We're always on the lookout for new talent around here. Unfortunantly, we don't always see true talent. Our bars and clubs are glutted with cover bands and yes, there are bands doing thier own thing, but often you find your head splitting and wish they'd at least have the pride to practice a bit before they subject the public to thier um, material. I can't say I've discovered the duo I'm about to tell you about at some bar, but I wish I had. Instead, "starlightbuzz" sent me a 3 song demo CD. This happens frequently and I often dread the stack I'm supposed to wade through. That fate had me pop this one in, oh, how grateful I was.
The title of the demo I'm about to review is called "The Larry Effect". I'll get to the bottom of that another time. The first track is called 'Solo Down'. 'Solo', as in 'So Low', was clever enough. It opens with a tidy little drum intro and the vocals begin. Very little is said, but very much is said and therein lies the beautiful simplicity in Pamela's lyrics. She has a way with words that, and I'm not overstating here, shines like a beacon in a sea of songwriters who apparantly can't string two cohesive thoughts together anymore. Just enough detail is added in a sentence to clarify. Anyway, this song is VERY guitar driven a la' early Stones and that ain't bad. Christian's layered guitar work smacks of someone with far more experience ( read: age ) than himself. This is the kind of song you could easily envision being played in an arena with 10,000 people holding Bic lighters up. Yes, in a word: retro. On to the next one: 'Love In Confinement'. Again, here she goes absolutely hitting you where you hurt. The lyrics are absolutely stunning in expressing dread, frustration, hope, fatigue, and heartbreak. This song goes far beyond a simple "I wish you loved me" sickly pleading. It presents a character completely in touch with reality. Example:"You think I blew in out of nowhere carrying a hammer and some nails, Do you feel like the Messiah I'm looking to impale?". What's so amazing you ask? Well friend, I review alot of songs and have to use SOME standard to measure against. We're talking Dylan here. No, not the dude on TV. The old guy who, if you have two brain cells to rub together, most everyone acknowledges as being one of the finest lyricists in rock history. But, not all of us can tolerate his singing long enough to listen. You won't have that problem with her. Trust me. I'm keeping my eye on this one. The guitar work, not surprisingly, is as immaculate and appropo as the words. An altogether different sounding 'lead' guitar dancing across the solid landscape of and foundation of Christians perfectly layered accents is unique, and also kind of odd. 'Odd' meaning 'different' and around these parts, that could mean 'terrible'. It doesn't with these two.
The last song I listened to was 'Nothing Left To Pursue'. What a great title! And even better, the lyrics immediately express the sense of resignation in those words. Pamela's emotive vocals on this song went right past my intellect and into my heart. What a voice. I'm so tired of grown women singing like they're 12 years old I could wretch. What the hell is WRONG with a woman sounding like, well, a WOMAN? I swear to God, one more Britney knock-off ( or even Britney herself ), and I'm going to give up hope for a better musical future for my generation altogether. Sorry. Where was I? Oh yes, yes, yes. On "Nothing Left To Pursue". The rythm track built for this song is VERY cool. All these neat little elements added at the right spots. Imagine a jungle or dub-n-bass beat having Opium blown all over it. Very hypnotic without being too commercial. Now, this is not a 'radio friendly' song clocking in at over 5 minutes. Thank God. I'd love to hear "starlightbuzz" on the radio only because it would be a sign of hope. On the other hand, I'd hate to see these two scooped up, split apart, and co-opted into artistic slavery. As a writer, it is imperative that I too am able to get my point across in some detail. But the potential I hear in these two locals, the already stand-out talent they posess, and the effortless way with thier pens and instruments leaves me lacking in any fair ability to convey to you how much you should consider these two Tampa citizens. Uh oh, and herein lies their problem. Maybe. A determined scout might be able to rouse them out of hiding, but I was just barely able to get either one of them. Thankfully, they have several websites which I will list at the end of this article.
"starlightbuzz" are not a band in the strict sense of the word so the odds you'll see them listed in weekend talent line-ups is minimal. The demo they sent me has only one web site listed, but I was able to follow their trail from there. Anonymity, on some level, ( or maybe it's just a normal desire for privacy ), appear to be deeply important to them both. I got hold of Pamela by sending an email from their MP3 site. She responded about a week later and eventually we talked over the phone ( after a great degree of filtering on her part...). I asked if they were 'anti-band', mainly because I was hoping to hear her say they'd be playing a gig SOMEWHERE. Too bad for me. Her response:"The thing about forming a band locally is not so much a lack of talent but being able to find people who aren't already stuck in some particular genre mindset. Christian and I do not want to be restricted to just playing 'rock' or whatever. It seems very anti-artistic to us to