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MP3 The God Star Social - The Happiest Sad Songs In The World
11 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Acoustic, FOLK: Modern Folk
Details:
The God Star Social is an indie, art, folk, punk band that began in the late summer of 2001 when its brainchild, Austin singer/songwriter Jason Trout, emerged from his apartment and his 4-track and began playing solo gigs under the moniker. After four years of recording and touring with several different line-ups of the band, Trout has spent the past year playing solo once again and has just finished a new full length entitled THE HAPPIEST SAD SONGS IN THE WORLD, a much softer and more intimate record that he explains is a result of a full year of acoustic shows directly inspiring his creative process. "This band has always been MY baby, so the records are always going to be indicative of where I am as a songwriter at that particular time. After playing solo for a year, my writing started to gear itself more toward the stripped down arrangement of just an acoustic guitar and vocal which, barring a fairly great deal of experience and improvement, is exactly where I was coming from when I gave birth to this band 5 years ago."
Trout released the first God Star Social record, a colection of home recordings entitled JAM ECONO EP, in April 2002 to local acclaim and praise. A month later, he suffered a nervous breakdown and relocated to Knoxville, Tennessee to recover with family. In July of that year alone, he wrote twenty new songs. Deciding to stay in Knoxville indefinitely, Trout quickly put together the band''s first line-up, and began playing gigs at local clubs, The Pilot Light, Axis, and Java. The God Star Social spent the last half of 2002 playing 3-4 times a week in Knoxville and regional cities such as Nashville, Atlanta, Athens, Asheville, and Memphis. The band released the EP A Queer Sultry Summer in December 2002 which garnered the band local radio play and national press. They continued to play out, now headlining Knoxville clubs and sharing the stage with the likes of John Wilkes Booze, Swearing At Motorists, Mike Doughty, Dead Meadow, and Scout Niblett to name a handful. The band released their debut full-length DECIDEDLY LO-FI/REVOLUTION AND STATIC SKY in October of 2003, and followed the release with a tour of the midwest and northeast (Chicago, D.C., NYC, Boston, etc.) in November and December. As 2004 shuffled in, so did national and international reviews of the record which had journalists loudly singing the praises of the band, the record, and Trout''s vision. Without management, or financial backing, the band''s buzz continued to grow throughout 2004. Their songs "Fever" and "Lapse" were added to over 70 radio stations throughout the country, and, with a completely revamped line-up, Trout embarked on another tour in April of 2004. After a short break, he relocated back to Austin, and began playing shows, with yet another new line-up, at The Caucus Club weekly. By October 2004, word of mouth praise of the band was bringing in fan mail and show and tour requests from all over, and outside, the U.S.
2005 brought a whirlwind of activity for The God Star Social. Trout''s old friend Tony Scalzo (of Fastball fame) helped get the band an invitation to record at the exclusive west Austin studio where Trail Of Dead and Spoon had just recorded their recent records. Renowned engineer and producer Mark D. (former bass player for The Melvins) took great interest in the band there, offering his services for free. During SXSW, in March 2005, the band accepted an offer from John Stinson to record for free at his Austin studio. In one day, the band cut and mixed 3 demos, mastering the single "Cycles." During the same week, Anton Newcombe of The Brian Jonestown Massacre offered west coast show dates to the band and featured them on his internet radio coverage of the music festival. This, along with constant touring, garnered the band even more attention including an offer from singer/songwriter Mary Lou Lord to work as the band''s publicist. In April, Ondi Timoner, director of the film Dig! invited the band to play at a private screening of the film for the cast of MTVs The Real World and offered her services to the band for an electronic press kit and possible video.
In September ''05, Trout went on the road for a month of solo shows. "It wasn''t my idea alone that the shows be ''solo'' shows," Trout explains, "but it was undoubtedly necessary at that time for me to be alone creatively, take stock of things personally, and figure out what record the band was about to make, how and where we were going to record it, who we were going to work with regarding labels and management, and also just start playing songs live in a way more intimate setting." The month of solo God Star Social shows turned into five months, as Trout played all over the country ending with a week of shows in Canada in January ''06. "At that point, it was obvious that I was going to make this next record on my own, not just playing everything, but recording it with my own money...promoting and distributing it, initially, out of my pocket. That decision happened to coincide with me meeting my wife and living with her in Ohio for the first half of this year." That is where Trout wrote more, and honed the songs that would become THE HAPPIEST SAD SONGS IN THE WORLD, playing shows throughout Ohio with his wife, Misty Thomas-Trout, joining him on stage. "I had wanted female harmony vocals for a number of these new songs, and it just fell into place." The couple moved back to Austin in August, and spent October ''06 recording the new album which is to be released on November 28th. "It''s a different record, but they all are. I have another one written and three more in my head. This band doesn''t have one particular sound. I find that mundane and ridiculous. Evolution, baby. I sincerely could not care fucking less about fitting into a genre. It is what it is. It changes shape, color. It derails from time to time. The load gets lighter and heavier, but this train keeps moving...and it always will."
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