Stellastarr* with Every Move a Picture November 21, 2005

Stellastar*:
When a rosy-faced tot tumbles off a seesaw, whacking his precious head on the playground turf, each subsequent moment is heavy with the threat of total apocalypse: his face will start to crumple, tiny pink mouth stretching open, eyes fluttering and nostrils rearing, sticky fingers clamping down on blades of grass. Onlookers will pause in thick silence, uneasy, leaning forward just a bit, waiting to see if what follows is a spit-riddled giggle or a belly-flipping scream. Stellastarr frontman Shawn Christensen's voice has come to exist in that exact same purgatory, his deep, gut-borne howl flitting effortlessly from cautious whisper to full-on bellow, sometimes sinister, sometimes loving, always pulsing with the threat of complete breakdown. The unpredictability of the situation is what makes it impossible; the prickly volatility is what makes it riveting.

Every Move a Picture:
Led by singer/guitarist Brent Messenger, the San Francisco quartet is smart enough to understand what made The Smiths, New Order and early U2 so important while injecting their brand of dance punk with an energy that has attracted the attention of everyone from legendary Los Angeles DJ Rodney Bingenheimer, to fickle Bay Area hipsters.