Stars: "Sad Robots - EP"

[That Skipping Rope.]

Stars is a Canadian indie pop band. Stars' music has been described as "beautiful, eloquent indie pop", characterized by lush instrumentation, nimble production and mixing, narrative lyrics, and soft but nuanced vocals.

I'll be seeing them live in March. Fun, fun. Anyway, I know Will's a fan. "Take Me to The Riot" is AMAZING.

www.myspace.com/stars

[TotallyEnormousExtinctDinosaur]

"Take Me To The Riot" is one of my favorite songs right now. Unfortunately, I listened to clips and none of the others seemed as instant to me. I think with more exposure, the album would grow on me though. I also loved "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead" back in the day (I didn't even realize it was the same band at first )

[backintime]

Yes, this is a great album; I was really late on it, though . "Take To The Riot" is my favourite, it's a fantastic song.

Did anyone hear about all the drama with Pitchfork?

[That Skipping Rope.]

backintime said:

Did anyone hear about all the drama with Pitchfork?

Do tell!

[backintime]

Pitchfork gave the album 7.4 out of 10. Although that's a decent score, the review itself was unfavourable about some of the songs and missed some of the meaning behind them.

The lead singer of Stars didn't agree with the criticism and posted a mature, well thought out MySpace blog in which he threw the toys out of his metaphorical buggy, cunningly changing the name of the reviewer, Ryan Dombal, to Ryan Numballs etc

Monday, August 13, 2007

TORQ’S BLOG
Current mood: worried

hi guys!
i thought since every undergraduate geek living in a state of imposed virginity (i.e. Ryan Numballs) is allowed to effect the the critical discourse in this hellish age we call "now", i too would get in on the moronic inferno and have a bit of a go at blogging myself. I'll try to be trite, smarmy and reductive, dismissive, self congratulatory and smug, ill informed, ignorant and overly simplistic. These characteristics seem compulsory in the blogging world and, like all my fellow internet critics, i just want to be part of the club! so here's a list of arbitrary "truths" and put downs none of which I have any right to express. Listen up! It's important that when the world's ending we distract ourselves form anything real as much as possible! I'm just doing my bit......sorry about all that art we created, we realize now that to speak about life and love and death and sex and NOT stare up our own asses in a state of ironic detachment while doing it was wrong of us. We'll try better next time to create work which is NOTHING but a mirror image of ourselves ten pounds lighter. Want a list of half truths, meaningless criticism and blatant slander? I feel one coming on.....

1. Barricade, one of the songs on our new album "in our bedroom trying to figure what the difference is between 7.4 and 7.5" is about two fascist soccer hooligans who can only top a night of beating old people senseless by having rough anal sex and sniffing glue. I know, I know, figuring that out would require LISTENING to the lyrics which is hard to do when, like Mr. Dumballs, you are simultaneously trying to write a review, masturbate to a picture of St. Vincent and correct some terrible lie about you in your wikipedia entry. You know what a reviewer for Pitchfork makes? 40 bucks a review. You know what they should make? 38.50.....

2. I was an actor once. So was Ronald Reagan. Hitler was a painter. And i understand Sufjan Stevens is into monster truck maintenance. These are the most important things you can possibly know about a person; what they did for laughs when they were 14. Did you know i played henry the fifth? i got bad reviews for that too.....

3.The world is ending. 30 million people are displaced from their homes in India and pakistan, forced out by floods caused by all of US. Meanwhile in Africa armies of children roam the countryside murdering babies and raping old women. Pople are so hungry they slice open bottles of rat poison and eat it. And here at home, children with every advantage in life spend their days discussing the relative merits of Deerhoof's new record. Thanks kids for being as solipsistic, self preening and f**ked up as your parents. WE ALL DESERVE WHAT WE'VE GOT COMING TO US.

4. Art is dead. there is only you, staring at you in the mirror, wondering how to get "the world" to notice that YOU are all that matters....there i am, do you see me? i am doing it too.....i'm just better at it 'cause i have an indie band and a myspace page.

5.my best friends' father passed away 2 days ago. He was a journalist and writer, a joker and a thinker, a man who traveled the world being interested in other people, and helping them when he felt he could. In his long life he was an agitator and a mediator, a father and a friend, a radical and peacemaker. He raised a beautiful child all alone and showed her how to live in beauty. He fought hard and he played hard. He was a real f**king gentleman and a good guy to laugh with.Never once in his life did he ever even consider doing something so innately useless as being a critic. In fact, he despised them. He was too busy being human to stop and piss on other people's visions; I'm going to give him a 9.7......but don't expect me to be that easy on you......

love and hate,
torq (the annoying one from "the stars")

[That Skipping Rope.]

