Hey all, my creative process has been kind of stymied, and
this has really handicapped my ability to deal with the sheer mass of cds I
have to get through. The two things may be related. So I am going to try to
move to a more streamlined way of doing these entries to get through them
without having to reinvent the wheel every time.
Genre: Noise Rock
Why might I have heard of them: The Chinese Stars were
founded by some of the core members of Arab on Radar, a highly influential but
short lived Providence based band that is widely credited with reinvigorating
noise rock, kick-starting the moribund No-Wave movement, putting out one album,
and then breaking up. Some of the acts they helped inspire and get started,
including The Locusts, have gone on the get national attention, at least
amongst a small but dedicated audience of former hardcore fans. They also had a
tendency to perform nude, and when they opened for Marilyn Manson they so
antagonized the audience that they were ejected. They also played Clark
University, which is where I got this EP. The show was, in fact, awesome.
Anything of note: in line with their antagonistic ethos and
name, the four song EP was put out on a disc shaped like a four pointed shuriken.
This was during the period when some people thought mini-discs had a future for
some reason. The resulting disc was functionally a mini-disc, but could not
play in a mini-disc player. Nor could it be played in a slide-in CD player. It could
only be played in a top- load CD player. I consider this a fantastic fuck you
to the audience. Especially since this probably cost more to print.
Are they good: Fuck yeah they are good. They manage the
hypnotic drone of noise rock while presenting clear, intelligent vocals and avoiding
the blank wall of noise affect all too common in third rate entrants in the
genre. They certainly have the attitude down.
No comments:
Post a Comment