Love Comes in Dim Stars

How damn long has it been since I’ve posted any punk rock? Too long, by my count. If I ever veer too far away from real rock, I’m giving each and every one of you permission to come by Apt. 104 and give me a kick in the ass.

That said, a while back, while looking for information about the song “Blank Generation,” I stumbled across a band called the Dim Stars. Richard Hell came out of “retirement” in the early 90’s to join this punk supergroup of sorts. The band featured guitarist Thurston Moore and drummer Steve Shelley from Sonic Youth, Gumball's guitarist Don Fleming, as well as some guitar playing by Hell’s former Voidoid bandmate Robert Quine. Hell played bass and sang lead vocals and wrote the lyrics for the albums.

Dim Stars recorded one album, which they put together in three weeks; and one EP, both called Dim Stars. The band never played in public and that was the end of Richard Hell’s foray into rock music. He’s now an author, poet, and sometime actor.

In a 2005 interview with 3:AM Magazine, Hell said he left the music business because he wasn’t really cut out for it. “All the elaborate business around making records,” he said. “There's a lot more required of you than writing songs and recording them. Not to mention finding a way to sound a way you can stand when you're not a natural-born singer. As an author, I just sit down and write.”

Here are a couple of songs from the Dim Stars EP

The Plug.mp3
Dim Stars.mp3

Labels: punk

posted by aikin @ 4:11 PM