Pages tagged “stars”

Stars have finally made their way back to the States after a global stint, kicking off their U.S. tour in support of In Our Bedroom After the War last week. Capping off its current set of dates, the band will join the Coachella ranks in sunny Indio, Calif. next month alongside Death Cab for Cutie, M.I.A., Kate Nash and dozens more.

Meanwhile, Stars have released the video for their new single, "Take Me to the Riot," which you can feast on below (dates after the video):

March
24 - Birmingham, Ala. @ Workplay
25 - Nashville, Tenn. @ The Belcourt
26 - Louisville, Ky. @ Bomhard Theatre
27 - Indianapolis, Ind. @ The Vogue
28 - Madison, Wisc. @ Barrymore Theatre
29 - Detroit, Mich. @ Crofoot Ballroom
30 - Pittsburgh, Pa. @ Mr. Small's

April
1 - Buffalo, N.Y. @ Tralf Music Hall
18 - Milwaukee, Wisc. @ Pabst Theater
21 - Columbia, Mo. @ Blue Note
23 - Boulder, Colo. @ Boulder Theater
27 - Indio, Calif. @ Coachella

Related links:
Stars on Arts and Crafts
Stars on MySpace
Coachella 2008 line-up

Got news tips for Paste? E-mail news@pastemagazine.com.

After a sold-out 2007 tour in support of their latest album, In Our Bedroom After the War, the poppy Canadian heart-tuggers known as Stars will cross the border again this spring, just in time for their special brand of rain (that looks like love) to fall upon crowds and newborn flowers across the East Coast.

Stars are a part of the wonderfully incestuous Arts & Crafts label, home to Broken Social Scene (with whom Stars share a few upcoming international dates—see below), Feist, Apostle of Hustle and countless other genre-defying acts.

As part of the ongoing Arts & Crafts commitment to offering creative rewards to their loyal listeners (like the early online release of Bedroom), tickets for the just-announced U.S. dates are available now through a pre-sale that includes a free limited-edition A&C sampler with ticket purchase. And. AND! Pre-sale ticket buyers are also entered in a drawing to win an autographed poster—they'll be giving one away at each tour stop.

Variety's "The Set List" blog reported yesterday that Bedroom made the final 2007 Shortlist, but the distributors of the Shortlist Music Prize have yet to update their website with the info.

Hopefully the overdue kudos won't deter Stars singer Torquil Campbell from his crusade to return emotionalism to indie rock, which he touched on in a recent Onion A.V. Club interview: "I'm trying to make music and to write words and to operate as an artist in the public world by inciting feeling in people—inciting love, inciting hatred, inciting laughter. I feel like Stars gets criticized a lot for this aspect of who we are, that we are so forward in our wish to communicate..."

Let Torq (and Amy and Evan and Pat and Chris) communicate with you on these U.S. dates:

March
19 - Baltimore, Md. @ Sonar
20 - Asheville, N.C. @ Orange Peel
21 - Charlotte, N.C. @ Neighborhood Theater
22 - Athens, Ga. @ Georgia Theatre
24 - Birmingham, Ala. @ Workplay
25 - Nashville, Tenn. @ The Belcourt
26 - Louisville, Ky. @ Bomhard Theater
27 - Indianapolis, Ind. @ The Vogue
28 - Madison, Wis. @ Barrymore Theater
29 - Detroit, Mich. @ Crofoot Ballroom
30 - Pittsburgh, Pa. @ Mr. Smalls

April
1 - Buffalo, N.Y. @ The Tralf
25 - Indio, Calif. @ Empire Polo Field (Coachella)

Or these non-U.S. dates:

January
24 - Dublin, Ire. @ Tripod
26 - Aberdeen, Scotland @ Moshulu
27 - Glasgow, Scotland @ Oran Mor
28 - Birmingham, Eng. @ Barfly
29 - London, Eng. @ Koko
30 - Bristol, Eng. @ Thekla Social
31 - Manchester, Eng. @ Academy 3

February
2 - Nottingham, Eng. @ Rescue Rooms
3 - Sheffield, Eng. @ Leadmill
4 - Brighton, Eng. @ Concorde 2
6 - Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Melkweg
7 - Hamburg, Ger. @ Knust
8 - Brussels, Belgium @ AB Box
9 - Paris, France @ La Maroquinerie
10 - Frankfurt, Ger. @ Mousonturm
11 - Cologne, Ger. @ Gloria
12 - Berlin, Ger. @ Kesselhaus
13 - Vienna, Austria @ Flex
23 - Adelaide, Australia @ Laneway Festival *
24 - Melbourne, Australia @ Laneway Festival *
27 - Sydney, Australia @ Spectrum
28 - Melbourne, Australia @ East Brunswick Club
29 - Brisbane, Australia @ The Zoo *

March
1 - Brisbane, Australia @ Laneway Festival *
2 - Sydney, Australia @ Laneway Festival *
5 - Osaka, Japan @ Club Quattro *
6 - Tokyo, Japan @ Liquid Room *

*w/Broken Social Scene

Related links:
Stars on Arts & Crafts
Stars on MySpace
NPR's All Songs Considered: Stars and New Buffalo live in concert (11/17/07)

Got news tips for Paste? E-mail news@pastemagazine.com.

