Starfucker Crowd Surfer ::: photo by Abbey Simmons

Leave it to the all-agers to turn upbeat dance tunes in to one of the crazier mosh pits I witnessed this year. I took this shot from the safety of the VERA Project balcony where I could look down on the crushed mass of teenagers who were violently careening like a pubescent riptide.

I imagine things will be a little more low-key this Wednesday when the band now known as Pyramiddd opens for Passion Pit at the Moore Theater.  Hate on name change haters, but Pyramiddd’s opening slot for one of the biggest buzz bands of 2009 seems to show they made the smart choice.

Starfucker ::: Photo by Abbey Simmons

From the very beginning, the date of Starfucker’s demise was published on their myspace page: 12/21/2012. Smarty pants people will recognize that as the date the Mayan Calendar ends. Thus they were always a temporary and ephemeral being, a band who’s main goal was simply to be best soundtrack a house party might find as long as people remained interested. They were aiming to be the opposite of a band that was gunning for stardom, the opposite of a band that they used to be, one that two of Starfucker’s members had moved to New York City to try and “make it” with a few years previous. I interviewed Starfucker nearly a year ago at their first show at the Vera Project, where Josh Hodges described their new philosophy this way:

… I was just really focused on being in the music scene and industry. Just thinking about all this shit. And shows were not fun. [The Sexton Blake material] was kind of boring depressing music to play live. I like that kind of music a lot, but live I don’t like to play it, or even sometimes to watch it unless is really special to me.

Why it’s named “starfucker” partly, is that. Ryan and I used to live together, and fuck around in the basement and make loops, and do rude noise stuff. That’s more kind of keeping me interested, it’s more fun. “Fuck thinking about any aspect of the music but the music.” That was how it started I think.

This notion “nothing but the fun” translated to their music and gradually, largely via word of mouth based on house shows and some strong local support, their reputation and songs spread. I certainly remember being handed the original Starfucker E.P. and thinking there were two instant hits with “German Love” and “Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second.”

At the end of 2008 following their first L.P., this DIY dance band suddenly found their songs tapped for commercial use by the likes of IBM, and in more recent months Target has come knocking. The name also caused some consternation and confusion though. There is also a European Starfucker. In one instance they were under consideration to be an opening act for Animal Collective, but then apparently unasked due to concern’s over marketing the name. Losing a touring opportunity of that magnitude must have stung, and no doubt contributed to them now leaving the Starfucker moniker behind. Last Friday’s show was to be their final Seattle show as Starfucker. (A Halloween set in Portland will be the last show ever as Starfucker.)

In that first Vera show, almost a year ago, they played on the venue floor to a fairly reserved crowd of about forty or fifty, just enough to form a ring around the band. Following a sweaty crowded set this July at the Capitol Hill Block Party where the young crowd was unusually rowdy and challenging for the security team working the Vera Project sponsored stage, Starfucker was invited back to the venue for what was sure to be an exciting sell out event. Day of, it certainly proved to be that and more, though taking note of the difficult crowd situation that happened at Block Party might have been wise. The kids were no less excited this time around and during the first few songs, it’s a wonder nobody broke a bone or sprained an ankle. Those of us in the middle were live action weeble’s, helplessly tipping back and forth with the sway of the crowd. After a few songs of attempting to right myself against the irresistible riptide of people, I had to extract myself, which never happens. It was too much. (I’m not being modest. A mosh pit at my back doesn’t scare me anymore. Uncontrolled 16 year-olds on the other hand…)

Outside the melee at the back of the crowd the sound was great, and Starfucker’s mid-set cover of Cindy Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” may have received the biggest cheer of the night. I had my “old-man-at-an-all-ages-venue” moment, shaking my head thinking most of these kids have probably never even heard the original or know who Cindy Lauper is, but then promptly got lost in the delight of a cover well done. One that I was appreciating for being even more bubblegum than the original. Wrapping up with “German Love” and then “Dance Face 2000″ proved once again to be a winning combination, with singer Ryan Bjornstad taking a dive atop the tightly packed audience during German Love, while making a go at being a model dance face himself during the latter.

After a short encore, the merch table was mobbed for what was sure to be a landmark night for Starfucker sales. One could sense throughout the performance, in the smiles passed between members and the occasionally goggled-eyes surveying the crowd, that moments such as this are still what they live for. Yet moments such as this also confirm their growing appeal and that moving forward with a new name so they can reach even wider success is the right decision, however distasteful it may seem. In the year since their first Vera appearance, they’ve outgrown the venue and their name in a way that has topped anyone’s wildest expectations.

