Hey everyone! So here is the review from Yahoo news :
Monday April 15 07:53 PM EDT
CD REVIEW: Starball sure to gain superfans with latest release
By Giordana Segneri U-WIRE
(U-WIRE) CHICAGO, Ill. -- It's reassuring to know bands like Starball are still out there, offering music like cotton candy when so much of radio-honored rock is popping black jellybeans and spitting them up as music and lyrics.
Tamar Berk, Starball's petite lead woman with a voice that is anything but, should direct her gentle chiding in "New Years Eve" toward her alt-scene contemporaries: "You can't take everything so seriously...."
Take a hint from Chicago-based Starball. The 2001 release "Superfans," on which "New Years Eve" is the closer, is 14 tracks (including a live bonus) chock full of Berk's charming takes on the roadblocks of life. Doused in Eric Hanna's effervescent electric guitar and spunky percussion from Mike Zelenko, "Superfans" is uberpop with a femme-rock twist.
In the vein of Liz Phair, Berk's lyrics attack the deeper-than-you-think puddles of relationships with umph and zing, shining the used-up themes with fresh wit. Her allegories are stunning in their ingenuity, her rhyming cut like crystal. Take "Two Car": "We are / a 2-car / relationship / You drive your way / and I'm right behind you / You are / by far / the faster car ... But now I gotta know / which way you're gonna go / No matter how hard I try/ you always pass me by."
With Steven Denekas' bass jumping into the instrumental mix, the music is often electric enough to make you want to dance in your pajamas in front of an open window at night but never so much you want to turn it down for fear of disturbing the neighbors. Throwing in some playful effects and a few samples, some tinkling, some clapping and an omnipresent guitar rev-up, Starball's made themselves an album that elicits as much head-bopping as post-break-up empowerment.
Throughout, Berk's solid voice -- glossed with honey -- never falters in its capable runs through her lyrical winks. "Good Mechanic" laments the lack of them out there: "Look under my hood / Check under my seat / Does it look good? / Clean and neat? ... Can you tell I need a good mechanic? / I'm losing it in a panic ... Will you get down on your knees with me?" And in "These Days," for which a video was made, Berk's vocals play games with the clef, popping up in a high soprano before evening out for the chorus, in which the lyrics make clear she doesn't want to be told what to do.
Though "Superfans" is an indie release, Starball's 1998 debut, "Holstein Park," was carried by local label Pussy Cat. Since then, a change of cast and a few years have made "Superfans" filling fodder for those who need a little kick into higher gear.
Get Starball's music at www.starballmusic.com.
© 2002 U-WIRE via U-WIRE
Monday April 15 07:53 PM EDT
CD REVIEW: Starball sure to gain superfans with latest release
By Giordana Segneri U-WIRE
(U-WIRE) CHICAGO, Ill. -- It's reassuring to know bands like Starball are still out there, offering music like cotton candy when so much of radio-honored rock is popping black jellybeans and spitting them up as music and lyrics.
Tamar Berk, Starball's petite lead woman with a voice that is anything but, should direct her gentle chiding in "New Years Eve" toward her alt-scene contemporaries: "You can't take everything so seriously...."
Take a hint from Chicago-based Starball. The 2001 release "Superfans," on which "New Years Eve" is the closer, is 14 tracks (including a live bonus) chock full of Berk's charming takes on the roadblocks of life. Doused in Eric Hanna's effervescent electric guitar and spunky percussion from Mike Zelenko, "Superfans" is uberpop with a femme-rock twist.
In the vein of Liz Phair, Berk's lyrics attack the deeper-than-you-think puddles of relationships with umph and zing, shining the used-up themes with fresh wit. Her allegories are stunning in their ingenuity, her rhyming cut like crystal. Take "Two Car": "We are / a 2-car / relationship / You drive your way / and I'm right behind you / You are / by far / the faster car ... But now I gotta know / which way you're gonna go / No matter how hard I try/ you always pass me by."
With Steven Denekas' bass jumping into the instrumental mix, the music is often electric enough to make you want to dance in your pajamas in front of an open window at night but never so much you want to turn it down for fear of disturbing the neighbors. Throwing in some playful effects and a few samples, some tinkling, some clapping and an omnipresent guitar rev-up, Starball's made themselves an album that elicits as much head-bopping as post-break-up empowerment.
Throughout, Berk's solid voice -- glossed with honey -- never falters in its capable runs through her lyrical winks. "Good Mechanic" laments the lack of them out there: "Look under my hood / Check under my seat / Does it look good? / Clean and neat? ... Can you tell I need a good mechanic? / I'm losing it in a panic ... Will you get down on your knees with me?" And in "These Days," for which a video was made, Berk's vocals play games with the clef, popping up in a high soprano before evening out for the chorus, in which the lyrics make clear she doesn't want to be told what to do.
Though "Superfans" is an indie release, Starball's 1998 debut, "Holstein Park," was carried by local label Pussy Cat. Since then, a change of cast and a few years have made "Superfans" filling fodder for those who need a little kick into higher gear.
Get Starball's music at www.starballmusic.com.
© 2002 U-WIRE via U-WIRE
posted by Tamar Berk on May 6, 2002
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