THE CHINESE STARS and DECIDER!

DECIDER! :::: Men, Women & Alcohol
I’m in love with this garage pop album by DECIDER!! Those 4 Scots’ 7″ was a bit too lo fi for my taste but this album has exactly the right sound and most satisfying dose of ravishing pop tunes over cheap drum synths and their singer has a nice deep-frozen male voice and humor, a bit like a cross between Mark E. Smith and James Murphy. The songs on this album remind of lots of musical goodies from the past: SUICIDES minimal rock’n’roll, NEW ORDER’s candy electro pop, conga no wave, hammond organ pop, melodica nostalgia like CLINIC already had revived… DECIDER! serve themselves uninhibitedly and it’s good that they do so.
“Happy In My Zoo”
“Men, Women and Alcohol”
::: go buy their album: Xstatic Records!

THE CHINESE STARS … A band that releases their first EP as a chinese stars shaped cd can’t be bad (2003, ‘Turbo Mattress’ on Skingraft). THE CHINESE STARS will take you deep into the woods of freaky postpunk. Arisen from the ashes of experimental noise legends ARAB ON RADAR and SIX FINGER SATELLITES this band sure knows how to spin their tight web of discobeats, clanky funky postpunk guitars and the sassy vocals of Eric Paul. Sadly I feel so far their recordings don’t really capture THE CHINESE STARS‘ live appearances which are brainwashing fun. That’s why I’m happy to get to see them live next Tuesday and at a summer festival where I’ll play too.
Here’s a song of ‘A Rare Sensation’ (2004 on 3.1.G):
“Girls Of Las Vegas”

And their remaining tour dates in Europe:
6/17 Barcelona, Spain at Magic Club
6/18 Madrid, Spain at Revolver Club
6/19 Drive Day
6/20 Lille, France at La Malterie
6/21 Wurzburg, Germany at Cafe Cairo
6/22 Berlin, Germany at The Clinic
6/23 Munster, Germany at Baracke
6/24 Andenne, Belgium at Bear Rock Festival (Early Show)
6/24 Antwerp, Belgium at Scheldapen (Late Show)
6/25 Esslingen, Germany at Komma
6/26 Tilburg, Netherlands at 013 Club