Friday, December 27, 2024

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 RecordsPre-orders are available HERE









Artist: The Starvations

Album: Get Well Soon

Label: Permanent Teeth Records

Release Date: January 10, 2025


01. This is What You Wanted

02. Pray For Foul Play

03. Hide and Go Seek

04. Red Wine

05. An American Funeral

06. Rebel Angel

07. Recipe For a Mess

08. Oh Deputy!

09. Upon Your Request

10. Not Me This Time

11. Post-Climax Exhaustion








On The Web:

thestarvations.bandcamp.com

instagram.com/thestarvations

permanentteethrecords.bandcamp.com

























Thursday, December 19, 2024

Chicago DIY post-punks Staring Problem's forthcoming album streaming early exclusively via PunkNews



"There is a gloomy kind of warmth to these songs that draws you in. They have created a world all their own here, and it’s a fascinating one to take a trip through." -- Maximum RockandRoll


"Draws heavily from 80s goth and postpunk, though their deft melodies give even their coldest songs a therapeutic warmth—and they sometimes break from the genre’s obvious reference points with infusions of classic girl-group sweetness." -- Chicago Reader


"With a haunting melody reminiscent of Wise-era Cure and an echoing, distant-yet-powerful vocal performance from Owen, this is post-punk that harkens back to the greats of the genre while still putting a stamp of Staring Problem’s distinctive personality on it.” — New Noise Magazine



Chicago DIY gloomgaze band Staring Problem are streaming their forthcoming album a day early today exclusively via PunkNews. Hear & share Equinox HERE


The band hosts a Bandcamp Listening Party tonight at 5:30pm Pacific/8:30pm Eastern. RSVP HERE


New Noise Magazine recently launched the official video for first single "The Void" HERE (Direct YouTube.) Hear/share the single on all DSPs HERE. Side-Line shared "Don't Tell a Soul" HERE. (Direct via Bandcamp.) 


The idea for Staring Problem was simple: a post-punk, no-wave project. For over 15 years, the band has existed in one form or another as an amalgamation of ethereal pop and goth with a dash of noise sprinkled throughout.


The current lineup is Lauren Owen, Michael Erickson and Andrew Jarosh. With the exception of “Don’t Tell A Soul” — an old song that was never properly released — all material on Equinox is new and collaboratively written by Owen, Erickson and Jarosh. Lyrics were penned by Owen and Erickson alongside two close friends of the band, Robert Komen and Jessica Beaty, the subjects touching on shifts in awareness for mental health, sociopolitical issues, environmental concerns and technology. The album was recorded in 2023 by Matt Russell at Altered States Studio in Chicago.


Equinox will follow in the footsteps of prior Staring Problem records and release via Modern Tapes on December 20th, 2024. The album is a full-circle moment for Staring Problem: giving way to the band’s strongest lineup and output to date, the past and present joining hands to create an Equinox. Pre-orders are available HERE






Artist: Staring Problem

Album: Equinox

Record Label: Modern Tapes

Release Date: December 20, 2024


01. Fortitude

02. The Void

03. Don't Tell a Soul

04. Branches II

05. Neon

06. Programmed

07. Waves


moderntapes.com

linktr.ee/staringproblem

instagram.com/mdrntps










Pleasure Forever (Sub Pop, Red Sparowes, The VSS) streaming 25th Anniversary album reissue early w/ interview



"They don't sound like much you've heard before... This is not rote, predictable stuff." 8.4 -- Pitchfork 


“Soliloquy meets psychedelia as the SF semi-goths ‘timely rip’ us a new album, Distal, genre-blended and aged like a fine Zinfandel. Solid gold via Solid Brass.” — Echoes & Dust


“[Taps] into the haunted atmosphere of their early recordings while imbuing them with a hypnotic, psychedelic glow… A thrilling return that marks a new era of creativity for the group.” — Treble


Former Bay Area trio Pleasure Forever are streaming their forthcoming 25th Anniversary reissue of their 1999 album The Devil's Pleasures early today alongside an interview with Psychedelic Baby Magazine. This release concludes the band's reissues of their early catalog and rarities, all of which is for the first time on streaming services. Hear/share The Devil's Pleasures HERE. (Direct Bandcamp)


Hear/share singles "Chemical Priest" and "An Exact Seance" on all DSPs HERE.


The band’s two debut 12” EPs (1997 and 1999 respectively) were originally released in 1999 as The Devil’s Pleasures on CD via Troubleman Unlimited. On December 20th, 2024, the band releases those 11 tracks, remastered and with reconfigured artwork, for the first time on streaming services. 


In 2007, the band released an LP & CD called Bodies Need Rest, which compiled rare and unreleased tracks via Conspiracy Records. Those tracks have never been available on streaming services, until now. Bodies Need Rest has an updated master and hit streaming services on November 8th, 2024. Hear/share on all DSPs


in 2023, 20 years after the band’s last proper album Alter was released on Sub Pop — with the catalog number Sub Pop #666, no less — Pleasure Forever released a new mini-album titled Distal via Solid Brass Records


Pleasure Forever remains as hard to characterize as they’ve always been. Moments of heavy hitting rock tendencies tie together their continuing exploration of spooky 60s psychedelia and their peculiarly warped feel of classic rock from an alternate universe, dashed with hypnotic and minimal rhythms reminiscent of heady Krautrock. Distal will appeal to fans of Roxy Music, The Doors, The VSS, CAN, Amon Düül II, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds


Pleasure Forever is vocalist/keyboardist Andrew Rothbard, drummer Dave Clifford and guitarist Joshua Hughes. The band is not currently active or playing any live shows. 


In the two decades between proper albums, Rothbard has released multiple solo albums under his full name Andrew Douglas Rothbard, Clifford played drums in instrumental post-metal band Red Sparowes, as well as Emma Ruth Rundle vehicle Marriages, Jail Weddings and more, Hughes sang and played guitar in Relapse Records sludge metal trio Rabbits and currently in Ssold. The three members formerly played together in synth-punk pioneers The VSS in the mid-90s.


The Devil's Pleasures will be available for download and streaming on December 20, 2024. Bodies Need Rest is available for download and streaming, released on November 8th, 2024 via Permanent Teeth Records. Pre-orders are available HERE




Artist: Pleasure Forever

Album: The Devil's Pleasures

Label: Permanent Teeth Records

Release Date: December 20th, 2024


01. Osculum Infame

02. An Exact Seance

03. On Your Belly You Shall Crawl

04. Honeycomb Communique

05. Name of Man

06. Untitled

07. Chemical Priest

08. Slender Spires

09. Kill a Pony

10. Calling the Loa

11. Penumbra Hadabra









Artist: Pleasure Forever

Album: Bodies Need Rest

Label: Permanent Teeth Records

Release Date: November 8th, 2024


01. King Cobra in the Guts of Valhalla

02. Miles Underneath

03. Capricorn Blue

04. Right Back Down in the Middle

05. Black Juju

06. The Bars

07. Our Way

08. Honey Honey


On The Web:

pleasureforever.bandcamp.com

instagram.com/pleasureforevermusic

linktr.ee/PleasureForever




Artist: Pleasure Forever

Album: Distal

Label: Solid Brass Records

Release Date: August 25th, 2023


01. Neolith Nonce

02. Sigil Pathos

03. To The Last Recorded Syllable of Time

04. A Heavy Involvement in Unreality

05. Lexicorpus Grimoire

06. Sunshine Super Hits

07. Traipsing Elegiac



On The Web:

solidbrassrecords.com

instagram.com/solidbrassrecs

pleasureforever.bandcamp.com

instagram.com/pleasureforevermusic