Starflyer 59
Let's get one thing straight from the outset: This is not an artist bio. This is a dare.
Because it's getting ridiculous, really, that Starflyer 59 has been in this game for eight years and is still languishing in relative obscurity. It's ludicrous that they can release six records and four EPs and still get overshadowed by bands whose whole raison d’etre hinges on some idiotic pony trick -- like soft/loud/soft dynamics or growing up in Reikyavek or having a one-armed girl in the band who plays a Moog.
I’m getting to the dare. Be patient.
And I know you get something like 25 of these things a week, and it usually takes something like the one-armed girl or the Featuring Former Members of Shellac sticker to even get you to peel off the shrink wrap. And even then you don’t get any farther than the first thirty seconds, if you even get that far, and usually you listen to that thirty seconds while you’re folding your laundry or chatting online or making yourself some sort of high-protein vegetarian stir-fry.
And believe me, I completely sympathize. Because let’s face it, your mailbox is bloated with manila envelopes just like the one this record came in, and most of those CDs suck. When you get so conditioned to be disappointed it’s easy to get jaded and cynical and automatically write-off just about every record you receive, especially those that come from a fairly unfamiliar band.
But Starflyer 59 doesn’t deserve to remain unfamiliar. With each record, founding member Jason Martin gets closer to the perfect pop song. The group’s last record, Leave Here A Stranger, was their most cohesive and dazzling to date, a stunning supernova of melody and feeling.
So here’s the dare: tear into this CD, and listen to track 3, “Happy Birthday John”. It won’t take any longer than three and a half minutes. Listen and see if you don’t agree that Jason Martin is one of the finest under-the-radar pop songwriters in music, finer than every recent rock messiah who burned up badly the instant he stepped into the spotlight. If you like “Happy Birthday John”, why not seek out “Leave Here A Stranger”, where you’ll find ten more songs of that caliber, depth, and singability. This is not beige bland singer-songwriter tripe, it‚s not prefab hipster indie rock. It’s pop - sweet and simple.
Go on. Listen. I dare you. |