know EXACTLY what you want to play and only play that forever. So that rules out about 85% of the musicians around here. Then in that 15% left, you maybe have 2% who can get along with anybody else. It's ntt that I've never been in a band. I had a band about 4 or 5 years ago called 'Whirled Weary' and it was fun and everything and we played out alot, but the pressure on me was fairly intense. The other members relied too much on me steering 'the ship' as it were. To book all the gigs, nag about practice times, write all the words and music, etc etc. It just got to be too much. And everytime a new member was added I had to start this whole process all over again of being 'teacher' and that's such a drag. And also partly my fault for agreeing to work with people who had very little time spent on their instruments. I began to dread everytime I wrote a new song because I knew the level of work it would take to bring someone along was going to be taxing to say the least. I actually quit the idea of playing again altogether for about a year. Then through a series of events started recording some new material at a friends house and Christian came over. We clicked immediately, which was just a bit surprising to me because we have an age difference here. But so many of our musical tastes, philosophies, and goals were nearly identical we decided to work together. Neither of us is particularly 'celebrity oriented', and I already experienced the burn out of playing gigs with very little reward, so we have focused on recording almost entirely." Hmmm. So I pressed:"Does that mean you two would NEVER play out?". Pamela:"Absolutely not. What we want to do first though, is be able to hand a CD to a potential future band member and say,'This is 'starlightbuzz'. If you can play this, let's get it together and go.' What I'm saying is, we'd play out if we could form a band that was cohesive and got along well with each other. But we're not interested in people who can't stay sober or are tempermental prima donna's. It's not easy to find the right people, but if we did then yeah, sure, we'd play out alot. That'll probably happen once the CD's done. But gigs will never be the priority. Not around here.". OK, that's fair enough. Now I had a pretty good idea of their goals. But how about this one: "Would you both sign to a major label?" Pamela ( laughing ):"What's funny about that question is that we're not currently signed to a 'minor' label. Look, there's been a long standing philosophy, particularly with um, 'alternative' music, that once you sign to a major you've betrayed the DIY ethic and all things bad should now rain down on your head. That's absurd. The reason we don't feel comftorable saying 'yes' or 'no' is because it would depend on many things not the least of which is what THEIR intentions were. Do they want to delete certain words in the lyrics? Do they want to change our warddrobe and hair? Would they try to split us up? Would they want to pick our future band mates for us? Would they start telling us what to write or just as bad, take what we've already written and distort it to fit a particular genre more easily? The answers to these questions are what's most important to us. Also, I have never imagined myself being a 'star' in the traditional celebrity defined way. I see myself first and foremost as a SONGWRITER. I love to get up on stage and have no fears there, strangely enough considering how shy I am around strangers. But I don't NEED that. My talent is not defined by performing per se. For instance, I'd love to do film scores and you rarely see the papparazzi hounding them do you? They don't plaster their faces all over posters and t-shirts, but that doesn't make them less talented. Instead, they are well paid, if in demand, and get to retain their privacy. I like that idea very much. On the other hand, I've nothing against being seen on TV or film or some show or anything like that. Those kinds of events are just syptomatic of how you direct your musical path I suppose." "When is the full length CD due out" I queried,"and how will anyone get a hold of it?" Pamela:"Well, we're currently dumping songs over at Morrissounds studio here in Tampa. I give it another 6 months because Christian and I both have pretty intense schedules day to day. We're not getting PAID to record after all, so we have to maintain some kind of income. Once it's done, we'll probably just offer it over our Soundclick site or one of the others." Good news for those of us around here. Look, do not let your eyes go blind to these two living in our town. There might come a day when you'd like to be able to say."I knew them when..." Don't underestimate the potential of these two.
Ever.

Here's a list of their sites: GO NOW!!
www.soundclick.com/starlightbuzz
or
http://clik.to/starlightbuzz
or
http://starlightbuzz.iuma.com
or
www.mp3.com/starlightbuzz

They say they respond to all of their emails just in case you wonder if contacting them with your comments is worth your effort. I can assure you that listening to their songs IS. At the Soundclick and IUMA site, you can stream a song and look at the lyrics at the same time. The problem with streaming audio, as some of you SHOULD know, is that commpression of audio data is not discretionary and often really jips the artists off because what is a VERY good song on CD can sound like garbled crap when it's streamed over the web. Digital lesson over.

"starlightbuzz", I wish you well. Keep those demos coming!