Sonic Youth Week – Dim Stars

Dim Stars was an early 90s project that brought together members of Sonic Youth and Richard Hell & The Voidoids.  Trouser Press website referred to the band as “summit of post-punk hipster demi-gods”.

The band released one EP and one self-titled album, never toured and disbanded after releasing one record in the early 90s. Trouser Press commented on their debut – “Dim Stars is clearly a vehicle for the long-inactive Hell, and he takes the wheel with the aplomb of a NASCAR veteran, slipping lithely into the cut-up lyrical style he worked in the ’70s with the Voidoids (whose Robert Quine guests on five tracks). Even though long stretches of the album degenerate into skronky improvisation, “All My Witches Come True” and “The Night Is Coming On” jerk and skitter with the strung-out energy of Hell’s heyday. ”
All Music Guide pointed out that the album is “shambles”, but also added that “in its defense, it is a very relaxed album, not at all containing the same political or emotional intensity as Sonic Youth’s Dirty.”
In 2009, Kurt Vile recorded a cover of Dim Stars track “Monkey”, which can be heard on his album “Childish Prodigy”. Some of Dim Stars tracks also appear on a compilation of Richard Hell’s work entitled “Spurts: The Richard Hell Story”.
Band Members:
Don Fleming (B.A.L.L., Backbeat Band, Gumball, Idlewild, To Live And Shave In L.A., Velvet Monkeys, Wylde Ratttz)
Richard Hell (Richard Meyers) (Heartbreakers, Neon Boys, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, Television)
Robert Quine (Material, Richard Hell & The Voidoids)
Steve Shelley (Ciccone Youth, Crucifucks, Male Slut, Million Dollar Bashers, Mosquito, Sonic Youth, Two Dollar Guitar, Wylde Rattz)
Thurston Moore (Backbeat Band, Bark Haze, Ciccone Youth, Diskaholics Anonymous Trio, Four Guitars, Male Slut, MCC / M / M Trio, Mirror / Dash, Northampton Woods, Original Silence, Society Ills, Sonic Youth, Thurston, Kim And Epic, To Live And Shave In L.A., Wylde Rattz)
Discography:
Dim Stars E.P. CD / 3X7″ / 12″ (Paperhouse, 1991 / Ecstatic Peace!, 1991 / Caroline, 1992)
Dim Stars CD / LP (Paperhouse, 1992 / New Rose, 1992 / Caroline, 1992 / Au Go Go, 1992 / City Slang, unknown year)
Compilation Tracks:
“She Wants To Die” + “Rip Off” on Between A Flower And A Chainsaw (Caroline, 1992)