A new release from Darstar brings out a classic garage and punk rock approach with vivacious energy and a blend of color and edginess that come through and give the whole band a shining presence to go along with that vintage garage tonality.
One of the things that I love about this track is the way it was recorded because it has a semi-lo-fi approach that really makes it unique and also serves as part of the aesthetic which is almost like a throwback to early punk in garage music in general.
"1B41" is an instant classic if you ask me because I grew up listening to all kinds of great garage-pop music and I feel like this band nails the feel and tonality you can want from the genre.
I definitely love this energy. It comes through heavy-handed, so it almost feels like a live performance.
Perhaps the song was actually recorded live on the floor and everyone involved was feeding off of each other's energies the entire time.
I wasn't there of course so I could be wrong but either way, when you hear the track on record it certainly makes you want to see them perform alive simply because if this kind of energy and vibrancy can be captured on record so well, then seeing them live must be awesome.
I love hearing a band on record for the first time and immediately knowing that will be great to see in a live setting.
The guitar tone has a little crunchiness to it and a lot of that classic and vintage punk high-end and I think that the drums add so much drive to this track simply because it's not just in the pocket, it's alive and breathing and it helps push the envelope of the song to where it needs to be.
The vocals are absolutely perfect for the music. The way the textures of how she sings melt into the edginess of the music is amazing to me and it works wonders in terms of creating an aesthetic that becomes quickly addicting.
She also adds these great layers of melodies to everything and some of those hooks get caught in your head and stick around for quite some time after the song event has ended.
It's one of those tracks where you end up wanting to listen to it a few times in a row to soak it all in.
This was a fun, slightly rambunctious, super catchy, and pop-coated banger of a track and it's the kind of pop-punk and garage single that you want to sing along with, fists in the air and all.
Upon listening to this track, I took a bit of a deep dive into the band's back catalog which was a smart choice because I found not only a few singles released in the past few years, but a full-length album dating back to 2011 called Tiny Darkess.
It was more than fun to listen through all this stuff including the 2024 single "Chubby Thighs".
This is the kind of band that you end up getting engulfed in. If you like one song, you're going to like them all and they definitely do a lot for me in terms of giving me these little bouts of nostalgia especially as someone growing up listening to a lot of pop punk and underground alt-rock of the 90s. This is the stuff that you found in magazines and would download songs off of LimeWire back in the day.
You can tell this is a band that have a true love for their craft and when I say that I don't just mean singing or playing instruments, I mean writing songs together.
I love the aesthetic that they give off and along with that poppy overtone, they keep that raw edginess intact so that you have the full aesthetic of what true garage pop and punk is all about.
This was the most fun I've heard in quite some time, and I think you'll have a lot of fun too.
Again, start with the single and work your way back because you certainly won't be disappointed.
Remember where you heard it first.
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