Major Stars

Major Stars

Roots Of Confusion Seeds Of Joy

Drag City

***Playing material arranged for a sextet fronted by a trio of guitars, MAJOR STARS have developed a habit of rehearsing regularly and repeatedly, then showing up to record with the material fully conceived and ready to roll—and Roots of Confusion Seeds of Joy was no exception, with most of the songs (except “Out In the Light”) being run through a thousand times or so before coming to the studio and getting tracked in a day and a half. Their triple-guitar alignment has a fiendish way of affecting one’s depth-of-field, and while it is easy to describe what Major Stars do in terms of bombast, this shortchanges the tactile components of the band—a song like “Dawn and the Spirit” is an epic workout of no mean complexity, and the layers of guitars throughout are arrayed to explore aspects of melody and progression in the songs, not to saw and solo mindlessly away! The aggressive, transporting aspects of this music tend to grab listeners by their lapels and slap them around a bit, so if perceptions of sonic architecture are lost in the melee, well, that’s kind of the goal anyway.

Major Stars

Motion Set

Drag City

***Motion Set is the 9th MAJOR STARS LP and their first on Drag City since 2010’s Return to Form, with Decibels of Gratitude appearing in 2012. This has left Starsheads around the world high and decidedly dry; for what reason a four-year gap, they’ve cried, instead of the rather more ideal two-to-three? The answer lies in the very core of the band as they’ve existed from the start: time and space are required to produce the necessary mass to tether their music in this flighty, over-oxygenated atmosphere of ours—and after eight records, it only gets harder to find a combination of possible elements requiring three guitars and a rhythm section in search of the ultimate release with every song they play. Fortunately, Major Stars don’t sell their process until it’s fully melded. C’mon, WAYNE ROGERS is no Johnny-come-lately to the scene of psychedelic guitar rock. He and KATE BIGGAR have been crossing axes to head-scrambling effect since the halcyon days of CRYSTALLIZED MOVEMENTS, in the galaxy far, far away we now call the '80s. In the 90s came collaboration with DAMON & NAOMI in MAGIC HOUR and Wayne Rogers solo records, before the debut of Major Stars at Terrastock ’97. As the years have passed, the band has evolved necessarily in their own expanding universe. (STREET DATE - 11/11/2016)

Major Stars

Return To Form

Drag City

***MAJOR STARS have a new one that might lay it on you all at once like a plank of solid stone, and they’re calling it Return to Form. Starting with a mid-fight school yard threat like “Better Stay Down,” Major Stars do definitely seem to be returning to somewhere on this new new album, maybe even perhaps somewhere adolescent where the rock and roll was never better? Return to Form‘s got eight pieces, all heavy rocks, a few of them come with power jams. There’s also a few just under three minutes, but distinguished by riffage that lifts ’em up. The guitars trio of WAYNE ROGERS, KATE VILLAGE and TOM LEONARD is into their third full album as such, allowing them to have fused into a wall of distorto with a myriad of identities but singular purpose. Behind their ubiquitous combination signal, the drums trample with pummelous authority. (STREET DATE - 1/26/2010)