No Filler Music Podcast - Vivid and Searing: Ringo Deathstarr's Pure Mood

Episode Date: July 25, 2024

Nowadays you can't throw a rock without hitting an indie record that blends sludge of grunge and jangle of alt rock with the fuzz and breathy vocals of shoegaze and dreampop. As niche as that may sound - it is the sound of indie right now. And while Ringo Deathstarr certainly wasn't the first, their 2015 record Pure Mood may well be the first to get it right. Drawing heavy inspiration from 90s grunge and alt metal, the Austin trio's nearly perfect shoegaze record brings new meaning to the wall of sound cliche, and crafts a sound that went on to dominate indie music a decade later. Tracklist Ringo Deathstarr - Stare At The Sun Ringo Deathstarr - Heavy Metal Suicide Ringo Deathstarr - Frisbee Ringo Deathstarr - Acid Tongue Ringo Deathstarr - Big Bopper This show is part of the Pantheon Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Product availability varies by region. See app for details. You're up there. You've got the guitar. You're making all this noise. And you're part of it. How else are you going to be part of it other than the start of band? You can't just be paying all this money to watch.

Jesus, I mean, when I started the band, none of the, none of, like, my bloody Valentine hadn't gotten back together yet. Jesus and Mary Chain hadn't gotten back together. None of those bands, like, they were all broken up. It's like, okay, I got nothing, I want to experience this guitar sound in person. So I had to start a band and do it again. And welcome to No Filler. The music podcast dedicated to sharing the often overlooked hidden gems.

that fill the space between the singles on our favorite records. My name is Travis. I got my brother Quentin here with me, as always. Thank you. Happy birthday. Oh, happy birthday, Treyf. We both turned a number. A number in the upper 30s yesterday.

We increased by one number. That's how it works. Yeah, for those who haven't been listening long enough to know this, we are twin brothers. identical. Now, what was the, how many minutes apart, brother? Two minutes. Man, that's super fast, dude.

That's back to back. Bananas. Because you were like, I gotta get out of here. Yeah, give me out of here, dude. I was, you know, I'd like to, as I'd like to remind you, I was born first. And then two minutes later, you were like, let me see what this living is all about. I guess it's safe. Yeah, you sent me out to scope it out.

Yeah, exactly. He's like, he's crying, but I think it'll be okay. Yeah. Ringo Death Star. That's who we're covering today. Yeah, so what a perfect quote. So the voice you heard in the beginning of the episode, that was Elliot Frazier. He's the singer and guitar player for Ringo Death Star.

There's also Alex Gearing. I may have been to pronounce that. she's a bass player and also singer of the band and then Daniel Colborn is the drummer so it's a three piece uh from Austin Texas Q formed in 2005 which yeah we were talking about that last episode and that was what I was living in Austin in 2006 2007 so uh and I've never look I've never listen to these guys never me neither but it's it's biggest shoegaze fans as we are, I don't know why I never listened to Ringo, Death Star, all these years. Yeah, well, I was going to say that, you know, we were, you know, doing our music blog in, what, 2009 is when we started.

So, yeah, I'm surprised they didn't show up on our, on our radar back when we were doing the music blog. Anyway, long story short, what I love what he said in that quote at the beginning there that I played. That was from an interview that they did. back in well seven years ago so be the change you want to see in this world basically essentially yeah and then do we've talked about this before like basically what he's saying is like at the time when the band formed at least when he when he started the band my bloody valentine hadn't uh regrouped right jesus and mary chain i think he said jesus mary chain uh but you know the resurgence that's like basically right now it's a it's a perfect time to be a shuegates fan for many many different

reasons. One of them is that like all the all the greats are making music again right. You know last year slow dive put out a new record last year drop 19s put on a new record right like there's this big resurgence of it. Anyway back when he formed it they weren't they weren't together again so he you couldn't easily go out and hear good good shoegaze music live so he said you know I wanted to experience that guitar sound live and so he just picked up a guitar and did it right and formed a band and started making music like that. So, you know, we've talked about other, other bands and, you know, have had similar, you know, sentiments that they've made about, like, I just wanted to hear this music again. Like, I wanted to hear new music in this style or genre that I love that

I wasn't hearing. And so my solution was just to make it myself, right? It reminds me of something that Ireland always said along some, you know, Along those lines, basically, like, I'm not hearing music like this, and I want to. So I'm just going to start a band to start strumming the guitar. Yeah, Ireland, Oia, for those who don't know, is half of the Kings of Convenience duo. We always like to quote that. But anyway, so we're going to talk about their 2015 record Pure Mood, which I'm just going to go out on a limb here, Thank you.

