Stark - Put It To Your Head
By Chris Rockson
Typical ! I love New York City...I love the place, the food, the buildings, the people, the attitude, the vibe, but most of all, the music scene.
New York has, to me anyway, always produced the best bands, and Stark are no exception to that rule. Fronted by the very talented Lani Ford, by day TV personality, by night, hard-rockin' bass player with one of the coolest acts on the scene. 'Put it to your head' is the brand new offering by the band, who also include in the line-up, Josette on guitars and Sweet Rob Endemann on the sticks.
The subject matter of the songs is complex and deals with life
issues, love, drug addictions, dreams and just about every emotion
available to your average person.
Track Listing :
18 Again
I Pay [ Man In The Moon ]
Dreams Come True
OH NO!
Nothing's Wrong
Co-Dependent
This Day
Reliably Disappointing Relationship
Disturbed
Butterfly
Opening chords of '18 Again' just make me wanna strap on a Les Paul, crank up the Fender Twin and join right in with them! Josette certainly rocks out with the best of 'em, with a sound reminiscent of Johnny Ramone's wall of sound, but with a delicate side as well. The lyrics aren't just your average 'throw-away-garden variety' too, they are well thought out, catchy Power Punk at its best. '18 Again with Malicious Intent, so many stories I don't need to invent' kinda sets the scene here. 'Dreams Come True' has possibly the greatest line ever written - 'Kelly ended up with the guy Kate was S'posed to marry, they have a little black dog and a brand new baby, Kate lives uptown in her high-rise apartment, she does alright as a mid-priced Dominatrix...' wonderful!
The CD slides into the darker side of life with the masterpiece that is 'Co-Dependent' which delves deep into the agony and ecstasy of true love and relationships with someone that is unable to help themselves and ultimately it falls apart.
'He needs
drugs, and I need him'
kinda tells it all. There is an underlying sarcasm in some of the
songs, witty and creative. 'Reliably Disappointing Relationship'
keeps the theme with its '
I dig, our reliably disappointing
relationship, we just get drunk and talk to everyone else all night'...ever
experienced that?
The best
track is always a hard one to pin on any collection of songs, but if I
had to choose, it would be the 'Suzi Quatro'-alike 'Disturbed' with
its 'if you like
drinkin' drivin' say Yeah, YEAH!'
chorus and ramrod guitars.
This would be quite easily the song that gets any crowd whipped into
a frenzy! The CD ends on a light note with the excellent 'Butterfly'
hammered out on an acoustic, again dealing with personal loss.
The band have just completed a short UK tour to promote the CD, and we caught them at two of their London shows. Look out for that in next month's Soundcheck, and for readers in NYC, look out, they're headed back real soon with some shows in the city!
Chris
Find out more about Stark by going to their Website / Myspace