Are Stars Like Fleas?

Brooklyn-based Stars Like Fleas may take the award for most interesting band name since Test Icicles, but how do they sound? With white boy falsettos and a warm, fuzzy atmosphere, I'm going to say pretty damn good. While the band made a local name for itself with mostly hand traded releases over the years, the band has a new US label, Hometapes, which will release the band's third album, The Ken Burns Effect on June 3, 2008. If the first single, "I Was Only Dancing," is any indication of the entire output, I think we're all going to be rather pleased. It's a quiet, almost haunting piece that reaches inviting crescendos at just the right moments. The lush keys and jangly keys play perfectly against those aforementioned vocal high points. While it certainly doesn't sound like the band is break dancing, this is a slow jam that lets you hold your partner tight. And that's some pretty fine dancing right there.

As a complete aside, I was told by our very own Joe (who learned from his wife) that The Ken Burns Effect actually is more than a reference to the creator of documentaries about baseball, jazz or war. According to Wikipedia:

The Ken Burns Effect is a popular name introduced by Apple Computer in 2003 for a feature in its iMovie 3 software. The feature enables a widely used technique of embedding still photographs in motion pictures, displayed with slow zooming and panning effects, and fading transitions between them. The name derives from extensive use of the technique by American documentarian Ken Burns.

And there is your trivia fix for the day.

I Was Only Dancing