SHE TOOK HIS BREATH AWAY
CD review - starberry II
Starberry –11 For 11 read 2, if you know what I mean. Only their second album (although if they do go on to make 11 I will want them all), this follow up to their eponymous debut of 2002 is an indie delight. Despite an effort to make it sound as if they did the whole thing in one take whilst doing the household chores and stroking the cat, the classy polish of two people so attuned to each other whilst making tunes (sorry, I could not stop myself) is all too evident. Off the cuff yet organised, detached but joined at the mike. This duo are a single entity, just drums and guitar and voice, so efficiently cool that in the 10 song, 32 minute romp that is this album you forget that there are only two of them performing. This wife and husband duo have made a timeless record that I know I shall revisit time and again, and be able to play it without missing a beat. Not unlike an old friend popping around to see you after a prolonged hiatus, these ten songs are going to be as good in the passing years as they are now, as vibrant and exciting as an electric storm, but perhaps not as dangerous. This is music you really shouldn’t miss if you want your rock with sherbet as well as peppermint, still in the plain wrapper, unadorned but with more stripes than the ‘White’ ones. (Better tunes, too). As good an example as you will get of songs sung by unsung heroes. Just take my word for it and hear Starberry now, so you can say that you heard them before they lit up the whole fruit farm
originally published: June 28, 2005
A 10 track, lo-fi thrill-a-minute rush of alt rock, more basement than garage with it's slightly deeper feel. A great rock experience from this exhilarating duo.
originally published: Issue 4, May 2005
CD review - starberry II
by Chris Kriofske
The Cleveland-based husband-and-wife duo returns for a second helping with their rudimentary garage rock and adorable Dolly Madison-like logo intact. As sequels go, this one's neither a bloated, pointless rehash nor an ambitious, head-scratching departure; Starberry II just offers more of the delicious same. Although Pat (drums) and Jennifer (everything else) upgraded from a four to an eight-track machine, it doesn't seriously beef up or alter their sound. Forget overloaded mixing boards and rooms cluttered with superfluous instruments; Pat and Jennifer have the bare essentials and know how to use them.
As with the duo's debut, II's best songs come right at the beginning and most of 'em are about the band. "Take The World" literally invites listeners to shamelessly rock along with the couple. In an untrained mewl (as if she were an understudy for Cindy Wilson of The B-52s), Jennifer sings, "When you're playing our songs in your car / and your feet are stomping to my guitar", and her passion is infectious -- she's getting off at the mere idea of playing music that people might bob their heads along to. Even though she wants to "Reign Supreme" in the following track, it's more an aspiration than a boast. Given how much the song rocks like vintage Liz Phair, if it were actually a boast, it wouldn't be unearned.
Surprisingly, II proves pretty durable for a band working from such a limited palette. A typical song contains little more than a punchy if elementary guitar riff from Jennifer, steady, straightforward drumming from Pat, and maybe a key change or a brief, plaintive keyboard solo on the bridge. Through sheer force of personality, they keep it up for half an hour without dragging or repeating themselves. Just when Jennifer's nasal tone threatens to annoy, she comes through with a poignant, Chrissie Hynde-like sigh on "Keys To San Rio" or pulls off an unaccompanied intro on "Overrated". Pat also gets a chance to shine: his insistent surf-like pulse practically redeems near-throwaway "Low Dough Tow".
I was going to try to get through this review without an obligatory White Stripes comparison, but allow me this: unlike that admittedly great but increasingly, um, overrated duo, Starberry don't show off or harbor pretensions to authenticity or influencing any scene. Apparently they just want to make a joyful, engaging noise for a receptive audience. There's great beauty in living out a dream so simple and profound.
originally published: September 16, 2004
CD review - starberry II
by Matt Barber
It's been a long time since home recording champions like Sebadoh were making the jump from college radio to fledgling commercial alternative airwaves. Attempted coups by artists recording in their bedrooms, basements and garages have never gotten too far. It seems strange, in a country that places so much value on independence and individuality, that bands recording, producing and releasing their own material get marginalized. Still, determined, hard working bands, like Starberry, a duo from Cleveland, continue to record on their own, at home, answering to nobody but themselves. And Internet options are making it easier to distribute their results, a lucky break for music fans who value variety and honesty. Starberry II delivers minimalist indie rock with confidence and flair that should bring smiles to fans of The Spinanes, Jale, Mates of State, and Rainer Maria. Jennifer Casa's solid guitar playing and assured, commanding vocal presence more than make up for the lack of bass, and Pat Casa fills out the songs with his impressive drumming, but never overplays. It doesn't have the fidelity of your local hot hits radio station, MTV on plasma screen home theater set-up, or the bass blasting cars of idiots who feel it's their duty to inflict their shitty taste on the whole neighborhood, but it has something more satisfying. Starberry II has character, addictive melodies, and inspired performances.
originally published: July 1, 2004
CD review - starberry II
by D.X. Ferris
Like the cereal its name suggests, Starberry is so sugar-coated, it's gritty. Pat and Jennifer Casa are a husband-wife team, but they aren't much like the White Stripes. They're sweet where the Stripes have soured, peppy where the Stripes have the blues, orange and black where the Stripes are red and white.