Stars in their Eyes
Canadian indie band searches for flowers amid the rubble on war-haunted new album

Oh my god, the war is over! Why didn’t anybody tell me? Oh, wait—it’s not. In fact, war permeates the new album by Canadian indie-poppers Stars, but it’s more atmosphere than subject matter. The title’s “after” doesn’t mean Stars are imagining the literal end of war. It means they’ve retreated to a mental space where it can’t reach them. This is a precarious mental balancing act, and these songs have the character of isolation chambers with explosions wracking their perimeters. “Forget your name / Forget your fear,” Amy Millan encourages us on “The Night Starts Here.” On “Midnight Coward,” as bombs fall on Iraq, Palestine, Israel and elsewhere, Stars are “drunk and walking with the sun.” And on the title track, war is recast as a direct metaphor for interpersonal relationships—a move that might seem either ballsy or incredibly self-absorbed at a time when real war, with its visceral human toll, weighs so heavily upon the world.

As such, In Our Bedroom After the War is the musical equivalent of a big-budget Bay/Bruckheimer film like Pearl Harbor, where an event of huge historical magnitude is reduced to a painted backdrop for an archetypal love story. The album is simultaneously infuriating—because it’s so cloistered from the harsh realities that frame it—and veritable, because this is exactly the way many of us privileged Westerners live. Directly unaffected by war but plagued by guilt about it, it hovers over us like a black cloud. We breathe it like air, unseen but omnipresent.

There’s a thin line between maintaining hope and wearing the blinders that militaristic governments want us to wear, and there are times on this album when Stars wear those blinders in a way that seems naive: On “Today Will Be Better,ISwear!” Torquil Campbell sings, “Everybody only wants to fight / And you’re up against never being right / When the worries of the world hold your feet / And there’s little left to believe in / Today is going to be a better one." Really? This might be true for us, but it’s di≈cult to imagine the same sentiment emanating from war-torn countries. Of course, charming naiveté has always been Stars’ ace in the hole, but this fits songs addressing emotional life in wartime rather uneasily. Again, the album resembles a Hollywood epic, where redemption always trumps realism.

This cinematic quality is bolstered by a handful of songs invoking narrative conventions rather than elliptical love poems. The mincing “Life 2: The Unhappy Ending” (not a high point) is a film-noir murder fantasia, replete with script notes like “scene one,” “cut two,” and “outside.” “Barricade”—a hammy piano ballad that represents After the War’s absolute nadir—frames a failed affair as the result of warring ideologies.

The album’s filmic approach proves more fruitful on inspired conversation song “Personal.” On this ominously twinkling creeper, Millan and Campbell assume the roles of lonely singles exchanging personal ads: "Wanted single F, under 33 / Must enjoy the sun / Must enjoy the sea / Sought by single M / Mrs. Destiny / Send photo to address / Is it you and me?” “Personal,” with its whisper-close intimacy and extravagant mawkishness, is the sort of song it’s hard to imagine a band other than Stars pulling off. On their unequivocally terrific albums Heart and Set Yourself on Fire, they maintained a pitch-perfect balance between sentimentality and style. The heart-on-sleeve lyrics were offset by dramatic deliveries alternately coy and arch, and by M83-sized walls of synthesizer. This imbued the songs with a staged remoteness that made the most syrupy sentiments slide down smoothly.

Here, Stars have stopped flirting and are going for the hard press. Scaling back the gigantic synths makes them sound more like a typical, earnest indie band than unique dramatic raconteurs. But beyond a couple of missteps, like “Barricade” and the silly falsetto-funk of “Ghost of Genova Heights,” this new direction—comprised of more-restrained synths, romantic string flourishes, and scattered pianos—has mainly produced charming, infectious songs. “The Night Starts Here” is a sleek, night-riding pleasure. “Take Me to the Riot” is a triumphant indie-pop anthem. The breezy strains of “My Favourite Book” find Amy Millan in her best lovelorn form, and she winningly evokes Kate Bush on the weightlessly cascading “Window Bird.” “Midnight Coward” and “Bitches in Tokyo” are wonderfully punchy.

In Our Bedroom After the War isn’t Stars’ best effort, but it ultimately satisfies: in wartime, one takes solace wherever one can.

Stars' high-wire brand of melodramatic indie pop effectively obliterates any middle ground when it comes to evaluating their stage show. This past Saturday, myself and another Paste staffer saw the same Stars performance at Atlanta's Variety Playhouse and came away with rather divergent opinions on the matter. To spare you the messy details, I was mesmerized and she was horrified.

From the group's outrageous fashion sense, to its songs, to its penchant for tossing flowers into the audience, we couldn't really find any common ground to stand upon, other than agreeing that the venue's audio mixing sounded off that night. Maybe I'm just biased because I got a free flower out of the show and she didn't. My co-worker also missed Amy Millan's impromptu crowd surfing, which all but redeemed any of her singing partner Torquil Campbell's shrill stage antics.

