Starflyer 59 >> Now you're turning blue

California Month, tremor #18:

Starflyer 59 - "Blue Collar Love"

(Tooth & Nail Records, 1993)

This is perhaps the heaviest song in history.  It's from Starflyer's spectacular debut album, generally referred to by fans as The Silver Album, though it's technically untitled or self-titled.  The band was masterminded by singer / guitarist / songwriter Jason Martin, with a rotating backing cast.  I borrowed it on cassette from my Loyola dormmate named Peter Whipple in Sept. '97, having heard only one Starflyer song at the time, namely "The Boulevard."  He mentioned that he had seen a Starflyer / Seam / Bedhead gig in Houston, which made me so jealous.

This album hit me like an atom bomb, and I still sometimes pull it out and listen to it on the road for a week or so straight.  It's another one of those albums that profoundly shaped the aesthetic of Blowtorch Baby.  Martin unfortunately changed Starflyer's sound pretty drastically after their two excellent 1994 releases (the Silver LP and the She's The Queen EP) to a dad-friendly pop-rock, and their later recordings are mostly uninspired and meandering, but they occasionally cranked out a gem or two, such as 1995's "A Housewife Love Song," which has one of the most intriguing videos ever:

That song is pretty much "Blue Collar Love Part 2," and yes, that's Jason Martin in the video, but I don't know who the girl is.  Her "When Animals Attack" pantomiming at around the 3:05 mark reminds me of Lung Leg's similar antics in Richard Kern's infamous '85 short film Submit To Me, clips of which were sampled that same year in Sonic Youth's "Death Valley '69" video...  (Warning: Submit To Me is probably the most NSFW video ever allowed on YouTube.)

The band's change in sound is why I didn't include them in my little list of best U.S. shoegaze bands a few posts ago.  In summer of '98, via Tooth & Nail mailorder, I ordered The SIlver Album on cassette and SF59's live album, called Plugged.  Plugged was already out of print, so Jason Martin himself wrote me a little apology note and explained that he was swapping in an orange Starflyer t-shirt and a decent 7" ("Goodbyes Are Sad" b/w "Next Time Around").  I got Plugged a few years later, but its poor sound quality makes it for diehard fans only.  Speaking of diehard fans, in their early days SF59 touted various brands of motorcycles in their albums' / EPs' liner notes; on this album they proclaimed "starflyer exclusively rides triumph motor bikes."  Here's a zine I bought on eBay about 5 years ago; I forgot where it is, so this is the eBay seller's photo:

The "One giant step..." line is a play on Silver's extravagant liner notes, which feature an artsy 2-page spread devoted to each song.  "Blue Collar Love"'s says "One small step for Starflyer, one giant leap for the working man" at the bottom.  All three formats on which this album was released (1994 CD, 1994 cassette, 2005 CD) have different cover art.  I'll upload a comparison pic sometime.  Sorry that this turned into another factoid-based post.

Note: This mp3 is from the original 1994 CD, not from the remastered 2005 CD, which I also own.  The remastering job is not acceptable to me, with a more compressed sound and higher master volume, and it was done after T&N had sold 50% of itself to EMI Records, so I went with the better-sounding, totally indie version of the song.

Planets with similar climates: Smashing Orange - "Flower Kisses" (1992), Soundgarden - "New Damage" (1991) & "Blind Dogs" (1995), Helmet - "Sinatra" (1990), Quicksand - "Head To Wall" (1992).


I've decided this assessment of Dr. Dre's "Keep Their Heads Ringin'" might be the funniest Beavis & Butt-head clip ever, edging out their throttling of "See You In Hell" by Grim Reaper:

I saw a photo of someone in this t-shirt today; a spoof of M.A.D.D., of course: