You are holding in your hands the debut album by STARDEATH AND WHITE DWARFS, which is titled "THE BIRTH."  Well, I guess you're holding this bio in your hands. Hopefully the CD is in the CD player and your ears are being treated to the fuzzed-out bliss of “The Sea Is On Fire.” Yes! A lot has been made of the connection between Stardeath and The Flaming Lips, so let's go ahead and get that out of the way so we can move on. Yes, they are from Oklahoma, where the waving wheat sure tastes sweet, etc. And, yes, head Dwarf, Dennis Coyne, is the nephew of head Lip, Wayne Coyne. And, yes, three of the Dwarfs (Casey, Matt and Dennis) once formed the core of The Flaming Lips' road crew. And, yes, they have played many a show with The Flaming Lips (and will probably play many more in the future). 

They also collaborated with the Lips on a cover of Madonna's “Borderline” that people seem to be taking quite a shine to. So, yes, they have learned a lot of things from them Flaming Lips, but it didn't necessarily have that much to do with their music. As drummer Matt Duckworth says: “When you work for a band like The Flaming Lips, you learn that hard work can take you a long way. When Wayne decides he wants to do something, he just does it; he doesn't wait for someone to tell him it's okay. We are the same way. We are willing to work harder than everyone else in order to put on a crazy show, even if we're playing to only four people.” I have heard them compared musically to The Lips, but I think that's only because people get lazy and figure that since both bands play psychedelic music and their lead singers' last names are Coyne, they must be similar. I personally hear almost zero Lips influence in SDWD music. To me, these four young lads from the Sooner State are completely original and arrive fully formed with the best debut album since “The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn.”

Are you on "New Heat" yet? That's the first single. It's quite a left turn from “The Sea Is On Fire” isn't it? You'll get a lot of that on this record. It's what keeps it so fresh upon many repeated listenings. And it's short too. Like most of the great classic records, it gets inside your brain and takes you over for 35 minutes and then leaves you alone to either press "play" again or get on with your day. No 78-minute beat down with a bunch of filler material and skits here. These boys have studied at the metaphorical feet of all of the greats from the Beatles to Led Zeppelin to King Crimson to Glen Campbell to Pink Floyd to Sly & The Family Stone to Elton John to Dr. Dre to the Butthole Surfers … and many points in between. These disparate influences have all rattled around their caffeine and THC-riddled brains and come out through their voices and instruments in a way that sounds completely fucked up and unique, but is totally natural and not at all forced.

The band was started in 2003 by guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Dennis Coyne and bassist/keyboardist Casey Joseph (and some drummer who couldn't play very well.) “Casey was playing in a hip-hop band with a drummer who I was trying to convince to play with me,” Dennis says. “I thought Casey was good but, as he was 14 or 15 at the time, I figured he was too young to be playing in the band I wanted to form. I thought I would just have him write the bass parts and teach one of my 'older friends' to play them, but the next time I saw his band play, he completely floored me and I quit caring how old he was and asked him to join the second they got done playing.” The drummer who couldn't play very well lasted a few months — two days before their first show, to be exact. “That first show, Dennis and I had to play by ourselves with two amps, two ancient P.A. speakers and a CD with the drums on it that kept skipping,” Casey says. They tried a few other drummers, but they weren't very good either and then Casey met drummer extraordinaire Matt Duckworth at a show that Matt's band was playing. Casey was blown away by Matt's playing and asked him if he would join STARDEATH. “When Matt showed up, he sat down and ripped right into ‘Those Who Are From The Sun Return To The Sun’ and nearly destroyed our drum kit,” Dennis recalls. “It was heaven." Fortunately Matt was as happy as Dennis and Casey were, as the pickless daredevilry (as Steven Drozd likes to call it) of Casey's bass playing and the thunderous double-kick flailing of Mr. Duckworth finally formed the perfect rhythm section for Dennis to lay his bizarro heartbroken chords and lyrics on top of. 

The final piece of the puzzle snapped into place when they found the very talented and sweet James Young and brought him into the fold a couple of years ago. “I met Dennis completely by accident,” James remembers. “I was dating this girl that lived in Norman in this house with a bunch of other girls. There would always be a bunch of guys over at her house and I never really liked any of them, but I met Dennis there one night and he looked just as miserable as me, so we got along pretty well and started talking music.” They kept in touch and Dennis called him a few months later when their guitarist quit in order to get married and “settle down.” I liked that guy fairly well, but I'm really glad that things worked out the way they did because, with James, they finally have a guitarist who has the same level of talent and commitment as the other three.

So, that's how the band came together … but what about the album? "THE BIRTH" (which, in my opinion, is the best name for a debut album ever) was recorded by the wonderfully talented Trent Bell in Norman, Oklahoma, over the last four years whenever the band could scrape up enough money to go in and record a song or two. I can still remember my jaw hitting the floor when Dennis played me “Keep Score” in 2005 … and that song still gives me goosebumps. I can only imagine that “The Age Of The Freak,” which is the newest recording on this album, will still kick my ass in 2013. They actually left a couple of great songs “in the vault” for the next album in the interest of keeping this one tight and concise.  As I said before, I think this album is the perfect length and the songs all flow really nicely together. I imagine it must have been tempting to put everything they had on it, but I applaud their decision not to. And I haven't even mentioned their live performances. These guys are as amazing live as they are on record.  They present a full-frontal assault for your ears and your eyes. You may want to bring ear plugs, though, as these guys can get very, very LOUD. I have seen them dozens of times and they never fail to blow me away.

I'll miss having them on the road with us because they're such great people and such a treat to hang out with (and also tireless hard workers), but it would be a shame if their music wasn't heard by the masses. Our lives are richer for having them in it. I reckon their music can do the rest of the talking at this point. 

STARDEATH AND WHITE DWARFS: the little band with the big sound and weird name. I hope you love them as much as I do.