The Bowery Presents

Music Hall of Williamsburg upcoming shows

Starfucker / Octopus Project

Philip Seymour Hoffman

Venue:
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Date:
Fri 10/08
Notes:
18+
Doors: 8:00 PM / Show: 9:00 PM
$13 advance / $15 day of show
Tickets
Starfucker
myspace
Starfucker have delivered an absolutely infectious self-titled album described as "a cohesive package of electro indie pop with a light hip-hop after-taste." It's like playing an 8-bit video game where your primary objective is to overcome heartbreak and an obsession with death, your only weapon a love laser mounted on a space bike that zaps out bright red blips and neon bleeps. The experience of seeing Starfucker's live performance delivers a certain nostalgia; a reminder of what it was like to be a teenager: inspired, curious, open, hungry for anything new, and smiling uncontrollably. Whether dressed in '80s era Brooklyn hip-hop style, electro clash, or full drag, live, the three bring a new experience and unpredictability to every show.
The Octopus Project
official website
myspace
Drums vs. drum machines. Samplers vs. guitars. Take these oppositional elements, add a willingness to start a band first and learn how to use the gear later, crank it up to 25,000 and under certain laboratory conditions another band like The Octopus Project might emerge. The Octopus Project has created a unique sound perhaps best described as "ambidextrous equipment failure junk-tronica," merging the experimentation of progressive post-rock, the blips and bleeps of electronica and the raw, human ROCK of rock.

Toto Miranda, Josh Lambert and Yvonne Lambert play with un-self-conscious joie de vivre. They create irresistible music - a feat all the more amazing considering none of their songs follow anything close to a rote pop, rock or dance structure. You can only call what they do happiness.

In 2001, their reputation as the band that "hooked up their half-broken electronic shit all wrong" first attracted the attention of Peek-A-Boo Records, but actually seeing the band play their half-broken electronic shit way, way too loud one Friday night sealed the deal, and by the end of the weekend Peek-A-Boo had agreed to release the band‘s brilliant debut, Identification Parade. To date they hold the honor of being the only band recruited to the label after only one show.

The new record, One Ten Hundred Thousand Million, is more subtle and emotional than the first, but just as hooky, just as energetic and sometimes a whole lot noisier. It‘s a little like the Young Marble Giants if they really were giants, with giant marble instruments - charming, young, eccentric, honest, true, gentle giants among men.

In the two years between releases, The Octopus Project has taken the barely-controlled chaos of their live performance from coast to coast playing hundreds of shows, so when it came time to record again, the band had a clear idea of what they wanted - a full-on, surround sound, 3-D, technicolor studio amalgamation injected with the wild energy they felt in those noisy, tightly-packed clubs.

Parts of this record were actually recorded in concrete stairwells. Other sounds were captured in nice rooms with padded walls and fancy recording equipment. No sounds were injured when captured, although some complained loudly. Computer slaves helped with the mixing, but they are happy slaves. Happy to be mixing the best music ever instead of playing chess or computing data like they usually have to do.
Philip Seymour Hoffman
myspace
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