Stars (band)

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For the British band, see Stars (UK band)
Stars
Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan, Stockholm 2005
Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan, Stockholm 2005
Background information
Origin Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Genre(s) Indie pop
Indie rock
Years active 2000 - present
Label(s) Arts & Crafts, Le Grand Magistery, Paper Bag
Associated acts Broken Social Scene
Memphis
Amy Millan
Website www.arts-crafts.ca/stars
Members
Torquil Campbell
Amy Millan
Evan Cranley
Chris Seligman
Pat McGee

Stars is a Juno Award nominated Canadian indie pop band. Originally formed in Toronto by vocalist Torquil Campbell and keyboardist Chris Seligman, the band relocated to New York City and then subsequently to Montreal.

Contents

[edit] Sound

Stars' music has been described as "beautiful, eloquent indie pop", characterized by lush instrumentation, nimble production and mixing, narrative lyrics, and soft but nuanced vocals. The band's style has evolved from an electronic-pop sound as heard on Nightsongs (released on the Le Grand Magistery record label) to more rock-based instrumentation on their last two full-length albums, reflecting the permanent additions of singer-guitarist Amy Millan and bassist Evan Cranley on Heart (released on Paper Bag Records), and eventually drummer Pat McGee on Set Yourself on Fire.

[edit] Career

The band's breakthrough single was "Ageless Beauty", from their 2004 album Set Yourself on Fire. Millan, Cranley and Campbell are also members of the indie band Broken Social Scene, with whom they currently share a record label, Arts & Crafts. Campbell is also an actor and has appeared on the television shows Sex and the City and Law & Order. Millan released a solo album in 2006. Several of the band's songs, such as "The Vanishing", "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead", and "The Big Fight", have appeared on the Fox Network's The O.C. and CTV's Degrassi: The Next Generation. Their single "Ageless Beauty" was also featured in a promotional trailer for Vh1's So NoTORIous.

On their website, the band has noted that their name was chosen without prior knowledge of the short-lived project by Syd Barrett.[1] They have cited a wide variety of musical likes and influences ranging from Berlioz to Outkast, citing among others Barrett, Paddy McAloon, New Order, The Smiths, Brian Wilson, Momus, and Broken Social Scene. They covered The Smiths' "This Charming Man" on 2001's Nightsongs and The Pogues' "Fairytale of New York" in 2005. Other indie artists have been guest collaborators on many of their tracks, especially for an early period including the release of their first LP.

They recently surprised their fans by releasing their latest studio album (In Our Bedroom After the War), on July 10, 2007, a full two months ahead of its expected release date, onto iTunes. When Stars released In Our Bedroom After the War to online retailers weeks before the CD's actual release date to circumvent the album's inevitable leak, part of their reasoning touched on the increasingly blurry line between critics and listeners. The band believed indie-rock fans should be able to review and provide opinions of the band's albums similar in a way to the so-called critics, but soon realized that the outcome could be very far from their ideal expectation. Soon after the music site Pitchfork Media gave the new album a 7.4 out of 10, Torquil Campbell offered up a rant that not only tore into the music site and the reviewer but lamented the death of art and criticism, which as a result prompted much scoffing from some critics and bloggers, as well as approval from others.[2] The band contributed a T-shirt design to the Yellow Bird Project[3] to raise money for Le Chainon, a women's shelter located in Montreal, Quebec.

[edit] Discography

Main article: Stars discography

[edit] Awards and nominations

[edit] References

  1. ^ Official Website
  2. ^ Sweet n' Sour: Stars vs. Pitchfork. Retrieved on September 22, 2007.
  3. ^ Yellow Bird Project: Charity T-Shirts, Wolfmother, Stars, Devendra Banhart, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Rilo Kiley

[edit] External links

[edit] Official

[edit] News and media

v • d • e
Stars
Torquil Campbell | Amy Millan | Evan Cranley | Chris Seligman | Pat McGee
Former members
Steve Ramsay | Emily Haines | James Shaw
Studio albums
Other albums
EPs
Singles
"The Stars Are Out Tonight" (2001) | "My Radio" (2003) | "Elevator Love Letter" (2003) | "Petite Mort" (2004) | "Ageless Beauty" (2004) | "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead" (2005) | "It's Alchemy!" (2005) | "Take Me to the Riot" (2007)
Record labels
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