-valis Pick of the Week

Hail Voyageurs! Happy Winter Solstice, too! (Summer, on the other side of the stone.)

As is so often the case, the Pick this week was brought to my attention via conversations which go on all day, every day, which go like this: "..have you also heard ____ ?", followed by a link. Then it's doune the rabbit hole I go.

Three weeks ago I was unaware of this band but now have them firmly in the "Ones To Watch" List. (A list that bulges to bursting.)

From Rennes, France, it's Sudden Death Of Stars! By some accounts a septet going by names which are numbers in the 80s. They seem to have caught the eyes and ears of the festival-going reviewers at the recent Rennes-held Trans Musicales:

" Of the hometown acts, Sudden Death Of Stars impressed me the most… partly because they've got someone sitting cross-legged playing drone sitar, but also due to their obvious love of all things Nuggets. There's the standard Brian Jonestown/13th Floor Elevators connection for sure, but I also dug the more intriguing elements of their set, which to me recalled the trippier sides of both The Standells and The Hunters. "

(* above by NME's Matt Wilkinson)

Try 'em!



Their album, Getting Up, Going Down, on CloseUp Records, is available via their BandCamp page. Free.

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.