Strangely once the gentlemen of Starfucker had given up seeking popularity, it came seeking them. And the end of Starfucker came sooner than even the band themselves had mapped out tongue-in-cheek, as not an end at all, but a new beginning with their full potential still to be realized. Despite their name, they’ve become an example of how a band can survive and build momentum through clever licensing, recording a smart cover, and maintaining a fan focused position (largely all-ages). The name was itself a challenge to their former selves, yet going forward with it has proved too much of a challenge to a whole lot of other people, and so now the boys themselves are giving in. The irony of the entire situation is inescapable and might be humorous if it was piled so high.

In the draft for this post I had written as a last sentence, “Let us hope they can find a new name that continues to communicate their philosophy of making music (and by extension having fun) on their own terms.” Little did I know that today the new name would be revealed for all. After Halloween Starfucker is PYRAMID (caps are intended).

Oh wellz. I was probably too much to ask for them to come up with a new name as good as ‘Starfucker.’ Whatever the name though, their music is going to take them places.

Starfucker ::: Photo by Abbey Simmons

Starfucker ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Starfucker ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Flickr: Starfucker at the Vera Project, October 9, 2009

Starfucker FOREVER ::: photo by Josh Lovseth

Sigh. The cost of success and having your songs on commercials is that a band name with the word fuck featured prominently just doesn’t work. With that in mind, Portland’s electro-pop Starfucker are on the look out for a new name with the help of their fans.

Here’s what the band said today about their name change via a Myspace Blog:

Hey Friends–
Everyone knows our name sucks…so here is your chance to give us a new one. 
The best thing about this new-name game is that we want YOU to help us come up with it. 

There are two ways to vote for Starfucker’s new name. 

*Email your idea to:
newnameideas@gmail.com

OR

*Vote in person at the merch table at any show on our upcoming tour

This will be our last tour as Starfucker! 
Come out and help us usher in a whole new era of…..awesome-band-name-yet-..to-be-determined.
One vote per fan please. 
And of course there are fabulous prizes!  If your name is selected, you will get tons of cool shit!!!
Deadline for ideas is October 1st.

We don’t quite know how we feel about this, because we love the tongue and cheek nature of the name and think it decidedly doesn’t suck.  What does suck, we’re sure, is your band’s name not being able to be said on the radio, all ages venues not booking you because of your name, loosing revenue and potential ads because of your name, and having parents not allow kids to attend your show or buy your album thanks to your name.

So put on your thinking caps Starfucker fans. This band deserves a great name, which conveys the same sense of fun and fuck you, without the fuck of course.

* To get a feel for the band, here’s a Sound on the Sound interview with Starfucker, which covers the origin of their name *

The Black Lips ::: photo by Josh Lovseth

Nothing like writing out your schedule for a festival to get you excited. I’m certainly wishing I could fast forward through the rest of the work week and get right to Friday afternoon and the Capitol Hill Block Party.  There’s so much to look forward to:  from an audience chosen Built to Spill set to Jesus Lizard’s long anticipated return to the city that banned them to seeing a number of my favorite local bands take the big stages they so richly deserve.

Here’s what my Capitol Hill Block Party weekend is looking like. Hope to see you there!

4:30 - The Dutchess and The Duke (Main Stage)
6:30 - The Black Lips (Main Stage)
7:45 -Deerhunter (Main Stage)
equally tempting: Sleepy Eyes of Death (Neumo’s)
9:00 - Starfucker (VERA stage)  - catching 15 minutes before running off to…
9:15 - Built to Spill (Main Stage)
10:30 - They Live (Neumo’s) — TIME CHANGED BACK
10:45 - Jesus Lizard (Main Stage)

The Wild Orchid Children::: photo by Abbey Simmons

Saturday July 25th

2:00 - Wild Orchid Children (Vera Stage)
equally tempting - Hey Marseilles (Main Stage)
2:30 - Pica Beats (Vera Stage)
3:15 - The Moondoggies (Main Stage)
4:45 - The New Faces (Vera Stage)
6:30 - The Maldives (Neumos)
7:15 - The Lonely Forest (Vera Stage)
7:30 - The Thermals (Main Stage)
10:30 - Sonic Youth
equally tempting: Sportin’ Life Showcase featuring Fatal Luciano, D. Black, & Spaceman (Neumo’s)
11: 00  The Japandroids (Vera Stage) - TIME CHANGE

You have to keep your Saturday Night going with one of two highly recommended after-parties:

Curious Mystery at The Comet
Mad Rad, Macklemore at Chop Suey

This video is for the single “Medicine” from Starfucker’s new EP Jupiter which arrives today, May 5th.

