Margaret Bauerstellastar*
stellastar*
RCA Records
Grade: B+
Final Word: the sleeper hit of 2003.
If you’ve read Cadenza’s album reviews over the past year (noble soul!), you’ve no doubt seen “new wave” and “New York” stuck together in any number of ways to describe a band’s sound. For better or for worse, the 80s-obsessed denizens of the Big Apple having been digging deep into their record collections, pulling out albums like Joy Division’s “Closer” and the Cure’s “Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me” and trying, often in vain, to put their own original spin on the 80s’ post-punk style. stellastarr* represent the successful faction of this trend. Their self-titled debut is so obviously derivative that it starts to sound like a tribute album (“Jenny” = Pixies, “A Million Reasons” = The Cure, “Pulp Song” = (duh) Pulp), but the songs are so damn good and singer Shawn Christensen’s voice is so feverishly yelpy that they somehow succeed, even admirably.
If there were ever a group to pigeonhole as THE stereotypical New York hipster band, it just might be stellastarr* (although Interpol are more commercially successful and have sillier hair). They’re four black-clothes-sporting, pronouncedly skinny art school friends who work as artists and cellists for their day jobs. Their album, as noted earlier, pays tribute to all the requisite 80s bands. And yet, “stellastarr*” is a wonderfully catchy debut, packed to the brim with its own merits. “In The Walls” is a great tune, beginning with a darting guitar line (or is it synth?) before growing into a doom-and-gloom rocker, with Christensen’s vocals expanding to a thunderous wail. (There’s a video for this song on the band’s website, www.stellastarr.com, if you want to see these merry minstrels in the flesh.) “Jenny” is more playful, with bassist Amanda Tannen (no relation to Biff) throwing in some “oh-oh-ohs” over the song’s multiple catchy guitar lines. “A Million Reasons” immediately sounds like a song you’ve known your whole life, and “My Coco” and “No Weather” are a one-two punch of fun, get-up-and-shake-it alt-rock.
The second half of the album is only slightly less solid than the first. “Moongirl” is a mostly instrumental number that sounds like it forgot half its lyrics, and “Homeland” loosens things up a little too much, although the rubber-band bass lines are a welcome treat. Again, “Pulp Song” sounds a lot like Pulp, even a lot like Pulp’s biggest hit, “Common People,” but it ends the album well, on a wild, howling note. In truth, there’s not one of these songs that I don’t look forward to hearing in concert on Saturday. “stellastarr*” starts off a bit unassuming, but it has become one of my favorite albums from last year, earning more repeated listens than hyped artists like the Strokes or the Rapture. Expect a fantastic show, with the band perhaps cranking the knobs up a bit higher for the loud ‘n’ live experience.
stellastarr* will be joined by the Killers, four young dudes from Las Vegas who like to keep it synthy. Their latest single, “Somebody Told Me,” is full of sleazy, coke-laced keyboard lines and just the right amount of bisexual sneering (“Somebody told me / That you had a boyfriend / Who looked like a girlfriend / Who I had in February of last year”). In other words, Saturday is shaping up to be freakin’ great. The Gargoyle has put on some great gigs so far this year (Broken Social Scene, Q and not U, Alaska!), but stellastarr* are looking to be the icing on the cake. It’s gonna be stellar.
Concert Info
stellastarr* with the Killers, Ambulance, and the Evening
$5
Saturday, April 17, at the Gargoyle
Doors at 8, show starts at 9