Suffice to say, if you enjoy Stars' music and what it stands for, the live version will hardly leave you disappointed. Stars are out on the road through early 2008, so there's plenty of chances to grab the Canadian six-piece as it criss-crosses North America and then heads off to the U.K. for a string of '08 engagements.

Take me, take me to the concert:

October
31 - Dallas, Texas @ House of Blues *

November
2 - Chicago, Ill. @ Vic Theatre *
3 - Minneapolis, Minn. @ Pantages Theatre *
4 - Omaha, Neb. @ Slowdown *
6 - Denver, Colo. @ Gothic Theatre *
8 - Tucson, Ariz. @ Rialto Theatre *
9 - San Diego, Calif. @ House of Blues **
10 - Los Angeles, Calif. @ The Orpheum **
12 - Pomona, Calif. @ The Glass House
13 - San Francisco, Calif. @ Bimbo's 365 Club **
14 - San Francisco, Calif. @ Bimbo's 365 Club **
15 - Portland, Ore. @ The Crystal Ballroom ***
16 - Seattle, Wash. @ The Showbox ***
17 - Vancouver, B.C. @ The Commodore Ballroom (two shows) ***
20 - Calgary, Alberta @ MacEwan Ballroom ***
21 - Edmonton, Alberta @ Edmonton Events Centre ***
22 - Saskatoon, Saskatchewan @ The Odeon Events Centre ***
23 - Regina, Saskatchewan @ The Distrikt ***
24 - Winnipeg, Manitoba @ Burton Cummings Theatre ***
26 - Toronto, Ontario @ The Phoenix Concert Theatre
27 - Toronto, Ontario @ The Phoenix Concert Theatre ***
28 - Toronto, Ontario @ The Phoenix Concert Theatre
29 - Toronto, Ontario @ The Phoenix Concert Theatre
30 - Montreal, Quebec @ Le National

December
1 - Montreal, Quebec @ Le National

January
24 - Dublin, Ireland @ Tripod
26 - Aberdeen, Scotland @ Moshulu
27 - Glasgow, Scotland @ Oran Mor
28 - Birmingham, England @ Barfly
29 - London, England @ Koko
30 - Bristol, England @ Thekla Social
31 - Manchester, England @ Academy 3

February
2 - Nottingham, England @ Rescue Rooms
3 - Sheffield, England @ Leadmill
4 - Brighton, England @ Concorde 2

* w/ Magnet
** w/ Lloyd Cole
*** w/ Miracle Fortress

Related links:
Stars on MySpace
The Boston Globe: Stars live review
YouTube: Stars - "Take Me to the Riot"

Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.

Apparent “new media” enthusiasts Stars have announced their fall tour schedule – places to promote In the Bedroom After the War, which just made its digital debut four days after completion and more than two months before disc, paper and plastic availability (Sept. 25).

“We believe that the line between the media and the public is now completely grey,” states the Canadian band’s official website. “What is the difference between a writer for a big glossy music magazine and a student writing about their favourite bands on their blog?”

The Arts & Crafts label hopes the move will curb piracy, crossing fingers that providing a legal option will affect consciousnesses of Soulseekers everywhere. “We hope you'll choose to support the band, and choose to pay for their album,” the statement reads. “However we don't think it's fair you should have to wait until September 25th to do so.”

Blogs are praising the move left and right – but will it work? Is impatience really more of a piracy motive than simple cheapness? Could this backfire by causing more illegal downloads by people who missed out on the heartfelt, guilt-tripping letter? Will the band have to fill physical copies with stickers, candy and golden concert tickets to balance out retail sales?

Either way, it’s a cool idea from a band that deserves some attention on the following dates:

September:
6 - Grand Rapids, Mich. @ Calvin College Fine Arts Center
8 - Montreal, Quebec @ Parc Jean-Drapeau (Osheaga Festival)
9 - Toronto, Ontario @ Virgin Festival

October:
17 - South Burlington, Vt. @ Higher Ground
18 - New York, N.Y. @ Town Hall
19 - Boston, Mass. @ Berklee Performance Centre
20 - Washington, D.C. @ 9:30 Club
24 - Philadelphia, Penn. @ Starlight Ballroom
26 - Carrboro, N.C. @ Cat's Cradle
27 - Atlanta, Ga. @ The Variety Playhouse
28 - Tallahassee, Fla. @ Club Downunder
30 - Austin, Texas @ Stubb's BBQ
31 - Dallas, Texas @ House of Blues

November:
2 - Chicago, Ill. @ Vic Theatre
3 - Minneapolis, Minn. @ Pantages Theatre
4 - Omaha, Neb. @ Slowdown
6 - Denver, Col. @ Gothic Theatre
8 - Tucson, Ariz. @ Rialto Theatre
9 - San Diego, Calif. @ House of Blues
10 - Los Angeles, Calif. @ The Orpheum
13 - San Francisco, Calif. @ Bimbo's 365 Club
14 - San Francisco, Calif. @ Bimbo's 365 Club
15 - Portland, Ore. @ The Crystal Ballroom
16 - Seattle, Wash. @ The Showbox

Related links:
Arts & Crafts: Stars
Stars MySpace
Paste: Stars Dish Out New Album Details

Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.