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New York’s next wave
The Star Spangles, Stellastarr, and TV on the Radio
BY SEAN RICHARDSON

With the new Strokes album faltering at radio, the much-ballyhoo’d New York City alterna-rock scene that blossomed in their wake could be in danger of falling out of the limelight. But if diversity is the hallmark of a thriving community, then three NYC bands playing separate headlining shows in Cambridge over the next week are spreading the word: things are just fine in the land of Julian Casablancas. Garage-rock rabble rousers the Star Spangles, who play T.T.’s on Monday, are heirs to the 1970s legacy of the Ramones and the New York Dolls. Goth-pop pin-ups Stellastarr, who are at the Middle East next Friday, look outside their home town to the Cure and Pixies for inspiration. And avant-soulsters TV on the Radio, who play the Middle East on Wednesday, follow in the hallowed footsteps of Sonic Youth.

Of the three bands, only the Star Spangles have been playing out as long as the Strokes — which, I figure, earns them the right to serve as scene spokesmen for a day. That and their wise-ass reputation: I first took notice of the group when they did a hilarious 2002 interview with New York Press reporter J.R. Taylor, who dared to call guitarist Tommy Volume a hipster. " A hipster is like a subdivision of a yuppie, " Volume retorted. " Hipsters are the rich Gen-X kids after the 1990s are over. " When I get him on the phone to discuss how the media glare of those days affected NYC bands, he sounds as cynical as ever. " It just contributed to gentrification. The whole New York scene is something that the horrible English press pretty much invented to sell magazines. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to England, but you pick up these magazines and read about New York, and it just has nothing to do with it. It’s kind of like Wag the Dog, that movie with Robert De Niro where they create the fake war. "

In the Star Spangles video " Stay Away from Me, " from their current debut, Bazooka!!! (Capitol), the band nevertheless conform to the NYC alterna-rock stereotype in one respect: their snazzy vintage clothing. After that, it’s easy to see why they resent being lumped in with art-school types like the Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Interpol. " Stay away from me/Please just let me be/End my misery, " pleads frontman Ian Wilson with an innocence that recalls producer Daniel Rey’s two most popular clients, the Ramones and the Misfits. Wilson’s voice is a hearty Paul Westerberg rasp; Volume’s guitar worships at the altar of Johnny Thunders. The band find the right balance between melody and raunch, and the song climaxes with four ecstatic chords and a bittersweet holler: " I’m alone! " The only props in the video are the flashing overhead lights, but it’s a sleek soundstage performance — a little too sleek, if you ask Volume. " I thought it looked like a Pepsi commercial — like something by the Cult or something. I was kind of horrified when I saw it. I don’t even like the idea of making videos. "

High-school buddies Wilson and Volume formed the Star Spangles after moving to Manhattan’s Lower East Side from their sleepy upstate home town, Brewster. After hooking up with bassist Nick Price and drummer Joey Valentine in 2001, they recorded Bazooka!!! and won a deal with Capitol. Regardless of whether Volume likes the Strokes’ music, he realizes that their success helped the Star Spangles get signed. " At the time, the major labels started signing up all the bands in New York. We didn’t own any amplifiers, and we never had any money to tour, so it seemed like a good idea. We still don’t have any money. But we got equipment and we get to tour, so we’re happy. "

On Bazooka!!!, the band’s good taste and boundless energy help them avoid lapsing into retro shtick: the performances and the production are raw and the hooks are plentiful. The opening " I Live for Speed " bops like the Donnas; the mellower " I Don’t Wanna Be Crazy Anymore " — " Mommy and Daddy won’t be sorry they had me anymore " — approaches the pathos of the group’s 1970s gutter-rock heroes. Speaking of which: their excavation of the Wayne Kramer/Johnny Thunders nugget " Crime of the Century " is one of the album’s highlights. Volume says they have 40 songs in the can for the follow-up, which they hope to record soon. " The new songs are a lot better, but the first album’s good. I think it’s got three or four songs that are classics, and the rest of it’s filler. Hopefully, this next one won’t have any filler. "

Bazooka!!! has yet to crack the Billboard charts, but Star Spangles tunes are often heard on Little Steven’s Underground Garage, which airs Sunday nights on 105.7 WROR Boston. The syndicated program is the brainchild of Bruce Springsteen sideman and Sopranos star Little Steven. " He’s our only friend, " Volume cracks. " I ran into him at a bar a couple weeks ago. I was a little tipsy, and I think I spooked him. Thank God, he still plays us — I didn’t spook him bad enough. I think his show is probably the best thing going on for rock and roll right now. It’s the only place where someone’s not into categories and labels. He’ll play Moby Grape, Flamin’ Groovies, Elvis, the Heartbreakers . . . it’s what a rock-and-roll radio station should be. "

