2 posts tagged “deastro”

Detroit's Deastro stopped by 7th Street Entry last night, telling us about the time he grew up in Minneapolis and friendship in his Holy Rollers gang (saving the world and sk8!).

Opening up for them are locals, Telepathos (myspace) and Lazer Forever (myspace). I was excited to check out Telepathos because they listed all the bands I like (Radiohead, MBV, Sonic Youth, The Cure...), and you can hear it in their live set. They lean more towards heavy use of guitars and shoegazing sound, a mix of My Bloody Valentine and Chapterhouse. I did notice that inbetween their songs, there seems to be long awkward silences. I think it's because the singer/keyboardist have to load up the beats for the next song.

Lazer Forever sounds like classic progressive rock, which is not an insult. They had to change the drum snare on the second song, and played a pretty full set. My two new Californian friends and I were chatting with Noah the drummer earlier and he seems to enjoy his television and movies!

Deastro's Randy Chabot is not what I was expecting, with his Ghost Buster II shirt and uneven cut-out pants and (get this) orange duct taped shoes. Yep, he seems like a pretty cool guy. When he talks between songs, he seems to ramble a stream of conscious.

Deastro Concert Poster, Minneapolis (06/18/09) Deastro at 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis (06/18/09)

In many ways, the free EPs that I previously mentioned from Deastro is a terrible introduction to the band. That all-instrumental music is basically background music to his real music - which sounds more like intense 80s new wave pop, at least when played live.

After about an hour, their new bassist (I think he was called Andy) exit stage left. Apparently, Minneapolis was his first show and he hadn't learned how to play all the songs. But no one can tell that he messed up, I mean their songs "Parallelogram" and "Toxic Crusaders" sounded alright to me.

The latest news from Deastro is their second single from their forth-coming LP, Moondagger (out on June 23^rd on Ghostly International), is called "Vermillion Plaza".

NOTE: It's hard to sum up an artist with a single, that's why I don't normally write about one or two songs. And especially if it's all instrumental!

Deastro's free EP Grower is available now over at RCRDLBL (I thought about adding a few extra LDLBLD for good measure), while his full album, Moondagger will be available June 23^rd on Ghostly Records.

Randolph Chabot is the brainchild behind Deastro, who compose all the songs and theme. In the case of "Moondagger", it's based on his dream about a prince searching for the fantasy weapon against a King of Darkness. I do get a sense of that extension on Grower, as he travels through "Rouge River", however the EP was inspired by the not-so-fantasy city of Detroit, Michigan.

The title of it Grower represents what I feel is growing inside of peoples hearts and minds there. It is about human growth, so sometimes it can be messy or tragic all though I am not going to limit human experience to two adjectives or claim that I know the first thing about it.

- Randolph Chabot

The EP goes by quickly, all of the songs have layers and layers of sound: from programmed drumbeats to ambiance to strange shifts in music structure. The songs are different enough to distinguish from each other, but without lyrics, I feel it's like it would serve as background music to a movie soundtrack.

While I can't say this is the sort of music that I like, Deastro do have their fans and supporters: Daytrotter calls it "mysterious hybrid of psychedelia, laptop sorcery" and Rolling Stone thinks it's "a hyper-positive mix of dream-pop woosh, nu-electronic beats and enormous hooks".

You can judge for yourself, take a chance on the download. And if you like it, his upcoming US tour starts next week. I suspect Deastro will look and sound much better live than studio laptop.  And based on live photographs, it does look like Chabot also sings.