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By Rudy Klapper, July 7, 2009 12:00 pm

stellastarr* – Civilized

Bloated Wife Records 2009

Rating: 6/10

New York was definitely the place to be in the early-mid part of the ‘00s, as Brooklyn foursome stellastarr* could tell you. Thrown alongside fellow islanders the Rapture and Interpol, among numerous others, into a collective “new wave/post-punk revival,” stellastarr* fell prey to the rapid over-saturation of the scene, unable to replicate the success of their first (and best) album. Sophomore effort Harmonies for the Haunted was the death-knell of their short major-label experience, and after four years haunting East Side bars and rehabilitating vocalist Shawn Christensen’s versatile pipes, they’re back for more on their own label.

Back for more of the same, that is. Whereas “change-or-die” became a wise maxim to adapt by bands (often unfairly) tagged with the “post-punk” label, stellastarr* have rarely switched things up. If anything, Civilized is their most potent distillation of their sparkling, up-tempo bubbly new wave, a radio-ready dart aimed at the commercial jugular. stellastarr* know how to do epic pop: “My Coco” from their debut is easily one of the songs of the decade, pulling all their strengths (note-perfect vocal harmonies, excellent rhythm work, a spiraling guitar solo) together into a monumental sing-a-long effort. Three albums in, however, they’re still having trouble duplicating that perfect storm.

A major breaking point with first-time stellastarr* listeners has always been vocalist Shawn Christensen’s rather unorthodox style, where he is just as likely to hum along in a baritone as he is to jump out to a ringing falsetto. Throat damage, however, has caused him to limit his range to the higher registers, and thus Civilized is spared many of the abrupt yelps that characterized earlier albums and generally makes him more tolerable. On a song like “Warchild,” his slightly more restrained style flows along with the music rather than clashing; on something like “Numbers,” however, his frenetic vocals nearly make a parody of themselves.

Luckily for Christensen, he has the bassist Amanda Tannen and the rest of the band to fall back on. Although an excellent backup vocalist, Tannen is tragically underused here – cuts like first single “Graffiti Eyes” break the boundary from merely good to irrepressibly catchy on the back of her silvery “woah-woahs” and “ba-ba-baas.” Guitar rave-up “Prom Zombie” is even better, a chugging piece of Cars-esque retro-pop featuring Tannen and Christensen feeding off each other’s energy in a revelatory duet. It’s the silly high point of a frothy pop record.

More energetic than their previous efforts, Civilized kicks things into high gear from the get-go and wipes anything slow off the table. Songs like “Freak Out” and “People” is the kind of by-the-numbers new wave rock stellastarr* could do in their sleep, so it’s a delight to hear the band switch things up. Out-of-place opener “Robot” does exactly that, mixing ethereal vocals with a burning, distorted guitar line and an incisive beat, while the exuberant, fuzzed-out dream-pop of “Move On” takes the opposite tack to dazzling effect.

For all their admirable efforts, there is nothing here as immediately fetching as “My Coco,” and Civilized as a whole comes off as just what it was no doubt intended to be – a pop record of little import, one that is perfect for cruising down a summer highway but nothing particularly earth-shattering. Exceedingly well produced to a glossy sheen, it is, for all its charm and hooks, a merely adequate record from a band that once showed serious promise. Then again, who cares when you’re having as much fun as these four clearly are?

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By Rudy Klapper, February 22, 2008 12:00 pm

New York post-punk band dumps RCA, begins work on 3rd album

By the dawn of the new millennium, the fabled music scene of New York City had fallen into decay. Clubs were closing, fan attendance was down, and cash-strapped bands were disappearing into 9-to-5 office hell. Things looked pretty bleak.

That’s when a few upstart graduates from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn decided to try something different from their normal routine, and start a band. “It was pretty much a chance gathering,” stellastarr* bassist and back-up vocalist Amanda Tannen said. “I saw Shawn [Christensen, stellastarr*’s vocalist] on the street one day and he invited me over to jam. And it just went from there.”

For those not familiar with stellastarr*, the band found fame in the alternative/garage-rock revival that arose in New York City in the early 2000s. But whereas the Strokes were the scene’s ultra-hip rockers, Interpol catered to a slightly more gothic, much more depressed clientele, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ gave hope to women rockers everywhere, stellastarr* from the very beginning just seemed like a band that was there for the pure fun of playing music.

“Only our guitarist [Michael Jurin] wanted to be a musician when he was younger,” Tannen said. “I had played cello in high school but I had never played ‘rock music.’ I was pretty much forced into it,” she said, laughing. “But everything just clicked when we played, so we decided to keep on doing it.”

Picked up by major label RCA in the music industry’s scramble to capitalize on the “New York” sound’s success epitomized by the Strokes, stellastarr*’s self-titled debut album radiates the members’ newfound excitement for playing music. Firmly rooted in the post-punk, indie-rock tradition of bands like the Rapture, the album also shows a fixation on the new wave scene of the 80s, most apparent in Christensen’s yelping, emotional vocals and the often bright, poppy guitar lines exemplified in popular single “My Coco.”

Although boosted by their scene’s burgeoning popularity and the backing of a major label, Tannen insists that their jump from relative club obscurity to headlining concerts across the country was a long and hard-fought one.

“We played constantly, at least once every two weeks but usually more,” Tannen said. Word-of-mouth also played an important role in building their fan support: “We would put up our stickers in the back of every cab we took around the city, and then people would meet us and be like, ‘hey, I’ve heard of you guys from somewhere,” Tannen said. “We put our hearts into all of it.”

Their work paid off, as stellastarr* received generally favorable reviews from the indie press and their tours garnered enough attention to convince RCA to support them for a second album, which eventually became Harmonies for the Haunted.

It was around this time, however, that tensions between the band and their label arose, a familiar story to many bands that have been catapulted into the big leagues of the music industry.

“The label was breathing down our neck looking for ‘the single,’ and by the end of recording Harmonies and the accompanying tour, we were just done with the whole process,” Tannen said. Declining sales for their second album and a general lack of support from RCA all contributed to the band’s decision to drop their label and strike out on their own.

“It was good and bad at the same time,” Tannen said. “It was awesome how we got to write what we wanted and how we got to work with no guidebook, no system in place, but that whole fear of being on our own was pretty strong. Also, we all had to get day jobs again.”

Nevertheless, the band’s energy remains high as they record their third album in Brooklyn, demos of which can be heard on their Myspace page.

“The third record is a little more aggressive, very poppy,” Tannen said. “It’s got a bit of an ‘in-your-face,’ sarcastic vibe to it. Oh, and there’s definitely going to be party music in on this,” Tannen added. “We’re putting an emphasis on party music.”

With no label-supported distribution system in place for their upcoming album, will the band try something akin to Radiohead’s revolutionary “downloadable album, pay whatever you want” approach?

“I think it’s great that Radiohead did that,” Tannen said, “but only a band like Radiohead could do it. They’re huge, but for up-and-coming bands or bands that don’t have that kind of support like us, the traditional way of selling CDs is what you gotta do.”

While the future may look bleak for indie bands and the music industry in general, Tannen insists that it is still possible for future rock bands to succeed.

“If you are doing what you really want to be doing, and you really love what you’re doing, then you’ll be good,” Tannen said. “There’s not much payback for creating, but if you keep at it and you keep loving it, things will work out.”

For a band that built their reputation on hard work and persistency, stellastarr* is proof of what your mom always said: dream big, work hard, craft ridiculously catchy songs, and you’ll succeed.