Austin Town Hall

Rating:

For their third album, Stellastarr opted to go it on their own and release the record, Civilized, on their terms, and their label, Bloated Wife Records.  However, nothing about the band seems to have changed at all since their previous efforts, which is either a good or bad thing, depending upon which camp you sleep in with regards to your opinion on the band.

Kicking off the album is “Robot,” and Amanda Tannen’s presents the most throbbing bass lines to date for the band.  While the guitars shatter in some other worldly angular atmospherics, Shawn Christensen repeats the lyrics “by design/you’re going to hurt yourself.”  The lyrics appear to have less of an impact than on previous efforts, but the cutting edge guitar riffs show that the band means business.

When track three, “Tokyo Sky” sets off, you’re tossed back into that classic new wave sound, with clean jangling guitars, but just as you get comfortable and nostalgic, they press down on the distortion pedal, they pull out some “Today”-era Smashing Pumpkins guitar miming.  While the guitars continue to swirl about the song, Christensen does his best to fall somewhere between himself and Davey of The Promise Ring.  Oddly, the lyrics refrain of “my Tokyo sky” recall the same refrain of “My Coco” off the group’s first album.

“Graffiti Eyes” probably has the most bounce of this set of songs, which is sad, since the band has been successful with such styles.  However, Tannen’s backing vocals provide a great counterbalance to the jagged yelp of Christensen.  In the chorus we find the band nearing their most straightforward pop approach to date, although the music doesn’t seem to comply necessarily.   Although this is the single for the band, this isn’t necessarily the best song on the album.  That award goes to “Prom Zombie” with its entirely playful singalong moments between Tannen and Christensen.  It’s the one song on this album that just seem like they’ve been rehashing themselves entirely.  And, there are horns! Horns bro.

The latter half of the album is much like the first half, with it all ending in “Sonja Cries,” the one song when you can clearly hear Christensen’s vocals.  Surprisingly, this seems like the exact direction the band should have gone to begin with, or at least built into the album as a whole.  By this point, the airy atmospherics of the guitars have grown weary after listening to them for three straight albums.  In the end, the band has created more enjoyable numbers for you to add to your collection, though they might not be the most memorable moments in the Stellastarr’s history.

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Download: Stellastarr – Prom Zombie [MP3]

The first official concert in a young person’s life can be a monumental occasion. 15 years and countless shows later, you always remember your first. The ATH offices were surveyed, and today’s Top 5 is a random ordering of the first concert from 5 ATH staff members. Although I was hoping to find some suppressed NKOTB or Debbie Gibson concerts among us, I had no such luck. Some of us were a little embarassed to fess up, while some us were happy to gloat. But this list isn’t just about us. We want to hear about your first concert experience as well, as cool or embarrassing as it might be. Follow the jump for our list.

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Maybe we should just start running a feature on this site about formerly great 90s front men who have fallen on strange times. This week, Billy Corgan makes the headlines with some odd accusations aimed towards Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder. Apparently Billy thinks Eddie is to blame for the Cubs recent playoff choke.  Referring to the song Vedder wrote for the Cubs, “All the Way”, Corgan said: “If the Cubs did have a chance this last year that just passed,” Corgan told a Chicago crowd. “F—ing Eddie Vedder killed that s— dead. Last I checked, Eddie ain’t living here, OK? Eddie ain’t living here to write a song about my f—ing team.” Um, ok?  This comes after Chris Cornell teamed up with Timbaland, Anthony Kiedis makes a TV show, and Scott Weiland records an album full of rubbish.  Oh how the mighty have fallen… What happened to you formerly glorious 90s front men?  Read the full story on Spinner.