MAY 15, 2002 :: REVIEW - Great Songs, Classic Sound From OUTERSTAR by Jim Trageser (This review first appeared in the January 19, 2002 edition of the American Reporter.) One of the best pop albums of 2001 didn't show up on many - if any - "Best of" lists. This, despite as accessible an album since Oasis was tearing up the charts, despite more than a half-dozen songs that easily could have been Top 10 hits, despite some of the most unforgettable songs on a pop album in years. Ah, the joys of an independent release and iffy distribution. But business issues aside, the music on Outerstar's debut is utterly enchanting, ultimately endearing. The duo of Nat Schellin and Chris Martin has been together since 1993 gigging around the L.A. area, and the experience shows. Don't judge their self-titled debut as a debut - judge it against any album any band has done at the height of its creativity. Singer Schellin's voice bears more than a passing resemblance to David Bowie's; the music he writes is vintage '80s art-rock - think Simple Minds, Crowded House, Tears for Fears, Squeeze or, especially, Spandau Ballet. Which is not to suggest that Outerstar sounds like a throwback or some kind of retro outfit - the music is fully contemporary, but with the kind of lush sound and smart songs that hearken to the above artists. The keyboards and guitar by Martin are layered over Schellin's richly harmonized vocals to create as full a sound as you'll find in rock music. Besides, Outerstar's style isn't nearly as important as the songs - as mentioned, nine of the 11 songs here could easily be Top-40 hits (if the disc jockeys were still allowed to pick their own playlists, that is). "Limousine" is immediately infectious, "Will You Think of Me" is one of the great unrequited love songs in pop history, while "What's With You People" is both political and refreshingly non-partisan. "Every Moment" has a hook-filled melodic theme that will burrow into your head; "Run With Me" is a near-perfect ballad, "Round Down In My Head" is another classic melody and "Don't Be So Surprised" is seamlessly put together. The closing number, "There's a Road," is the kind of quiet but wonderful little tune that Paul McCartney use to be able to turn out every album. Then there's the best song on the album - and that's saying something on a record with so many classy, classic songs, one that is stronger than most band's greatest hits collections. "You Love it When it Rains" sounds so timeless, so absolutely perfect that even the first time you listen to it, you're sure you've heard it before. The fact that this song wasn't all over the charts is the strongest indictment yet offered against the corporate takeover of radio. Outerstar is one of those rare pop bands that almost never misses, whose songwriting is interesting enough to hold your attention over repeated listenings, whose music transcends its time. Those few lucky enough to come across Outerstar will still be pulling this CD out and listening to it 20 years down the road, long after the bands now ruling radio are forgotten or plying the nostalgia circuit. FEB 25, 2002 :: OUTERSTAR Release 2nd Single! While the song “You Love It When It Rains” is continuing to climb the charts (debuted on the Gavin Top 40 Radio chart at #163. Last week #66) a second song was released to Rock & Alternative stations. That song is “Round Down In My Head”, and it too is winning-over radio stations and fans Nationwide! This week, the song is #68 on the FMQB Hot 100 chart. It also reached #19 on the R&R Specialty Show chart. Tower Records – one of the many major chains that carries OUTERSTAR's album – added the album to their in-store listening stations and listed the album as a bestseller in the Top 1000 on Tower Records.com, which means that OUTERSTAR was selling better than 99.7% of the 300,000 titles they stock! Tower's in-store magazine, Pulse, listed the CD as one of the “200 Albums That Mattered in 2001.” JAN 11, 2002 :: REVIEW - The Daily Page & Isthmus Weekly Yes, there is a middle way in pop music, an approach that rejects the sexy emptiness of Britney and the wan, self-involved whisperings of prog pretenders Radiohead. And it’s represented by practitioners like Outerstar, an L.A.