Blah blah music blah

November 3, 2006 9:32 AM

Your-Favorite-Band-SucksFilter: Does anyone know precisely how to characterize the band, "The Flaming Stars"? I'm just trying to categorize them precisely so I can find other artists that sound like them.

The Flaming Stars != The Flaming Lips

posted by ScotchLynx to media & arts (9 comments total)

I can't help you with a specific genre or subgenre and really, that information is only useful if other people give it the same classification.

Have you tried something like Pandora for suggestions of similar music?
posted by utsutsu at 9:43 AM on November 3, 2006

alternative-rock-space-rock. listen to: mercury rev, hopewell, the eels, neutral milk hotel, the shins, the decemberists, iron&wine, er...um...stuff like that. and i definately second pandora. it rocks. usually.
posted by metasav at 9:50 AM on November 3, 2006

Last.FM users say "Indie Rock"
posted by mcstayinskool at 9:54 AM on November 3, 2006

Check out All Music Guide. The guide lists similar artists; no description of specific subgenre of rock, but that's pretty subjective anyway (i.e., I would not put Iron & Wine in the same genre as Mercury Rev, but if it works for you and metasav, great!).
posted by holyrood at 10:00 AM on November 3, 2006

Pitchfork refers to them as "psychobilly." Lots of links from there via Google.
posted by xo at 10:16 AM on November 3, 2006

I've only listened to one of their albums (Sell Your Soul To...), but I'd characterize it as bar rock/loungey. A bit more uptempo than the average Tom Waits album, but with something in common with him. Find Yourself Another Drunk, for instance, is like a lesser version of any number of Tom Waits songs.

Bands I WOULD NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS SAY ARE SIMILAR, EVEN THOUGH THEY ALSO USE ENGLISH AS THEIR LYRICAL LANGUAGE include, but are not limited to: Neutral Milk Hotel, The Decembrists, Iron & Wine. Unless their other albums are very unlike Sell You Soul, I have to wonder if metasav has even heard The Flaming Stars. (If Sell You Soul is the exception among their albums, then I've got nothing.)
posted by OmieWise at 10:18 AM on November 3, 2006

Oh, yeah, psychobilly makes sense.
posted by OmieWise at 10:19 AM on November 3, 2006

The problem with categorizing them, and the reason I love them, is that their best album (Ginmill Perfume) varies wildly among styles.

At times it sounds like classic Joy Division, other times, Nick Cave with some Church thrown in, and it parts it plays like Morphine.

If you can find another band that wanders so successfully through styles, I'd love to hear them.
posted by lumpenprole at 11:31 AM on November 3, 2006

Well, thanks for the help in any case! I don't think many of those bands sound very much alike myself, but I can recognize plenty of the similarities. Somewhere between Joy Division and Tom Waits, in a way, is a pretty good description though.

Peace!
posted by ScotchLynx at 4:30 PM on November 5, 2006