McAninch added. “I just decided one day that I wanted to sing in a band, and I called him in Australia and told him what I was doing. He thought I was going crazy, but when he came back and heard us, he loved it.”

The Lotos Eaters had about three hours’ worth of original material when Ferson first heard them. “I think that’s really important,” he said. “Not many bands have that much solid material.”

Ferson’s marketing know-how has developed a fan-base for the band of over 20,000 people. The Lotos Eaters were featured in over 1,000 laser shows last summer, including two songs in the State Fair show.

“As far as I know, we’re the only unsigned band in history to be featured in a laser rock show,” McAninch said. “We also had a great showing at the South By Southwest show last year.”

The Lotos Eaters are Tom Hollister on lead guitar, Tom Houghton on keyboard, George Naset on bass guitar, Dave Olinger on drums and McAninch on vocals.

The band’s influences range from Bach to punk. Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, the Grateful Dead and Phish have also been pinned to the band’s complex sound.

“We’ve been compared to so many different bands,” McAninch said. “I think a lot of it comes from our songs being so long. I’ve even been compared to Meat Loaf, maybe because our voices are similar.”

The Lotos Eaters’ CD goes on sale at Best Buy April 20th. McAninch said, the band will be handing out coupons for the disc at Music Fest on Saturday. They will be headlining the event which begins at 3 p.m. and runs until 9 p.m. The performance will be held at Clyde Williams’ Field, just west of Helser Hall.