Laughing City

Starflyer 59...
has been consistently good over the years.
38%
 38%  [ 8 ]
have been good, but not consistently.
23%
 23%  [ 5 ]
is not to my liking.
9%
 9%  [ 2 ]
who?
28%
 28%  [ 6 ]
Total Votes : 21

Author Message
wilsmith
Vintage Newbie


They are starting with the earliest releases, the one's I am least familiar with actually. I had to do the same thing you did, go through the "vetting" process. I basically hoped online and just listened to samples, because the differing styles are so distinct that you'll scarcely confuse one of their pop songs with the brooding dirges they are equally known for.

My rule of thumb was to read the allmusic reviews and if they said the record was particularly scatterbrained, that was my cue to avoid it. The first Cure song I ever liked was on the Crow soundtrack, Burn. It's the personification of what dark cure songs are like. Odder still is their take on Purple Haze on the Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix cd, another prototypical spacey, lush, Cure tune.

The records I mentioned in the prior post are all in that mode.

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bigideas
Vintage Newbie


Dial M was on Amazon MP3 for $5 one time back in the day.
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Last edited by bigideas on Thu Mar 22, 2012 9:47 am; edited 1 time in total
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bigideas
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http://www.toothandnail.com/news/3142/New_Starflyer_59_album_The_Chang ing_of_the_Guard_Out_August_10th_New_Song_Truckers_Son_Up_Now/

Starflyer 59 will release their new album “The Changing of the Guard" in stores and online August 10th.

You can listen to the first new song off the album called "Truckers Son" now on the band's MySpace page.

Following their 2008 release "Dial M," Starflyer 59 is back with ten new tracks. The first single posted online today, "Truckers Son" is about the realization that the dream life someone wanted in their twenties - like being a famous musician - is not grounded in reality as they grow older. Instead the reality is the "son" becoming exactly what he tried so hard not to become - like his dad.

SF59 has always been a band that delivers albums of interest, not just singles. The upcoming release follows this pattern. This time the album talks about how things change, and you have to learn to accept the fact that things change.

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bigideas
Vintage Newbie


http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/starflyer59/help-starflyer-59-prod uce-their-first-independent

Searching for threads on MBV, I came across this one and thought I'd put up the Kickstarter link in case someone was still unaware. Heard the other day that his brother's project, Joy Electric, also has one going.

Read through most of this thread. I've actually been listening to the early Starflyer albums and getting into them. Some of the guitar leads/tones on Silver make me think of the Cure like you said years ago. A review of MBV on YouTube actually made me start thinking about SF again, and then they finally broke the long silence since the last album with the Kickstarter news.

...And the expanded/remastered editions of MBV albums has finally been confirmed via their official Facebook page.

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wilsmith
Vintage Newbie


I still only have Loveless on a dubbed cassette from my ex and that's it for MBV for me.

Aren't you glad you didn't buy those cds when Tahruh suggested it a few months back was it???

Hard to believe the SF59 conversation was YEARS AGO Shocked Embarassed

Next time just start a new thread and pretend this doesn't exist... let's not remind ourselves how long it's been!

and it'll be 8 months before we'll be able to talk about this record at least Laughing

Well at least now we can bring up Deep Space in regards to the SF59 sound now.

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bigideas
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Why does it matter how long it's been? Why take up more LC space? It has a Poll, so it's here for the long haul.

Up until recently I had no idea how desired Out Of Print SF59 vinyl was. Tooth & Nail pressed vinyl for almost all their albums, with the exception of Silver (which 500 were pressed recently), P Blues & My Island. Now all T&N lists for sale in their store is the vinyl copy of the last album, not even the CD! No CDs of any other albums! I find this very weird, especially since the OOP vinyls go on eBay for over $100 sometimes. Someone just put their collection up that contains most of the OOP stuff - Americana, The Fashion Focus w/bonus 7", Everybody Makes Mistakes w/bonus 7", Goodbyes Are Sad 7", & Leave Here A Stranger. I think most are in the $60/$70 range already with several days to go. I saw Gold & LHAS sealed go for $100+ a piece.

I would guess most copies were originally sold via mail order/indie record store, because I've never seen vinyl at a Christian bookstore.

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wilsmith
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As far as the age of the thread, I was sort of joking, making light of how long I've been on the LC, and also how long it's been since we talked about SF59 (there have been other potentially pruned thread where they came up like Best Christian Artist etc, along with Last Album thread).

A few bands I know that are indie do a vinyl release for limited time at album launch, and did split vinyl eps going back to like 96' or so. I guess it pays off if the band catches on, as far as collecting.

SF59 has a legit fan base, was a flagship Christian Alternative band that wasn't outright worship music or burdened with the label oppressively hanging over them (Jars of Clay). I think that plus helping carry a label on their backs allowed Tooth & Nail to support going that extra mile to do the vinyl.

Vinyl has always been "cool", I remember when PJ and other bands started doing releases in the 90s. It took a while to really catch hold though.

It makes more sense now that things have gone digital because:

1. It's harder to Bootleg Vinyl
2. If you're selling music as an artifact/ physical item, bigger is visually better
3. Sans a DL code, it forces a double purchase for the non-audiofile who decides they want a portable version.

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inorbit
Laughing Citizen


OK- so the Christian market thing finally explains why I've only ever been aware of these guys via LC, even though they sounded like something I should have heard before.

A quick google and wikipedia scan motivated by curiosity unearthed this tidbit though:
wikipedia wrote:

In a concert listing for Cornerstone Festival in the May 1995 issue of CCM Magazine, the band was referred to as Star Flyer 69.


