Brooklyn-via-L.A. outfit Starred's singer Liza Thorn was in a band with formerGirls frontman Christopher Owens called-- wait for it-- Curls. Even without that connection, Starred's debut single, "No Good", appears to emerge from the same bottomless reserve of bedside longing that gave us "Hellhole Ratrace" four years ago. It's the sound of two people almost willing a song to life in real time as Matt Koshak's spare guitar figures nudge heavy-lidded sighs out of Thorn, the rest filled out by pockets of vast and lonely space. There's plenty of Mazzy in Starred, but what's striking about "No Good" is how unlike most of Starred's peers, it can be simultaneously loud as hell and dead quiet (depending on what volume you play it at). It's a song that's capable of filling just about any space you put it in, its mood evoking the type of glam-rock where the focus is on being wasted as opposed to getting wasted.
[from a forthcoming 7" on Pendu Sound]