LMFAO

Well, it's certainly an entertaining read.

Also, St. Vincent isn't even that hot.

[That Skipping Rope.]

EPIC EPIC EPIC EPIC EPIC!

I got on stage!

[backintime]

Wow! That's great! Any photos? ha

[That Skipping Rope.]

No photos, but it was awesome. This describes it pretty well:

Stars visited KCA’s Bomhard Theatre on March 26th with Martin Royle (backed-up by Pash who also played their own set). I had heard a smattering of songs from each of Stars albums, but they never became a regular on my playlist. That will change.

The show was in the Bomhard Theatre which has a capacity of about 600. Tickets were $20 and the show was on a rainy, Wednesday night, so the theatre was just over half-full. Stars walked out to “The Beginning After the End” and went right into “The Night Starts Here.” I joked with my brother on the way to the show that I bet that would be their opener, but looking back at it, it just makes sense. These are the first two tracks on their new album, In Our Bedroom After the War. It took a while for the band to get settled into the set. The crowd, largely due to the environment, was split between those standing and those sitting, but lead singer, Torquil Campbell, quickly encouraged everyone to get to their feet. Campbell was also feeling a divide between the stage and the audience because the fans were sitting in complete darkness. After a few requests and a song or two, the lights were turned up. Campbell’s final request was for the audience to come on the stage. At one point there must have been 50 people on the stage sitting and a majority of the rest of the crowd was sitting on and standing around the tables on top of the orchestra pit. Some fans were even taking pictures with the band between songs. After this point, the band settled in and the crowd really got into the show. [KCA officials had everyone leave the stage a song or two after due to the weight on the orchestra pit.]

The crowd was very young with the average age around 17-22. This is probably due to the bands success in reaching this demographic (at least three of their songs were on the Fox TV show, The OC). Given their other options, I’m glad to see these kids at the show. I have to give a thank you to Jeff who knew every song title after only a note or two, helping build an accurate set list. Jeff wasn’t the only one though, there were a lot of people singing every lyric by heart.

Scattered around the stage and on all the instruments were dozens and dozens of roses. Throughout the show, band members would grab a handful and throw them into the crowd. This brings me to one of the most interesting parts of the show. The roses were held in a bouquets of white flowers which were not shared with the crowd. After the set, one young female fan climbed on stage and pried a handful of the white flowers attached to the keyboard and hopped back into the audience. Singer-guitarist, Amy Millan, quickly came on stage and basically called the young girl out and had the flowers returned. She later grabbed one of the remaining roses and presented it to the girl as a peace offering.

Looking back on the set, they hit all the highlights and played 17 songs, which is a hefty set which all in attendance could be happy with. I was hearing most of the songs for the first time, which was a fun experience. I’m usually introduced to artists via a friend’s ipod or music blogs, so it was nice to have the music presented for the first time, live and in person.

Martin Royal opened and was backed by Pash (both from Washington DC). His music was very animated and poetic (just look at the pictures below and you don’t even have to listen to a song to see what I mean). The last song he played was my favorite. It was titled “The Breakup” and you can listen to it on his myspace page. It has the great lines, “you can take my dignity, I will take all my CDs”….”you may have taken the best years of my life but I took the best of Bob Dylan 65 to 75, the Columbia Recordings.” His light storytelling styled music reminded me of Stephen Lynch, without the vulgarity, but still with hints of humor. He started working on his first solo album, since leaving Washington Social Club, in January of this year. The album will be titled, Good Morning, Cruel World. Keep a lookout for it.

backseatsandbar.wordpress.com/2008/03/27/review-stars-kca-326/#more-765

[That Skipping Rope.]

They have a new EP out called Sad Robots.


1. "Maintenance Hall, 4am" – 2:18
2. "A Thread Cut With A Carving Knife" – 5:51
3. "Undertow" – 4:12
4. "Going, Going, Gone (Live)" – 3:53
5. "14 Forever" – 3:48
6. "Sad Robot" - 2:11

[The Seldom Seen Kid]

I *love* the new EP - "Undertow" is bloody amazing.