Live in NYC 1979 - The Stare Kits

General Overview

It's important to state, this is my first review. I am not a professional critic, I don't criticize music, I engage with it. I chose this record to review first on an impulse. I discovered The Stare Kits when delving into the releases by Feeding Tube. I liked what I heard, which led me down a rabbit hole, and now they live rent free somewhere in the back of my mind. The Stare Kits were a short-lived band formed by friends Angela Jaeger, Bob Gurevics, Amy Rigby and Michael McMahon. They only played three shows, all at a nightclub called Tier 3, which was an influential location in New York's underground scene. From what I could find, Amy Rigby later wrote a memoir called Girl to City. But I don't want to turn this review into a research paper, I feel like I would do it all a disservice. I did my best to research the band, but it doesn't feel like enough. Also, I haven't read the memoir myself, maybe it's something I revisit in the future. It is definitely not off the table.

The Review

For this review, I decided that an internet upload of the work wasn't enough. So I purchased an LP copy directly from Feeding Tube to allow me to give the work my full attention, and I am glad I did. It came with a little booklet with a cover resembling a flier for one of their Tier 3 shows. Inside is background historical text written by Byron Coley, giving me much more info than I was able to find online. It also has photographs relating to the band in varying contexts, even an image of the original lyric sheet for Strength Accumulate written by Angela. I just think it's a really cool thing to include with the album. There is also a Feeding Tube sticker. But I assume that comes with every Feeding Tube release. It was my first time ordering an album from them directly, and I will surely order more in the future.

Turning my attention to the music. The moment I dropped the needle, I felt like I got transported to bizarro world. Almost like a spell was cast on me. A lot of the guitar work should be relatively displeasing. And to most people, it would be. But I like it personally, it has the energy of a psychedelic band playing a set falling down the stairs like a Looney Tunes cartoon. Now that analogy is weird to use on its own considering musically there is almost an orchestral vibe within the instrumentation mixed in with punk simplicity. I actually had to listen closely to confirm, it sounded a lot more complicated musically than it was.

Bob's guitar work interests me quite a bit, it seems to be the most contributing factor to that psych band falling down the stairs analogy I used earlier. Bursts of sharp dissonant notes, an element that seems to be present at least once in about every song. The guitar is hard for me to describe, it's definitely something you'd have to experience yourself. It has that no-wave quality but something is different about it.

Michael on bass seems to help hold things together with Amy on drums within the more chaotic moments. Bass has the push pull energy otherwise, with more push than pull. My mind wants to say Michael's bass is supportive, and then I lock in on the bass, it's more like it's helping guitar push the energy forward. I can't be certain, my ears are inexperienced and someone out there can make that assertion better than I can.

Amy on drums, I'd say it's my third time replaying Side A of the record. I have to really lock into each instrument, get a feel for them. Amy's drum work is hard to describe for a different reason, I don't have to try to lock in like I did with Michael's bass. It's more like recognition, it feels like certain moments are rehearsed and in between it's... loose. The moments the drums needs to come in clutch, they do, and outside those moments it has a specific energy I cannot fully put into words. The drums know how to serve the atmosphere, but they also know how to add just the right energy the song needs. On the precipice, always teetering when it needs to without a missed beat.

The vocal work by Angela reminds me of Jefferson Airplane, which makes sense considering the list of influences in that booklet explicitly note Grace Slick and Ari Up as influences. I had no idea who Ari Up was and had to look them up, in fact I will have to look into a lot of their influences. I could give myself a glimpse just for the sake of the review, but I prefer to take my time with music and sit with it. But anyhow, Ari Up was the lead singer of The Slits, an early punk rock band. The lyrics for their original songs sit in a weird spot between literal in meaning and very abstract. Like, Angela will talk about an abstract concept and wrap it in something experiential. The song "I see them from my window", puts this on full display as it's easiest to see what I'm talking about.

I am not going to speculate what the songs could be about, but the lyricism sticks out here to me. However, let's not forget this is a live album, even outside all the interesting things happening. I think the little moments matter, the introduction to Larchmont has a little banter between the band. Angela calling the audience "the semi-circle audience", throughout the recordings for years gone by. It has reminders that at one point in time, real people were listening and real people were performing. I haven't forgotten about the B side of this album, it's basically rehearsal tapes. I don't mean to sound dismissive, but I really don't have a lot to say about them aside from the fact that they are rehearsal tapes and to taper your expectations. The quality is rougher, the music is there, and the history has been recorded. It's there if you want it, but it's not for me personally.

The Stare Kits, live in NYC, all those years ago in 1979 is a snapshot of musical history that has miraculously survived. A band that has played only three shows, in most cases, would have faded into obscurity. But somehow, someway, everyone gets the opportunity to hear something unique and captivating in ways that are difficult to put into words. I have sat here for a couple months thinking about how to approach this album. It doesn't necessarily do anything super special or revolutionary, it's not the most difficult album I have engaged with. It exists in a vacuum that I wish I could take a time machine to, there's always this nagging feeling in the back of my head when I listen to this album. A feeling that I missed out, that the record does not do the justice of the full experience as the ghosts in the audience have experienced years before us.