Album review: Dead Stars, “Perfect Patterns”

Dead Stars, “Perfect Patterns”

Available: Friday, Sept. 1, via Weird Tree Records (which may or may not be the band’s very own imprint) as a digital download at

deadstars.bandcamp.com in MP3, FLAC, and other formats. Also available in a limited-edition (100 made) high-quality cassette tapes, available with an alternate version of the album’s artwork, and also comes with a digital download. The Brooklyn three-piece made up of cousins Jeff Moore (guitars, vocals) and Jaye Moore (drums), and longtime friend and collaborator John Watterberg (bass) return with their third release, following up 2014’s “Slumber” and last year’s “Bright Colors.” “Perfect Patterns” finds the band crafting more of the similarly catchy, hook-laden, fuzz and pop from the quasi ’90s revivalists. Halfway through the record, the band cleverly, and with seeming ease, becomes self-referential and tongue in cheek with the harmony and lyrical wit of track “Nostalgic.” They are clearly a band having fun making music, perhaps with homage to the albums and tracks they grew up loving. The album, as a whole, sounds sonically comfortable and familiar without being overbearingly derivative. If anything, each track has a stark honesty and earnestness (especially just past midway with “Friends”) that ring with a stark sort of understanding, commenting both on where they are musically from and also heading. This a solid start-to-finish effort for any fan of the music made in the grunge/post-grunge era. It’s a record that beckons you return for listen after listen. I am a believer that a band can, in part, be judged on the company they keep. Dead Stars have shared the stage with Sunflower Bean, White Fence, and Charly Bliss.

Perfect Patterns is recommended for fans of Lemonheads, Dinosaur Jr., Weezer, Superchunk, Superdrag, or Harvey Danger.

— Jon E. Lynch[email protected]