LIKE THE STAR SPANGLES, STELLASTARR are still waiting for their debut, Stellastarr (RCA), to take off at radio and retail. But the band are already making noise on the fringes: their videos have been popping up on MTV2’s Subterranean, the alterna-rock program that’s picking up where MTV’s long-running 120 Minutes left off. They played the Austin music-biz showcase South by Southwest last weekend, and they’re also scheduled to perform at Southern California’s Coachella Festival in May. With top-notch production by Tim O’Heir, who last year enjoyed a corporate-punk smash with the All-American Rejects, Stellastarr is accessible enough to help the group cash in on all that exposure.

Stellastarr’s current video, " My Coco, " is a buoyant love letter to the discofied alterna-rock of the 1980s, with a charm that seems as if it could reach beyond the band’s collegiate fan base to include, say, anyone who digs The Wedding Singer. Much of it takes place in a glittery karaoke room, where a glamorous bunch of NYC scenesters take turns singing and dancing their hearts out for the camera. Frontman Shawn Christensen and bassist Amanda Tannen handle the actual vocals, delivering chirpy harmonies and oozing geeky sex appeal. The song’s Blondie beat science and Smiths guitar shimmer make for NYC dance rock at its bubbliest, and Christensen’s periodic yelps are just weird enough to elevate it beyond pure nostalgia.

Like many a hipster band before them, Stellastarr came together at art school, in their case Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute. Their lyrical abstraction can be frustrating, but otherwise their songs are more visceral than conceptual. The album-opening " In the Walls " is a galloping guitar standout with an unnerving vocal turn by Christensen; the following " Jenny " lightens things up with a Pixies-style call-and-response between Christensen and Tannen. On the closing " Pulp Song, " the band pay rousing tribute to British rock royalty Pulp with a chorus that’s both upbeat and sarcastic: " We’re lying/We’ve lied to you/We lie to make our point of view. " Theirs is a magnetic sound that alterna-rock fans of all generations should check out.

ALSO FROM BROOKLYN, in their case Williamsburg, TV on the Radio are the hottest new band in the city right now: their full-length debut, Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes (Touch and Go), hit #15 on Billboard’s Top Heatseekers chart when it was released earlier this month. Formed by guitarist David Sitek, who produced the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Fever To Tell (Interscope), the band are fresh off a South by Southwest appearance of their own. Like indie dance titans !!!, with whom they share a borough and a label, they forgo the scene’s usual retro-rock leanings in favor of DIY experimentation.

In the pasty-faced indie-rock universe, it’s impossible to ignore TV on the Radio’s ethnic make-up: four black men (singers Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone plus the rhythm section of Gerard Smith and Jaleel Bunton, both of whom joined after the album was made) and one white (Sitek). The video " Dreams " focuses on the two vocalists, whose intricate arrangements are as impressive as Malone’s giant Afro. " All your dreams are over now/And all your wings have fallen down, " they sing, alternating unisons, octaves, and harmonies as a street dancer battles a mushroom cloud for screen time. Likewise, the band’s minimalist soundscapes vacillate between soothing and foreboding.

As an exercise in futuristic melancholy, Desperate Youth is a fine counterpart to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs hit " Maps. " The sensuous " Staring at the Sun " adds a third party, Love Life’s Katrina Ford, to the vocal gymnastics; the organ-laced " Don’t Love You " drones like the Doors on a spiritual kick. And " King Eternal " — short for its ingenious falsetto refrain, " Oh fucking eternal " — includes some priceless comic relief ( " Cover your balls/Cuz we swing kung fu " ) among its dark electro beats. TV on the Radio aren’t as danceable as most of their NYC peers, but their free-form jams are as heartfelt as they are brainy.

The Star Spangles perform this Monday, March 29 at T.T. the Bear’s Place, 10 Brookline Street in Central Square; call (617) 492-2327. Stellastarr perform next Friday, April 2, at the Middle East, 472 Massachusetts Avenue in Central Square; call (617) 864-3278. TV on the Radio perform this Tuesday, March 30, at the Call, 15 Elbow Street in Providence; call (401) 421-7170. Then on Wednesday, March 31, they’ll be at the Middle East.


Issue Date: March 26 - April 1, 2004
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