Like their self-titled 2002 debut, Starberry II only sounds as if it were recorded in a kitchen. Fact is, it was written and mixed in their kitchen, but recorded in the basement; the disc is rough but sincere. Pat's the drummer. Credited with "non drums," singer Jennifer harmonizes with herself through the magic of eight-track recording and plays guitar with just a hint of surf twang. Over a rhythm track with a subtle drum & bass influence, the album-closing keyboard instrumental "The Sweet Science" plinks and gleams, strongly suggesting that when they get a recording budget, Starberry will be good for a full meal.
originally published: May 5, 2004
CD review - starberry
by Justin Stewart
A lot of people, particularly professional musicians, groan at the notion that lo-fi recording somehow has more integrity or authenticity than heavy production. When Billy Corgan was making Siamese Dream, he hoped that critics would call it overproduced, considering it ludicrous that a band, for reasons of chic minimalism, shouldn't take full advantage of modern equipment's ability to create big, clean recordings. However, while there's something sleazy about a band like the Strokes paying millions to sound like trash, it all boils down to something simple and rather obvious -- bigger and richer doesn't always mean better. The only people who chafe at the fact that Guided by Voices "wasted" so many brilliant tunes with shabby production are geeky audiophiles and old people.
Starberry's twelve songs were recorded on a 4-track, all in one take. Don't call it bedroom rock, though -- they used the whole house! They banged out the songs in the basement, did the vocals in the bathroom and mixed it in the kitchen. Did I mention there is no bass? Jennifer Casa plays guitar, keys and sings, while her husband, Pat, mans the drums. It doesn't matter how killer your new twenty-inch subs are, or how high you crank the bass -- there is just no low end to be found. The result of Starberry's "fuck it" approach is a hissy, dryer-full-of-glass mess, but unlike most infinitely obscure DIY bands, they have the skill, enthusiasm and catchiness to make the whole thing tick.
Hard-rocking but undeniably twee, Starberry's sound is too abrasive to be tagged as cuddlecore. It recalls both Shonen Knife and Heavenly, though it most exactly resembles the old Scottish band Shop Assistants. The album's first few songs are the best. "Japanese" proves Pat to be a scalding drummer, even if the couple have the drum miking skills of a deaf three year-old. The vibrancy and skill of four gifted singer/guitarists are all packed into one Jennifer, who gallops around rudimentary, Ramonesy chord progressions with giddy élan. Her lyrics aren't bubblegum; on the dark, awesome "Further In-Between", she sings, "confusion giving way to tension / in an apartment all alone / make a line run down the middle / and a hole punched in the wall."
Swirling, phase-shifted guitar distortion and twinkling keyboard help glitterize tracks like "See Me" and the cruel but summery "Gravity" ("just (wanted) to make you mine / didn't want to put in the time"), while the instrumental piano jam "All Skate" ends the disc with a welcome touch of class. On Starberry, crafty, catchy songwriting and infectious energy once again excuse nonexistent production values. The latest Liz Phair disc might sound fuller, but this stuff is a whole lot less empty.
originally published: January 7, 2004
CD review - starberry
by Malcolm X Abram
Starberry, self-titled CD-- Yet another duo. This one's a husband and wife team, Jennifer and Pat Casa, from Cleveland who recorded 12 songs in their basement and mixed them in their kitchen. It's catchy, sparse lo-fi indie pop with good melodies and Jennifer's (who plays ``non-drums'') charmingly odd, nasal vocals.
originally published: July 10, 2003
CD review - starberry
by Jason Bracelin
Starberry's homemade debut feels like a thrift-store sweater: tattered, well-worn, and missing a few buttons, but all the more endearing for its ragged charm. Recorded in the basement of Jennifer and Pat Casa's house and mixed in their kitchen, Starberry is low in fidelity and high in energy -- mostly, it's full-on power pop.
Frontwoman Jennifer counterpoises a honeyed yelp with rancorous guitar playing, augmented well by the drumming of husband Pat, who ups the muscle of Starberry's sound by pounding his kit to ribbons. Virtually any of the 12 cuts here could be singles -- particularly the jarring "Further In-Between," one of the album's most explosive, emotive cuts; "See You," which deftly cores the Apples in Stereo with its heavenward harmonies and spiky crunch; and "Gravity," an infectious, piano-laced number. Granted, scruffy rock duos -- particularly of the male-female variety -- are gaining play to the point of cliché, but Starberry brings enough to the table to drop one of the funner debuts of the year. Go on, take a bite.
originally published: February 19, 2003