And say that this might be one of my top 10 shoegays records of the last decade. And I just, you know, stumbled upon it this year. I brought a track a couple what you heard's back called Big Bopper, which I think I'm going to close out the episode with, just because it was such a great track. I don't, you know, I want to play it again. But so, yeah, pure mood. This was actually kind of a change of pace for them from,

the previous album that they put out. So they put out, or the previous records, I should say. So they put out Color Trip in 2011, Mov in 2012, God's Dream in 2013, and then Pure Mood. And Pure Mood, what they wanted to do when they wrote these songs essentially, it was with the intent of like, okay, we want to be able to play this live perfectly. Like with some of their other records, they had drum machines and synthesize, like they're just, you know, programmed drum sounds and stuff like that that they couldn't easily do live so with this record they wanted to just make like a proper record shoe gaze record rock record that you could just go out onto a stage and play and play as a three piece play as a three piece yeah and yeah and they and they

they nailed it man they nailed it all right so this is going to be a tune heavy episode so let's just get right into a queue um so you know we like to I typically like to play tracks in order. Of the tracks that I pick, I like to play them in the order that they appear on the record, right? But I wanted to start, I wanted to swap a couple of them here because I think this song is a better representation of like the sound of Ringo Death Star than what actually came before it on the record. But anyway, I don't know that anybody even notices or cares, but that's, that's neither here in there,

here. So I'm going to start with track three. So here you go. Again, this is Ringo Death Star off of their 2015 record Pure Mood.

This song is called Stare at the Sun. That's great, man. And so this is 2015? 2015. Okay. What's cool is, like,

this isn't just, this isn't just shoegays. Like, it's not just, hey, let's bring back the my bloody

Valentine's sound. This is totally different. Yeah. So, you know, right now, there's so much shoe gaze out there. Like there's, you know, Dream Pop and Cheegays. A lot of indie bands are making that, making music that falls under those umbrellas, right? Right. That label's getting tossed around. Those genres, like, getting slapped on bands left and right. Yes, nowadays. 100%. I don't think it was all that. I mean, Dream Pop was definitely more the flavor, I think, in like 2015. Right. Like when we had our music blog, it was a lot of bands. like Sea Pony Beach House, you know, Beach House, of course. Yeah. You know, all those bands that had nautical related names. Yeah. Right.

That and Shilwif, and Shilwif. Those were like the two surfer blood. Remember them? Oh, yeah. Yeah, there's, yeah. I remember that. There's a bunch of them, right? I think it was more leaning toward the dream pop variety of the shoegays spectrum.

I think in, like, I think they're, they're kind of one of the bands that maybe started the revival, you know, perhaps. I don't know. I'm just kind of throwing that out there because 2015 doesn't, it doesn't feel like it was as prevalent as it is now. But I've got a quote here from a website called Culture Attics that reviewed the record. They said, there's a daring clash of fury and fragility throughout pure mood that demonstrates Ringo Death Star are not just reliving a scene.

They're reinventing it. with their shattering use of chaotic guitars and haunting voices. I think that's a perfect way to say it. They're reinventing it because like you just said, at least with this song, it's not just a pure on homage to my belay-vali Valentine or slow dive. You know, it's something different. Right.

But throughout the record is spot on because like the next track I'm going to play is super heavy and like, you know, has some metal guitar riffs in it. like that, which is awesome, right? Because you don't really hear that too often on a shoegaze record. But they're taking all the elements of the shoegaze sound and sort of creating something new with it. And this is almost a decade ago that this record came out.

Yeah. So anyway, let's go to the next track here. So Q, you know, I like metal, right? I talk about it all the time. When I was listening to this record for the first time, this song, I shouldn't have been surprised by it because the name of it is heavy metal suicide. I was blown away by the riff, dude, the guitar riff. I wasn't expecting it because the very first track.

Okay, so heavy metal suicide track two. Track one is called Dream Again, and it's a very, you know, breathy, soft. Dream again. I like that. It's almost like, yeah, or bring it back Dream Pop. Yeah, maybe. But it's a very slow, nice buildup of an intro kind of track. And then they go into this track here that I'm about to play.

And I was just like, I may have. fell out on my chair when I first heard it. You know what I mean? Yeah. So here we go. All right. So this is track two. The song is called heavy metal suicide.

Nice, man. That was like some, I don't know, just solid rock. Heavy metal, uh, leaning, I guess. Please school me on that, show. I mean, that's a, that's a classic. Let me help you. It's a classic. Let me help you.

