Can’t Stop Eating EP

Description

Can’t Stop Eating is a five-track CD-EP by the American indie rock band Starflyer 59, released on Tooth & Nail Records in September 2002. Includes a cover of “Happy Birthday John” featuring Andy Prickett on slide guitar, a song written by Damien Jurado.

You have to respect a band that at its very marrow has a dedication to a completely consistent level of quality musical output. That seems to classify Starflyer 59 more than any other generalized designation that the music world has invented to slap on creative independent music. They’ve been labeled as everything from My Bloody Valentine knock-offs to Beach Boys wannabes, but that simply sells short a musical career that has spawned more albums and EPs of mellifluous SoCal rock than most modern American bands seem to be able to scrape together between all the drug-overdoses and personnel changes that detune the lifespans of those musical outfits. On their new EP, SF59 is cruising the roads of intelligent and thoughtfully mellow pop music once again. The songs are lovingly crafted with attention to detail and all the right touches that make a song standout without overpowering the inherent melody.

SF59 always focus on the ambiance of an album as much as the songwriting, and this EP is no exception. The arrangements on the album are smart and tight, without much excess weight, no matter what the title of the EP might suggest to the otherwise. Reverb-drenched guitar sounds abound throughout, providing edge and verve to the songs. The synthesizer parts, which have been included more and more on each release by the band, magnify and bolster the smooth melodies and harmonies. The first thing that strikes you about this EP is that it is based much more on straight-ahead rock and pop composition than Leave Here a Stranger, the mono-mixed full-length album SF59 released in 2001. That album took the songs and melodies and saw how far they could be distanced from standard modern pop music format while still remaining pop. All the while nodding its head in time to Pet Sounds, an album by a perennial SoCal band, the Beach Boys. With the exception of the last song on the album («Theme From Dromedary», which would fit into the bands’ Space Rock series quite nicely) the songs on this EP embrace the pop format once again, but with the intelligence you’ve come to expect from SF59.

«Compeating» leads off the EP with a nice mellow hook and straight-up beat that makes me wish this album had been released in June or July instead of October, because it would definitely own the stereo on a day of destination-less driving with the windows down. And it has a white-noise static crescendo to die for. «West Coast Friendship» is an interesting follow-up because it is essentially a cover of a song released on a Starflyer 59 side project, Bon Voyage. This song first appeared on the full-length debut by Bon Voyage in 1998, and although that version was great, the newer re-worked version definitely has an interesting flavor that fits in well on this EP. It’s more laid-back than the earlier version, featuring the vocals of Jason Martin, rather than his wife, Julie, and has some well-placed synth-string accompaniments.

Fans of Northwest urban-bumpkin Damien Jurado will note that «Happy Birthday John» is a cover of a song released on his Gathered in Song EP. This version, however, is completely SF59’s. The band overwhelms the song, swallowing it whole and allowing its dark light to shine out through their eyes, not altering the song’s soul, but amplifying it’s call to the broken-hearted. «Give up the War» is a stereo mix of the song originally released in mono on LHAS. I went back and listened to the mono mix as well, and I really can’t make a call as to which version I prefer. They both fit within their context, and the mixing tricks contribute to the character of the song equally well in both circumstances. If forced to choose, I’d probably pick the mono version simply because it’s something my stereo-bred ears aren’t used to hearing. The closer on this EP is «Theme From Dromedary», an instrumental track that, because of its title, echo-y textures, drum machine beats, and synth blips, brings to mind images from a Blade Runner type movie set in the Mojave instead of the metropolis – Dune with more high-tech gadgetry. The drum beats and synthesizers pulse through the song, accentuating the spy-movie guitars and cogent rhythm.

This EP exemplifies why Starflyer 59 fans are rabid about the band and its music. It retains all the character and resonance of the previous releases without sounding like it was produced on a template i.e. – it sounds fresh and interesting, which is the point of new music anyway, right? [Ryan C, Delusions of Adequacy, 12/9/02]

> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/cant-stop-eating-ep/724784197)

CD-EP tracklist:

01. Compeating – 3:07
02. West Coast Friendship – 3:55
03. Happy Birthday John – 3:14
04. Give Up The War (Stereo Mix) – 4:50
05. Theme From Dromedary – 3:06