THE STARS HERE - CD Release - June 14 - Starlight - Waterloo

[Prost]

Hey if anyone is in the KW area this Thursday and looking for some live music, come to the Starlight for my buddy's CD release party. Below is an article written by shainhouse about the show and the new album. They had alot of guests perform on the album, and those guests will be performing with the band on Thursday.

Both Sheebs and myself will be peforming as well as a number of others.....so come check it out if you have nothing better to do.

Cover is $10 or $15 with a CD

The Stars Here

By Shain Shapiro

When it comes to good country music, a few standard rules of

thumb come to mind that wash over the entire genre, regardless

of the direction a specific band takes tweaking its muse. In

general, there has to be a laid–back atmosphere, a sense of

longing, some sort of relationship conundrum that engenders

loveless lyrics and lots and lots of booze. The greats mix these

ingredients beautifully, while others muddle them up, leaving the

end result cloudy and uninteresting. Thankfully, the loosely

categorized country, folk and alternative twang scene in Canada

has much more straddling the positive side than the negative one,

and the Tri–City area is one such example. There are tons of great

bands, jamborees, country festivals and tireless troubadours.

The Stars Here are Kitchener’s best examples of how to

properly craft deliciously heart–wrenching country music. The

quintet have been on the local scene for some time, and have

traversed almost every sweaty, knife–carved bar nationwide,

honing a syrupy, twang–rich, countrified folk sound in the

process.

And yet, their sound has changed over the years. Since this

countrified sound is newer, still developing over older Brit–pop

and indie–folk standards that dot older releases, much more is to

come from the genre. “I’d say that that has a lot to do with how

often we play at the Boathouse in Kitchener,†explains guitarist

Patrick Finch, whom is also an Echo correspondent. “We’ve played

there very regularly in the last year or so, and the size and sound

of the room is really conducive to acoustic–based music, which

has really affected our growth as a band. Plus, they have got that

upright piano there for Paddy (Townsend, on keys) to play. Aside

from that, we’re just all really into that kind of music right now.â€

June will see the release of Fitzcarraldo, The Stars Here’s follow–

up to their 2005 release of Check the Wreckage, a decidedly more

pop release than country, by definition. The album encapsulates

the band’s true live sound, revolving around twang, liquor and a

lonesome lyrical stir stick to help combine the two.

“Our goals for each record haven’t particularly varied,â€

expands Finch. “We write a pile of tunes and try our best to

achieve an honest representation of them on record. It’s an

ongoing process and each record has brought us a little bit closer

to that goal, I think.

“For this record, however, we did consciously strive to keep

the recording as close to how we sound live as possible. Of

course, as usual, we got a little carried away with the

conveniences of overdubbing from time to time, but I think less

so than in the past.

“I think that our last record probably had a lot more despair on

it than this one. There’s still a lot of tension though, and a lot of

references to time and getting older and realizing that we have

got to get our shit together,†reveals Finch. “We’ve got a bunch of

new songs that I think go even further in that direction, but we

can’t just keep writing about our broken hearts. We all have

beautiful girls who love us so our inspirations have been forced to

diversify.â€

That loved up inspiration joins politics, urban–sprawl, banality

of small–town life and other symbolism on Fitzcarraldo, set for

release on their own label, Doormat Records, June 14.

“Bob Egan, who plays on the record, told us that the trick was

to just make sure it sounds good when you play it. If it already

sounds good, then there’s no reason the recording should sound

bad. Of course, it’s not quite that easy, but that sort of

simplification was what we were going for, that sort of change.â€

And the name? Fitzcarraldo is “a film about a guy who pushes

a steamship over a mountain so that he can bring opera to the

jungles of Peru,†explains Finch. “It is a swell movie.â€

Edited June 11, 2007 by Guest

[AD]

Johnny Fay and Bobby Baker are in that photo. Nice!

[Schwa.]

Man, Gardiner looks pretty mean in that pic.

I'll be there to support the fellas Thursday, hope to see ya there Prost.

[mark tonin]

Here's part of an email that I got from Lucas Stagg about the show:

'THE STARS HERE' CD RELEASE PARTY

THURSDAY, JUNE 14TH - THE STARLIGHT - 47 KING N., UPTOWN WATERLOO

10:00 PM - THE LUCAS STAGG BAND - "HEY! THAT'S ME"

Jesse Aultman - Stratocaster / Marcy Dwyer - Angels / Scott Wicken - Bass / Andy Miller - Drums

11:00 PM - THE STARS HERE PRESENT 'FITZCARRALDO' - Their smokin' new Rock N' Roll CD!

Hope you can get Friday off!

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Peace, Mark

[tribalstar]

bumpity bump bump