Heavy metal riff, yeah? It is. But, you know, I mean, if you look at this through the lens of the 90s queue, that's Siamese Dream guitar right there because you know Smashy Pumpkins had some metal

They did yeah Some heavy heavy guitar tone On that record at least But yeah it's also It's kind of It's got some Some sludge metal There you go cute

Sludge metal A new term for you Oh I've heard I've heard a sludge metal Probably out of my Out of my lips dude It's probably where you've heard that Would you put

sludge metal and stoner rock in the same category? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah, I guess I was getting some, like, you know, how we, how we like to say it, our buddy Mitch has been helping me dip my toes in the metal water for a while now. And he always sends me solid. In the kitty pool. Yeah, in the kitty pool.

He always sends me solid, like stoner rock, you know, which is, I don't know, like Caius or something like that. I think that's a good, a good, dude, I was listening to Caius yesterday. You know why that came up. Look at your search bar. Oh, it's got the word. It's his guy. Yeah, that's fine.

Yeah, because I was, yeah, so I've got my music app pulled up, and I guess Kias was still sitting in the search bar. That's funny. But yeah, man, God damn, if those aren't perfect records. You know, the three that they put out that they're known for. Welcome to Sky Valley and the circus leaves, blues for the red sun. Just perfect records, man. Anyway, but yeah, dude, what a great track.

These guys are, I don't know, man, they write these perfect little songs. And you're about to hear two more for me here in a second. But one thing I wanted to point out, I got another clip from that same interview that I'm going to play. So this is worth noting the producer of this record was Elliot. So it was produced by the lead singer, guitar player. I don't want to call him the lead singer. I feel like him and Alex are co-lead singers. You know what I mean?

Elliot Frazier produced the record. And he was listening and being influenced by a lot of 90s bands, 90s records when he was producing. So let me play that quote here now. So again, this is Elliot Frazier talking about what he was listening to while he was producing this record. I was listening to a lot of the Helmets album, Betty. It's like one of my favorite albums.

And I really like Andy Wallace, the producer slash mixer. You know, he mixed, Nevermind, he mixed Helmets Betty album, he mixed Raging Against of Sheen Evil Empire, Silver Chair Freak Show, you know, that kind of stuff. I was listening to a lot. And Sugar, Bob Bold's band after, Loose or Doe, listen to a lot of them. you know just getting more punchy drums that kind of stuff that was what i was into so there you go q i just love

any any reference to to the band helmet um yeah i just hey we covered them you don't hear it off long time ago um i think we did i think we did meantime the record meantime but yeah dude helmet fucking awesome but kind of one of those one of those um at least to us you know one of those bands that just kind of weren't on our radar when we were growing up and we were listening to, I guess, whatever was on the radio in the 90s. And it was a lot of the pearl jams and the Stone Tip of Pilots and the smashing pumpkins, right? So not that it was anything bad, but we weren't listening to a lot of the more on the outskirts

of like the alt rock sound. The bands that just kind of didn't exactly hit the mainstream like the big, what is it, the big four that everybody talks about. But he mentioned Nevermind. So he named a producer, what was, I think he said, Andy Wallace, as a producer that he was influenced by when he was producing this record. And I like that he talked about, you know, punchy drums, right? So like the record that they put out previous to this one was not as sort of like rock forward as this one and like loud as this one was. And so it's kind of interesting that he was being influenced by these more heavier sounding.

grunge records because he's putting out you know they're putting out a shoegaze record really with this pure mood record but he was being influenced by the sound of these grunge and and alt metal albums right like helmet who's could do he mentioned as well um he said he said nirvana never mind but he must have misspoke right because like i thought that was buch big yeah i thought that was I'm going to let it slide, Elliot Frazier. So Andy Wallace, anyway, he was a Nirvana producer. He wasn't the Nevermind producer. But Evil Empire, Rageekis machine, he mentioned.

I'm looking at the list now of records that this guy produced. Sepuletura Chaos AD, hugely popular thrash metal record. Tody's Rubberneck, get on the floor, dude. that just jumped out of me. Helmut Betty. Yeah, I did. So a lot of great records from that era. So anyway, he was influenced by the rock sound of the 90s when he was producing this record.

So beyond just shoegaze, I don't see a shoegaze band on here on this list of Andy Wallace records. Sonic Youth Dirty. There you go. Anyway. So, yeah, it's no surprise. that the record sounds like it does, right? If this is what he was listening to him being influenced by when he was producing it.