-based duo with Brit roots who hope to conquer the world with lush, emphatically beat-based music that relies on sharp melodies and existential poetry to get over. Pegged by their recently debuted label Jaggo (actually Capitol in indie clothing) as a logical extension of Brit-pop heroes like the Verve’s Richard Ashcroft and Oasis’ Noel Gallagher, Outerstar are really less rawk than that, but the comparisons aren’t completely off the mark. Instead of crafting verses and choruses that pop together with the plastic precision of Lego blocks, Outerstar sample, chord and keen their way through 11 shifting, drifting songs here that might have been called trip hop. Today, addictive, architecturally sound cuts like the acrid anthem "In the Streets" and the wispy Lou Reed/Bowie-style complaint "Limousine" really fit no radio format or CD-rack subcategory. But that isn’t an insurmountable problem for these experimental songwriters. As the talented duo put it on their whooshing psychedelic post-punker "Round Down in My Head," the truly creative often find that it’s best to "beat the odds until they beat on me" and quit worrying so much about how the fickle public will receive them. Reviewed by Tom Laskin JAN 10, 2002 :: REVIEW - MusicMatch.com Independent music sucks. Since a lot of my favorite bands aren't on major labels it feels a little hurtful to say it. And, it's not so much that those artists suck, it's just that there is so much indie music out there, that the spectrum becomes vast, and it's inevitable that a huge chuck of it is going to, well, blow chunks. Putting out a record has become so easy that the threshold for doing so no longer has talent as part of the equation. So, the top indie bands -- your and my favorites -- may still be great, but the bottom keeps getting lower and lower, bringing the whole incongruous mass down. So, when I get these envelopes from labels I've never heard of, like a Jaggo Records, I'm not sure if the three-ply rubber gloves and gas mask that I don while opening them is to protect me from anthrax or the corrosive brain-eating attempts at music that often lurk inside. Still, there's some powerful force -- a deathwish? -- inside me that makes me listen to every single disc I get my hands on - at least one song, anyway. In the case of the band Outerstar and their self-titled debut, one song was enough to draw me in. The first track on the disc, and the first single, is "You Love It When It Rains" which is just great. I know a lot of artists hate getting compared to existing bands, but I got a real Spacehog meets Oasis meets Primitive Radio Gods vibe from that track - that is to say, a sort of glam-pop with a modest digital edge. It's one of those songs that catches you pretty quickly and sticks in your head. A lot of bands -- Starsailor, Coldplay, Travis -- are trying this fusion of Brit-pop and tricky guitartronic weirdness in various flavors. Outerstar come up with their own close-to-the-vest take on this sound that stands well among the bigger names. Outerstar are Nat Schellin and Chris Martin, a couple of guys who were sick of compromising in bands that they didn't necessarily believe in. In the musical melting pot that is L.A., they discovered a compositional compatibility in each other and dropped the excess baggage of a larger band structure. Rather than compensate for weak links, they were able to exercise their own high levels of musicianship, with the end result being this self-titled CD. Outerstar keep that technical quality at a high level throughout much of the CD, exploring various aspects of modern melodic song-oriented pop. Driving pop rock on "In the Streets" is contrasted set off by a lush arrangement of strings and piano in "Run With Me". The album is filled with contrasts such as these without ever wandering off down dead-ends. I was happy to run across this CD. If nothing else, it renewed my willingness to brave the next mysterious package I get in the mail. AUG 31, 2001 :: OUTERSTAR REVIEW - Album Network, August 31, 2001 WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: You've heard it before: a musician is in a string of bands that don't go anywhere. Said musician has had a love of and talent for music since age three, but cannot seem to find his or her musical soulmate... until, during a chance meeting at a local hangout, lightning strikes. Well, this time the story's for real. Singer/songwriter Nat Schellin and multi-instrumentalist/songwriter Chris Martin's talent ignited when they met in 1993 and out of that fire was born Outerstar, a band with complex, rich and often velvety melodies. Schellin's vocal stylings bring to mind such greats as Bono and Richard Ashcroft, while the overall musical vibe leans heavily toward a British influence. Outerstar's eponymous debut album, due in stores November 6, was engineered and mixed by heavy-hitter Ed Buller (Suede, The Crystal Method, Stabbing Westward) - and it's guaranteed to take up prolonged residence in your CD player. AUG 3, 2001 :: OUTERSTAR TO APPEAR ON "DIY(ODS)" PANEL AT CMJ MUSIC MARATHON '01, SEPTEMBER 13-16, NEW YORK, NY OUTERSTAR will appear on the "DIY(ODS): Do It Your Own Damn Self" panel on Saturday, September 15th (2:00 PM), as part of the CMJ Music Marathon '01 Conference which will be held September 13 - 16 at the Hilton Hotel in New York City (www.cmj.com/marathon). The panel is hosted by Brad King of Wired magazine, and includes Outerstar as well as: Jenny Toomey of The Future of Music organization; Tommy Brunette, president and founder of Universal Buzz, an on-line broadcaster; Brian Sokel of AM/FM; and Melissa Adams of Press Gang Media & PR.		»   click the outerstar logo to return to the home page.