Stars Like Fleas is a band: Shannon Fields: too much to get into right now, Montgomery Knott:sings his words, Ryan Smith:piano, synthesizers, laptop, many other things, Ryan Sawyer: drums, percussion, Matt Lavelle: bass clarinet, flugelhorn, trumpet, cuica, Sam Amidon: fiddle, banjo, voice, Jon Natchez: reeds, brass, strings, keys, everything - no, really..., Shelley Burgon: harp, laptop, baritone guitar, dulcimer, Tianna Kennedy: cello; Laura Ortman: violin, musical saw, guitar;
(also thanks to Shayna Dulberger (bass), Trevor Dunn (bass) and Thomas Bartlett (piano, keys), Gerald Menke (pedal steel, dobro resonator, guitars), and Charles Waters for periodic collaboration)
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Stars Like Fleas is made of theoretical objects that are likely to be disproven. Note: CURRENTLY DE-VALUING IMMEDIACY, CONSENSUS, CULTURAL ESSENTIALISM, COOL, JOGGING, YOUR ENTERTAINMENT NEEDS, IMPORTANT PEOPLE, &C.
“A dreamy experimental-pop band that pushes against band-ness…[the] new record has an eerie power...an original and mysterious record” – Ben Ratliff, The New York Times
““[Notable Release – 8/10] dreamy and calamitous…deeply confounding…a journey worth taking”
– Under The Radar
“[with] tracks that drift from beautiful symphonies to discordant pandemonium on a whim, the album stands as a work of mad genius”
– NPR (Second Stage)
“TOP TEN: both accessible as your average indie rock band and puzzling as the most abstract soundscapes…In the hands of some artists, a combination like this would spell disaster. Here, a perfect balance has been struck”
– XLR8R
“Your first listen to The Ken Burns Effect…is kind of like your first kiss. It’s hard to describe in a few words. You feel a little confused, a little elated, a little unsatisfied...The disorientation makes you giddy…you have heard other “experimental bands,” [but] this is a new kind of energy.”
– Nylon Magazine
“one of the year's most ambitious and daring records…Sometimes, I think The Ken Burns Effect deserves a 10.0. Sometimes, it feels like a 2.0. You might hate it. You might love it. But you need to hear it”
– Pitchfork
“...[a] stunningly beautiful...The Ken Burns Effect makes me dream.”
– Dusted Magazine
“Here’s your new favorite band: their album is under an hour and it swallows universes whole” –Cokemachineglow
"nothing short of astonishing...Moments of hushed meditative intensity erupt into howling storms of futility...Mahlerian in scope and sound" –SOUNDSECT
“Stars Like Fleas is the best band in New York…one of those rarest of albums that completely defies any comparison... They take more risks than is probably advisable, and sometimes their shows flirt with disaster, but more often than not they create something utterly captivating and closer to a religious experience than I'm even comfortable with." –Yer Sweet Chimneys
“Stars Like Fleas is the Broken Social Scene of Brooklyn…the arrangements are thick and rewarding, even in their weirdest states…a great album"–Impose Magazine
"The Ken Burns Effect… will not only defy characterization, but will probably be the big break for one of New York's most sublime and continuously undiscovered bands" –Paper Magazine
“This Brooklyn collective of free-radical networkers…display an uncanny ability to splat together Flaming Lips pop, free-jazz blat, bluegrass, laptop noise, Talk Talk's moody Laughing Stock moves, harp runs, and shape-note singing. And that's just in five minutes."–Village Voice
"As if being one of the most fascinating live bands in New York wasn't enough, Stars Like Fleas' The Ken Burns Effect takes the group's aesthetic-weird, wondrous, naïve, bewildering-and wrangled it into a full-length that finally does overdue justice to their immense promise…one of those rare records that you want to hear on headphones to uncover each nook and cranny of its myriad contours. It's a record that you want to live in." –Todd Burns (Editor - Stylus Magazine, Village Voice, eMusic)
"a sprawling mix of folk, Americana, free improv…the band can transform a dingy room into something as gorgeous and sweeping as the Great Plains" –New York Press
"The Ken Burns Effect continues SLF’s astral trajectory…spare and intimate, but brimming with cacophony…excellent…Recommended!…" –Other Music
"Brooklyn doesn’t seem like the place for a band like Stars like Fleas. I picture the band constantly getting almost hit by cars after staring off at the top of a building or something a few blocks away…I picture it trying to catalog squirrels and subway rats, picking up everything its hands can hold from trashpiles, trying to bike to inwood, I picture it going canoeing in the Gowanus Canal and finding lost and dying seals, and maybe knowing what to do. [note - this is shannon's favorite press quote!]" –Songs Save Lives
We’re playing a collaborative concert with Greta Gertler next Tuesday, 6/23 at Joe’s Pub. It’s going to be a great night with lots of new music. We hope you can make it…
Thank you Stras Like Fleas! I'm happy also to be your friend here and I hope that you will enjoy my music... I'll play in New York in September (I love NY)
Kisses
Alessandra
YO FLEASSSS: thank you for the wonderful time on the road...tis always the adventure of a lifetime! i'm gonna get a little rip van winkle and sleep now that i'm back in brooklyn!! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...fleazzzzzzzzz!
Thanks so much for the Add–and your friendship. We enjoyed your music very much. Thanks for sharing it with all of us. It's a pleasure having you among our friends!
We've just added two new blogs about Umano, plus four more new compositions, making ten on our space. We hope you and your friends visit us and enjoy our music, too.
We wake up every morning and play the music of the new MySpace friends who have arrived at our site during the night. It occurred to us that these friends (you are among them) are almost universally positive, whether they be novices or legends, and without regard to their station in life or the country they occupy.
Although it's not an original thought, it also occurred to us that we couldn’t hold a verbal conversation with most of these friends, but we have bridged that gap by expressing our art honestly with each other.
We all have been filling the world with our music and art, in the hope that our messages of love and human understanding will have an impact on the world at large.
What a gift and what an opportunity we have received from this technology!
I was just going to say "hey we're coming you way in June, we should get together", and then i saw your page and you'll be around our homes when we're around yours...weird and wonderful... Hopefully we'll be able to catch you before we leave! -Adam
22/04 - Paris @ La Maroquinerie* 23/04 - Grenoble @ Le Ciel* 24/04 - Ajaccio @ L'Aghja* 25/04 - Le Printemps de Bourges @ L'Auditorium 27/04 - Clermont-Ferrand @ Le Rat Pack 28/04 - Bordeaux @ Le St Ex 29/04 - Caen - L'Espace Puzzle* 30/04 - Vendôme @ La Chapelle*
*dans le cadre du festival "les femmes s'en mêlent"