It's cool to be influenced by a producer rather than a band. Like that means that he's really paying attention, you know? Yeah, no, that's funny to think about like producers being influenced by other producers, you know, but it makes sense. Because we always think about just the sound, you know, bands are influenced by other bands, right?

Right. But no, I mean, they can also be influenced by, producers right or it makes sense it's like the producer is responsible for what the album's going to sound like you know what I mean and so that's the producers doing that right all right let's jump down here I'm going to skip a few tracks and we're going to play track eight on the record this song is called frisbee solid to you guys try just straight up I was going to say is that is that not like the quintessential shoeguagest track right there.

Yeah, man. It's got all the elements you need, dude. It's got Dream Pop vocals, the soft, breathy vocals of Alex. The guitar. It's got the glide guitar. Textbooked, textbook glide guitar.

Yeah. It's got a little bit of fuzz. And, you know, I'm going to call out Billy Corgan again. I feel like that's what that guitar, solo, at least the solo, at least the solo, toward the end there. But yeah, perfect song, man.

Really good. So here we go. I'm going to quote another publication here. This is The Guardian. They reviewed the record back in 2015. They said it's luxuriously heavy, sweetly ghostly and more thoughtful than others who switch on the reverb pedal and hope for the best. I love that. Dude, that's what comes to my mind, sweetly ghostly.

Yeah. But what this article was trying to say there, let me actually pull it up and read the full quote, because I think they were spot on. Now this is 2015. Shugay seems to be what every indie band strives towards these days. So maybe I was wrong about what I said earlier. That was almost 10 years.

I mean, here's the thing. I know that the term Shoegays and Dream Popper interchangeable in a lot of ways, but at least in my mind, The 2010s was more about the dream pop sound. And we could spend a whole episode trying to dissect, which we've already tried to do so many times. Dissect the difference between the two.

But yeah, let me see it. Let me just read this whole intro paragraph because it's perfect. What do you do when you are a shoegaze band who have been dreaming and scheming in your native Austin since 2007 only for a new wave of acts with dodgy bowl cuts. and a My Bloody Valentine best of to start a so-called revival. Toggy bull-cust. Yeah, I know, right.

My Bloody Valentine had reunited yet, so she's basically this person saying, all you had was their best of record, right, back then, to go off of. Hugh Gay seems to be whatever indie band strives toward these days, but their ringos have their take nailed on their fifth album, Pure Mood. And then she goes on to say, it's luxuriously heavy, sweetly goesly, and more thoughtful than others who switch

on the revered pedal and hope for the best. Basically saying, everybody's trying to make a shoegaze record these days, but Ringo Death Star actually did it and pulled it off, right? It nailed it. And I couldn't agree more. Like, this is a perfect shoe gaze record.

And it goes beyond that even. It's shoe gaze and then some, you know? Totally. Yeah. All right. I got one more track for us here. And it's funny, I'm looking at this. promotional image that was attached to this article.

And Elliot was wearing the same shirt in a live video that I saw of them doing a show. So he liked what he liked, I guess, in terms of like the shirts that he wore. Anyway. All right, so I'm going to play the last track on the record here. I'm going to jump down to track 12. This song is called Acid Tong. Awesome. I liked how they're, that repetition at the end, they were fading out.

It sounded like they were kind of mixing up to the harmonies there at the end, too. That was really cool. So a little bit of jangle pop in there, maybe a little bit. Jangle pop. What's the other, the other term? Tweed. A little twee in there. A little twee in there.

That might be my favorite one that you've played. Really? Yeah. Wow, wow, wow. And that's the last track on the record. So, yeah, this is, I mean, I just, like I say, the first time I heard this record, I was just blown away by it because it was just so, to me, it's just this perfect record. And I just, I can't believe that I had never heard of it before. I never, I've heard the name, we can go Death Star.

Like, don't get me wrong. I've definitely heard their name. But for some reason, you know, it's possible that I, you know, because a lot of times what I'll do is when I check out a new band, I'll go to the first record that they put out. maybe I wasn't into their first record and never went beyond that you know yeah I'm probably in the same boat yeah I'm sure I gave him gave him a spin they put out a self-toteled record at 2020 I think I remember listening to some of this um but for just for whatever reason I never went back to their some of their earlier stuff but uh yeah pure mood 2015 perfect record man really good I think it's it's gonna sit pretty high on my my my top shoegays records

especially like the ones put out, you know, in the last decade for sure. So Q, I mean, I can't believe that this is happening. But in November, I'm going to put this out there as a public service announcement for people who are close enough to drive to Austin. The Levitation Festival is happening. Basically, Halloween through November 3rd, October 31st through November 3rd. and I have secured tickets, to see on the same night,

slow dive, drop 19s, glare, Ariel, and Ringo Death Star. That's insane, dude. I don't know if I'm gonna, like,