The Shaky Hands ::: Photo by Josh

Randomly this weekend features a selection of the best of what PDX has to offer, all on bills supporting each other…

Friday April 10 at Chop Suey
Viva Voce (from PDX and is now a four piece!)
The Shaky Hands (PDX)
Rafter (San Diego)
Tickets are $10 adv. at Ticketweb.

Friday April 10 at the Vera Project
Starfucker (PDX)
Guidance Counselor (PDX)
Navigator vs. Navigator (Sea-town)
All-Ages. Tickets are $8 at TicketWeb.

Saturday April 11 at Neumos
The Thermals (PDX)
Panther (PDX)
Parenthetical Girls (PDX)
All-Ages. Tickets are $15 adv. at TicketsWest.

I was privileged to have the opportunity to interview Ryan Bjornstad and Josh Hodges of Starfucker back in November, in the back room at the Vera Project prior to the Seattle show on their first ever nationwide tour. They had just swung through New York and CMJ and were about to hit the rest of the west coast after a week’s break in Portland.

Ultimately the interview proved to be the best that I’ve been involved with, revealing and in-depth, with both members being frank and honest about their previous band experiences, popularity and thoughts on the Portland music scene. As such I’ve included nearly the entirety of the 35 minutes of the interview in this post essentially unedited. It’s very conversational with alot of back and forth between the two, which makes for a long read, but I promise it’s worth it.

Ultimately Starfucker is a band that is always looking to have fun, and wants everyone else to have a little fun too, period. That a larger audience than their friends has grown for their music still seems almost unreal to them. That people are taking notice of a couple of guys who turned too much fun with looping pedals and fooling around the local DIY and house scene into another organically rising star out of the Portland scene still seems almost too much to believe.

Starfucker is playing the Vera Project this Friday, along with Guidance Counselor and Navigator vs. Navigator. The show is $9 ($8 with club card).

—

Josh - SOTS: Tell me a little bit about Japan. How was it being the Portland ambassador to Japan?

Josh (SF): I don’t know man. I felt like someone fucked up and we Just got flown to Japan for free. And it was fun. And that was really it. It didn’t seem like what whatever someone was trying to do happened. Some how we got involved in a scam that worked out in our favor.

Ryan (SF): It did kinda seem like that because it was so disorganized. We never really knew what was going on half the time, unless we asked what was going on. I think it wasn’t necessarily their intention for that to happen.

Josh (SF): It was fun though. I think I’d like to live there.

Ryan (SF): I would have gone there no matter what, if it was paid or not. What happened with the show and all that stuff didn’t really make to much of a difference, it was the experience of the culture that was really nice.

SOTS: I saw your pictures. You guys were having fun with the signage… the english translations.

Ryan (SF): It was really weird. I don’t know if you saw that one picture that has Portland in the background. That was totally random. Jeff from Travel Portland, who was our cultural guide there, he was totally awesome, a really rad guy. He randomly asked his friend who was at this bar that we were at there if he knew anything about it, and it was actually his friend that had put it up.

Josh (SF): It said something weird too. Some girl on our myspace translated it as like “The Land of Commercial Success.”

Ryan (SF): The idea is i guess is that Portland is renowned for it’s for it’s urban growth boundaries, and these people in Japan are using it as an example for them. They really love Portland apparently.

SOTS: So CMJ. Did you guys get out of it what you thought to get out of it?

Josh (SF): We didn’t know what we were supposed to get out of it I don’t think. It was kind of all setup. We didn’t do anything to get those shows. We have a booking agent and he said “Oh yeah, you should play CMJ, I’ll make sure you can.” He hooked all these shows up.

It was fun though. We had three shows in one day. We were supposed to have four shows but one got canceled. It wasn’t as bad as i thought. Playing three shows. Driving around the city in our van that barely holds everything. It was fun. I think we all just love music. It’s just nice to be there.

CMJ was OK. I didn’t really watch many bands, except for Jay Reatard which is out in Brooklyn. So It was a little less hectic. It was fucking amazing. I just can’t even remember anything else. It was too mad. Craziness. Over by the Cake Shop and everything.

