(Article published in today's Good Times)
Though most people may like to think of Santa Cruz as a quiet beach town, some locals know the area also has a dark side—one part fictional, as seen in the cult classic vampire movie The Lost Boys, notoriously filmed here in the 1980s—the other very real, as seen during the 1970s when a string of serial killers terrorized the mountain communities that surround the city.
It should come as no surprise then that a band that embraces the more monstrous side of things has been born here: Stellar Corpses have been making a name for themselves locally and globally for nearly four years, mixing psychobilly, punk, rockabilly, surf rock and more, while striving to avoid any pigeonholes. Featuring Dusty Grave on vocals and guitar, Matt Macabre on drums, Dan Lamothe on bass, and Emilio Menze on guitar, Stellar Corpses released their debut EP, Respect The Dead, in 2007, toured Europe in 2008, and a new full length album, Welcome To The Nightmare, has just come out on Fiend Force Records, exploring a fuller breadth of styles.
“There’s something that everyone will like on the new album, we have such a wide variety of stuff that we listen to—everything from Jimmy Buffet to Slayer,” Macabre says.
The instrumental title track kicks things off in high gear for the album, followed by the shout-along anthem “My Shadow.” “Cemetery Man,””One More Day” and “When You Don’t See Me” are among the other standout tracks on Welcome To The Nightmare, which is being unveiled at this week’s CD-release party at The Catalyst.
“Our predecessors, the guys who were doing rockabilly to start with, they were taking country and the blues and doing their own thing with it,” says Grave. “We just feel like we’re continuing that tradition, and being true to ourselves.”
That independent attitude has fueled the band’s journey down a darker, richer path—chances are you won’t hear many other area groups play a song like “Hale Bopp,” a frightfully catchy tune that tells the infamous tale of the mass suicide of the Heaven’s Gate cult, set to a Bo Diddley-on-steroids beat.
Info Box:
Stellar Corpses’ CD Release Show
Friday, July 31st
9 p.m.
$10-$12
The Catalyst
1011 Pacific Ave.
Santa Cruz
(831) 423-1338
www.catalystclub.com
www.stellarcorpses.com
No comments:
Post a Comment