I might as well just, like, die after the show because, like, I'll be happy, you know? Why would I try to top that night? You know? Yeah, there's never going to, there's never going to be a lineup like that ever again. No. But it's just, it's just so, so kind of funny to hear Elliot in that quote, that clip, that interview clip saying like, these bands that, you know, the sound that I loved, you know, these bands were broken up. They weren't making music together again. So I just went out there and formed a band, you know, and made you guys because I wanted to hear that sound live again.

now a decade later almost he's he's sharing the stage with slow dive and drop 19s and all that kind of stuff it's awesome yeah that's really really cool dude anyway but they i'm sure they've shared the stage with in fact i actually was listening to another interview with them talking about how they had had they had they had played with swerve driver too so like i mean this is not a first for them i'm just saying it's it's cool to think that when he formed the band originally maybe like back you know they formed in 2005 or at least you know, their first version of the band. There were some members that have come and gone. I think Elliot might have been the founding member.

But, you know, so 20 years later, if you want to think it that way, from when he was like, I want to make music like this again. Now, like, he's just, he's up there with the best of him, you know. Yeah, awesome. That's going to be a hell of a night time. And I've been shouting out Elliot a lot. Like, you got to give credit to Alex as well. She's awesome.

She's a great bass player. you can't have a good shoegaze record without a phenomenal female vocalist in my opinion. And she's awesome. I agree. And remember we actually played, her name came up on our Avlov episode. Remember she did a backing track, our backing vocals on a couple of Avlov tracks off of the record buds. She's got some solid Kim Gordon vibes. Yeah, right.

I think it was 2020 or 2021. 2021. So yeah, if you want to hear more of Alex, Jering's voice, I'm going to say it both ways. So I'll pronounce it right at least one of the times. Gearing or Jering. Go check out our episode from a few months back on Avlov's Buds. She showed up on a couple of tracks. I don't know if I can quickly name the tracks that she was on.

Here we go. tracks 2, 8, 2, 6, and 8. Thank you. There it is. Eat more. Cheer up to Hero and Feel the Pain. I think we played at least two of those tracks. Anyway.

All right. Well, that was our deep dive, where I feel like we just skim the surface, actually. Of Ringo Death Stars' 2015 record, Pure Mood. That doesn't convince you to go check it out. I don't know what will. Awesome. Awesome record.

Next episode will be another what you heard from us. What are we going to do for our next deep dive queue? Since, you know, we like to trade back and forth, that's, it's going to you. So I feel like let's let's recap what we've done so far this year for our deep dives. Let's see if you can do it from memory. We did Dinosaur Jr. I think was our first one. We did another Cocktoe Twins episode. death tones

deaf tones majesty crush of love and then the sound carriers yeah I'm gonna have to think on it Jeff I don't got I don't got it

it's not here yet I don't know so you know we'd like to mix things up here sometimes I mean obviously it's it's a lot of shoe gaze a lot of 90s bands maybe we could do something outside of the realm of

rock outside of the rock umbrella, like an electronic record? Hmm. A down-tempo record, maybe? Mm-hmm. Anyway, we'll figure it out between now and then. But you can, of course, find us on Instagram if you want to get in touch with us. Just search for No Feeler Podcast.

And then, of course, check out the Pantheon Podcast Network. That is the network that we are a part of. Pantheon Podcast.com. If you want to subscribe to the main Pantheon feed, you can search for, just search for Pantheon podcast on whatever podcast app that you use. And then you can get all of our episodes and every episode under the network on one feed. Thanks as always everyone for listening. We're going to close out, like I said earlier, with Big Bopper, track five off of this record.

Another phenomenal track. We actually played it a few episodes back on one of our watcher. it's basically a bunch of references to 90s pop culture. My favorite line from the track is Jeremy, daughter, even flow. So just three pearl jam tracks. Yeah, he also mentions Husske Roo, wishing that Housker Doe could get back together and play some tunes. Anyway, so see if you can spot all the 90s pop culture references in this track as we close

out the episode here. So as always, thanks for listening. My name is Travis. And I'm Quentin. You all take care. Have holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. From festive and cozy fashion to Lux Beauty and Fragrant Sets. Our special selection has something for every style and price point.

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