Ryan (SF): Plus, I think we viewed it as a nice break for us from being on the road. A lot of us viewed it as more like a vacation. Really hang out and get our bearings. So the madness of CMJ was at least for me, a little overwhelming at times. To be there when we’re not playing. But I definitely appreciate that…

I was talking to Josh earlier about this. But I really like the idea of this pilgrimage, all these bands from all across the United States, all going to this one place for these shows. For this one week of madness, or whatever, and then they all tour back out. And I imagine all the places around the country that don’t get to see a lot of good music, get to see a lot during that time. I like that idea.

SOTS: It seems that some bands go to South by Southwest with the idea that they’ll get noticed or notoriety or whatever. And that it’s one step. Somehow sort of randomly you guys sort of did. Just reading blogs as I read blogs… BrooklynVegan… Pitchfork did your video the other day. So it’s kind of organic. I thought that was really cool.

Ryan (SF): I feel like that’s how a lot of things have been going for us, alot of it happens really organically. Although there is some expectation with CMJ for a lot of bands, for us, we wanted to have fun and just play shows. To go there expecting notoriety or something is just setting yourself up for disappointment. There is just so much there. There is so much music, that it’s impossible to get “noticed,” unless your just having fun and doing what you normally do.

Josh (SF): I didn’t even know who BrooklynVegan was until we were out there. I don’t read blogs. Especially about music.

Read the rest of this entry »

Starfucker’s first video for “German Love” just hit the net via mtvU.

The now-four-piece are at the Vera Project April 10 with Kuroma and Navigator Vs. Navigator.

We’re light on the details on this so far, but PDX buzz-band and now-four piece Starfucker, who will be in Austin this week for SXSW, quietly added the above image to their myspace, changed their tagline to “jupiter out may 5th” and added a new song to their profile called “Medicine.” Needless to say we’re happy to hear this news and are super-excited about their return to Seattle next month to the Vera Project with Kuroma.

These gent’s are really looking to be active at SXSW, so check out their myspace and take in a show if you’re in the area.

Update: After some investigation, this is what their record label Badman Recordings who’ll be distributing the long EP has to say…

Less than a year after their successful debut album, this Portland, Oregon quartet returns with eight infectious songs- pasted side by side to deliver a non-stop indie house party. The experience of seeing Starfucker’s live performance delivers a reminder of what it is like to be a teenager: inspired, curious, open, hungry for anything new, and smiling uncontrollably. And this new 26 minute mini-album showcases the dance-y upbeat tunes that they are loved for from their sold out live performances. Included on the album is a cover version of Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” - which recently made it to internet aggregator Elbows’ Top 2 of blog downloads. The 180 gm LP will include bonus material not found on the CD. Available in April through this site and in stores in May.

Our favorite music reporter out of Portland, Nilina has been pretty on the ball with her coverage of whatever exciting that’s happening in Portland music-wise through her various web venues at Pampelmoose, LocalCut, and of course her own personal (though somewhat dormant) blog Not on the Guest List. Today she brings us news that Starfucker has licensed their song “Holly” for a 30-second IBM Commercial. And while her headline states somewhat harshly “Starfucker Dun Soldout” she later qualifies that headline by aptly summing up the situation for budding bands in 2009 in just a paragraph:

The big concern, then, is if this ad will call the band’s integrity into question? I don’t believe it should. Personally, I’m all for licensing and don’t view what some deem as “selling out” in a negative light. Touring as a sole source of musical income is a bit shaky since there’s pretty much no money in album sales anymore, so if ads mean my favorite bands can better afford a meal, then by all means they should take it. Less time spent worrying over finances equals more time for music making! Sounds like a winning situation for the band and my ears.

It seems now that the licensing angle should be a part of every band’s framework of ongoing financial support. What once might have been “selling out” is now an invaluable opportunity for small bands to gain exposure and get paid. I happen to think this particular ad, even with the remix element, still respects the music and integrates it quite well. You can watch above and judge for yourself.

The bit of Starfucker that I’ve been chewing on for the past few days is their pretty rad cover of Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” from BuffetLibre’s Rewind 2.0 massive cover’s compilation. After interviewing them (to appear soon!), I can’t help but see the cover as not just a fun song, but also a statement of principles.

And finally from the professional end of things to the DIY end, Starfucker apparently knows that “crowdsourcing” will be the meme of 2009 and is having a t-shirt design contest for their fans this month. You can design a shirt and enter it to be sold only at their Valentines Day show at Portland’s Wonder Ballroom. The due date is February 1st. Complete details are on a myspace blog.