...which I'm sure they must have meant in reference to psalm 69, of course. Laughing

I suppose in the end they decided they liked psalm 59 better?
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wilsmith
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wiki is funny. That was a typo on the part of Cornerstone. I'd heard about that years ago in the pre-wiki era. I want to say it even came up in the allmusic.com profile, which is like the internet music info Bible.

And yeah, they are about as Christian as Tom Petty or U2 ultimately, as far as their music. If just so happens that they came to prominence as a time where it was "A Thing" and there was a youth demo looking for such "A Thing". It was a marketing Cluster#$% that alienated a lot of great bands from the idea of even being associated with Christianity as a collective, professional entity and still lingers and hovers over bands to this very day.

Sort of sad, that people would closet or quarantine part of who they were or are, or their motivations, past and present, in their expressions of themselves and their convictions. But hey, that goes beyond Christianity or faith in general and broaches all sorts of values.

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bigideas
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I think them staying on Tooth & Nail all those years and other close calls to bigger pastures that didn't work out kept them from being bigger. Pitchfork reviewed several releases for a while. Christianity didn't keep Danielson or Sufjan Stevens from the mainstream of indie world either. I think both of those hurt themselves by making big splashes and then taking a long time before doing the next "normal" follow up project.

I think SF had a big showcase at one point and Jason said they did horrible. He seems to hate playing live so they haven't toured in a while either.

One good thing about T&N is that they let him do what he wanted to do release wise, so most years he released an album and an EP, as well as, having various side projects.

The other night I had a verse stuck in my head and I knew it was SF, but they have so many releases to go through. It was the 2nd verse of No Revolution. That album is so unpopular the lyrics aren't even online to Google them. The sliding panned guitar is awesome.

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wilsmith
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Yeah, Sufjan is a critic's darling, but is he really that big? I think sometimes these people have the right kind of fans to get written about, but their market share doesn't reflect it. I mean, does he really have a "Hit"? And sheesh, big isn't big anymore. People are debuting at # selling 87k units... But that's not a bad thing, just not anywhere near the industry's old standard. Lower numbers work better for indie artists though.

Timely follow-ups after hype do help, but they can sure as heck backfire, like Gold (Ryan Adams). It wasn't even that much of a departure as what would follow, but It was so weird, as a non fan at the time, to see how quickly people turned on old boy. The hype actually increased for a while After it came out, but Demolition was the beginning of the end.

Your point about the glut of material, that's something that intrigues me. For people who want to get into a band top to bottom, full career, all that stuff can be overwhelming, and then there is a BIG difference in sound from the first 2 into the Fashion Focus and it continued to evolve. So that problem Eisley seems to be having with people not liking where the sound has gone with each album after release 3! he's got, whut, like 12 in 18 years not counting EPs, side projects etc. I'm personally in hog heaven when artists do that and are consistently listenable, let along good or great, but there's only so much time in the day, in the car, that you can lounge, and take it in, so much at that.

The other thing that I realize is that "Christian" bands that broke through of that era have had the same sustainability beyond that market issue. The first one that comes to mind is Jars of Clay, cause they are still out their doing their thing, but Flood was their High Point, and they have done so much more that is so much better since then, that mainstream radio could have easily picked up and formatted into rotations, but went ignored. Switchfoot came along a little later, but they were also in the same boat, but they managed to get 2 hits out of the equation before a gradual fade. Some people may not like their brand of hard pop rock, but they have been consistent with their craft and do it as well now as they did then to no commercial impact. They are basically modeled after the Foo Fighters, but the contrast between where the Foos are and they are is pretty significant, but again, they are for all intents and purposes very successful on their own terms by indie standards.

All that said, I LOVE that Tooth and Nail has been a haven for those bands and found a way to keep them in the market place. They've been the landing place for more than a couple of bands who got "upstreamed" to majors and had to come back down to indie-earth when that floundered. the Militia Group is also good for that. Might as well give props to Equal Vision too, since they've taken that turn for Eisley and Say Anything, though those aren't "Christian" bands.

I think after Radiohead broke the mold and established that bands with a solid following can make and release music on their own terms, how could others, though smaller, not be tempted to try? Cut out the middleman, and with a small fan base you can still make more money than you would have on a label with a well orchestrated release, especially a digital one or a specialty one like a limited edition package at a exponentially higher price than what a DL or cd would run.

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bigideas
Vintage Newbie


wilsmith wrote:
Yeah, Sufjan is a critic's darling, but is he really that big?


I think he would have been if he didn't 'retreat' for several years.
The Illinois(e) album was pretty huge. Then around that time he had a big involvement in the Little Miss Sunshine soundtrack - or at least had a couple songs in it. At that time, I'm sure he could have gone to LMS premieres, etc., red carpet and got more well known. I'm not aware of him doing anything with the film and it was very popular. If he did a music video tie in with the film that might have lead to more exposure.

Instead he didn't put out a new 'album' album for 4 or 5 years.

SF59 - I'm watching some eBay listings right now. Someone put up most of the OOP vinyl items. 3 are around or over the $100 right now.

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bigideas
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New Starflyer 59 album - IAMACEO

http://www.undertowmusic.com/starflyer-59-new-album-iamaceo/

Their contract with Tooth & Nail finished and Jason decided to release the next album on his own. He started a $10,000 Kickstarter and ended up getting over $24,000.

I pre-ordered the vinyl in December, got an immediate WAV download, and then burned myself a CD. Today is the official release date with it going up on iTunes.

I'm enjoying the album.

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wilsmith
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I got my shipping notification today. My wifi has been lackluster so I haven't dl'd it or heard it het. I'm expecting gooog things based on the single. So far only one self financed album by a band I like has let me down. Most all the others have be some of said artist's best work.
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bigideas
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I sure haven't got a notification. May be because I ordered 2 other CD's - the Bazan thing, Headphones, and TW Walsh's album. TW Walsh produces and seems to master more and more things.
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