US / THEM: THE STARVATIONS share new single from forthcoming reissues (GSL, pre-Jail Weddings, author Gabriel Hart)

“The bastard scion of two gothic punk-noir bands, each of which formed in '77 and disbanded in '83: The Birthday Party and the Misfits… The Starvations' unreconstructed take on classic L.A. punk is consistently exhilarating.” — Pitchfork

“The Starvations have been able to cinch the dark heart of so many styles of music, to squeeze it, have it languidly bleed down their arms and meander deep under their skin… Closer to what I’ve always thought true roots music should sound like.” — RazorCake

“This is easily one of the best albums of the year. If you're a fan of punk rock when it was fresh and original and real you'll love this.” — PunkNews

“Those who missed out on this crucial group the first time get an opportunity to get straight with these children of The Gun Club.” — Rock and Roll Globe

L.A. band The Starvations (ca. 1995-2005) share a new single today from their series of reissues from their back catalog. The first album reissue is an updated master to their breakthrough 2003 album Get Well Soon originally released via GSL (Mars Volta, The Locust). The album track "An American Funeral" is available to hear & share via Rock and Roll Globe HERE. (Direct to all DSPs and Bandcamp.)

The Starvations were a rare classic band; their songs sounded like the sum total history of American music condensed into one drunken roadside brawl. The Los Angeles quintet’s musical/historical road is clearly mapped out—blues, rock 'n' roll, country, western and punk—but it has taken a strange, technicolor turn where paranoia and uncertainty strikes with every heartbeat. The band's second album, Get Well Soon released in 2003 on Gold Standard Labs traces the scattered paths from the Gun Club back to Johnny Burnette; early Clash to George Jones; Birthday Party to Delta Blues. The Starvations harnessed the kind of roots rock that London Calling-era The Clash sought but informed with true American, Southern California proto-punk DNA.

Not only did the Starvations have a strong knowledge of musical history—the unassuming yet stunning collective musicianship of bassist Jean-Paul Garnier, guitarist Ryan Hertz, accordionist/pianist Vanessa Gonzalez and drummer Ian Harrower, paired with the immense songwriting talents of vocalist/guitarist Gabriel Hart imbues its songs with a sense of timeless, wanton urgency. Likewise, the Starvations’ songs sound simultaneously rural antique and decrepitly urban punk-romantic.

Most of the band members met as teens growing up in Orange County, CA, often picked up from junior high by elder delinquents driving a converted hearse for after school misadventures, inevitably arriving at the wreckage of the American Dream—to a house akin the fabled punk rock squat that inspired “Kids of the Black Hole” by the Adolescents and “Playpen” by Social Distortion (and, in turn, the Penelope Spheeris’ cult classic Suburbia.) This ground-zero crash pad would later inspire Hart’s 2024 punk-noir novel On High at Red Tide.

Just a few short years later, having cut its teeth playing the filthy Hollywood bar scene, releasing its debut album A Blackout to Remember in 1999 and an EP, One Long Night in 2001, The Starvations became a full-grown, world-worn band while still barely into their 20’s.

The Starvations’ second GSL album, Gravity’s a Bitch was released in 2004. The depth of its dark spirit and embracing of life’s many complications showed exponential growth in Hart’s songwriting and served as a fitting teaser for his dark, punk take on 60s girl group fare with the sprawling 10-piece lineup of Jail Weddings.

Get Well Soon will be reissued on streaming and download on January 10th, 2025 via Permanent Teeth Records. Pre-orders are available HERE.