Comments on: Starflyer and me

By: Onefinemess » Welcome to the Unofficial Month of Blogging, Now with “Things people never ask me”

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 16:00:11 +0000

[...] Favorite band? A: Even harder, because I love so many. Of all time? Starflyer 59 was my favorite for a long, long time, but their recent stuff has been unimpressive, to say the least. Clash, [...]

By: Onefinemess » “Versatile Blogger” awardmemechainletter

Onefinemess » “Versatile Blogger” awardmemechainletter — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 02:04:29 +0000

[...] favorite music act/group/whatnot was Starflyer 59 for most of my musical life, but these days I don’t have one. Not as much time to get into [...]

By: Onefinemess » Blog Archive » evangelism, turning on, and compression

Onefinemess » Blog Archive » evangelism, turning on, and compression — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:49:35 +0000

[...] Starflyer 59 — The old stuff at least, I can’t really get behind the last 3 or 4 albums. If you’re reading this post you probably know me (?sadly? in 6 years of blogging I haven’t picked up any non friend/family readers), so you’ve probably heard of and heard these guys. I’m just putting them here (and at the top) for the sake of completion and history — them being the first band that made me want to share music with others and all. [...]

By: onefinemess

onefinemess — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:44:55 +0000

I think I was agreeing with you in a poorly worded manner.

You know, I just looked through the list of everything loaded on my laptop, and I’m ok with all the band names. I’m not sure what bearing that has on anything… but I wonder how much I’d still like the bands if they had shit-tastic names.

Sounds like a good experiment…

By: brian

brian — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:33:39 +0000

I wasn’t saying that it’s wrong to judge a band by the label- it usually works. Cover art too- it’s hard to take a band seriously when you’re like “They thought THAT was a good idea?”

One that works less is judging a band by their name. I’ve kinda learned to get past that since some of my favorite bands are ones I once wrote off for having terrible names (Jimmy Eat World springs to mind). I think this works less because generally a band chooses a name at a very early point in their career, and we all know that when you’re young, a lot of bad ideas sound like good ones.

By: onefinemess

onefinemess — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:20:22 +0000

@Beth: Yeah… from my point of view it was bad, bad, horrid. All the wannabe country & easy listening filth = way to raise a bunch of children with no taste in music or influences from which to draw from to create something interesting.

@Brian: Nah, I think it’s totally fair to judge something by the label. Right up there with going by the band name and album cover. I’m serious – you’ve gotta base a first guess on something if you haven’t heard it right?

Not that those initial opinions hold any water, I mean, I’ll always check out something someone suggests even if one of the first-filter criteria has already prevented me from listening. Bands like Skunk Anansie…stupid name, great music – there’s a bunch of those. And I’m not nearly as label savvy as you, but I still do it.

In the beginning, T&N had some non & borderline Christian groups, and definitely some that weren’t all in your face and stupid about it, I think that has changed. AFAIK one of the sublabels (BEC) even has some kind of enforced ministry/altar call type rule. Cuz that shit totally works.

Mmmm. I see a # of typos in the main post now, but I think I’ll leave them for posterity.

By: brian

brian — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:06:40 +0000

Nice work- I admire the advance planning that must’ve gone into this post.
I remember Jamie & Dusty had a Starflyer poster in their room and I used to stare at Jason Starflyer’s guitar (a made-in-Japan Jazzmaster or Jaguar with a Foto-flame sunburst top! I’m a nerd!). The first couple albums are the only one’s I’ve heard thus far, and I was always struck the the absolutely fabulous guitar tone he had. I really do need to get at least his earlier records. I had a borrowed copy of Gold in my car for most of my first year of college- and that’s the last time I listened to SF59. Blowing it, I know.
Speaking of shunning (or at least paying attention to) Christian music- that’s probably why I never got any of his records. I did the same thing with Frodus, since they were on T&N, only to find out later that they were not a Christian band at all. I have a bad habit of looking first at the record label and prejudging the band a little bit based on it.

By: Bethany

Bethany — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:09:20 +0000

Okay, I do love the language you use to describe the conditions under which you find that connection with bands. I remember up through junior high really not being impressed with Christian music for young people. Loved the adult contemporary, things like Commissioned, 4Him, Jon Gibson, Take 6 – but anytime I tried to listen to the radio, it was trite and SOUNDED “off”. The great thing is that now I’ve gotten in the habit of only listening to Air 1 when in the car (which is a national Christian station) and, seriously, the music = awesome. For me the difference is music that now deals thematically with living as a Christian and not just becoming a Christian. That and it lyrically and musically just being as good or superior to the crap that’s out now. And the variety. And the fact that my son knowing all the words to all of the music is not something that makes me cringe. So, yeah, Air 1 is all we listen to and it doesn’t seem like a restriction. :) = my two cents.