Record Review: Starfucker

Starfucker: Starfucker


Since an early incarnation of Starfucker played with us a year and a half ago at Towne Lounge, their song "German Love" has been playing non-stop on some microscopic tape player in some out-of-the-way corner of my brain. It's not that the song is "stuck in my head", at least not in the way you usually think of things being stuck in your head. It's just always playing. Very quietly. At any time I can turn up the volume and my world is a little sunnier, a little more filled with bubbles and rainbows. This song, and this band, has been the soundtrack to a lot of the last year of my life.

Last October I went out east to visit friends in New York. When I stepped off the plane in Newark (I know, fucking Jersey) and turned on my phone, I was greeted with a text message informing me that Starfucker was playing that very night at the East River Bar in Williamsburg. It took some cajoling (apparently the East River Bar is known for being a terrible place) but I managed to convince a few friends to come along. It was awesome, of course, and afterwards I bought a stack of 7 song demos for the friends I had dragged out, and one for myself.

"She won't have a thing to do with me" whispers singer Josh Hodges. But the way it comes out, reverb-laden and shiny with high-end, you can't imagine why.

But I didn't intend to write about my history with the band. That just happened. I didn't even really intend to write about the music, which speaks for itself. Although to not mention the incredible work Josh did in recording this in his home studio would be uncivil. And to neglect a nod to Dylan Magierek, who, with a few tasteful additions in mixing at Type Foundry, added unbelievable punch and shimmer (not easy, adding both) would be downright criminal.

But really, I didn't want to write about that. See, really, I wanted to write about the package. I wanted to write about the unbelievably beautiful creamy white vinyl. I wanted to write about the the gaudy, Tron-meets-Saturday-Night-Fever artwork. I wanted to write about the mish-mash of cheese ball fonts on the sleeve, and about the Adobe-Illustrator-For-Dummies gradient rainbow on the reverse.

I wanted to write about these things because this record -- from the surreal, Paint By Numbers cover, to the disco ball label, to the vinyl-only bonus track -- is made for people who love records. Sohale Kevin Darouian has crafted a masterpiece of album art. It's corny as fuck. It's bright. It's alternatingly head-scratching and simple. In other words, it's perfectly Starfucker.