Major Stars is an American

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

band from greater Boston, Massachusetts. Their first live performance was in 1997 at the inaugural

Terrastock Terrastock is a music festival organised periodically by Phil McMullen, formerly editor of the ''Ptolemaic Terrascope'' and since 2005 the publisher of the Terrascope Online website. The event typically features independent bands playing psyche ...

Festival in Providence, Rhode Island. They toured Japan in 2000 with Overhang Party. In 2002, they toured with Acid Mothers Temple as an opening act and performed at the

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

Festival in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

. In December 2006 they performed at the

Thurston Moore Thurston Joseph Moore (born July 25, 1958) is an American musician best known as a member of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label. Moo ...

curated All Tomorrow's Parties festival in the UK. In 2003, Major Stars released ''Live In Europa'', a limited edition split LP with

Comets on Fire Comets on Fire were an American noise rock band from Santa Cruz, California, United States. The band was formed in 1999 by guitarist and vocalist Ethan Miller and longtime friend bassist Ben Flashman, who were seeking to create rhythmically a ...

. In 2005 and 2006, the band performed at North East Sticks Together. On April 28, 2007, Major Stars was the first concert of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

's WFMU Free Music Series. Previously, on May 9, 2006, Major Stars had performed live in the WFMU studio. Guitarist Wayne Rogers sang lead vocals on all of the band's releases through 2005's ''4'', when Sandra Barrett joined to take over those duties. Barrett left the band in 2008 and was replaced by Amanda Bristow, who joined during the recording of the album ''Return To Form''. Vocalist Hayley Thompson-King joined in 2010, and appears on the albums ''Decibels of Gratitude'' and ''Motion Set'' but has since left the group and the current singer is Noell Dorsey.

Discography

*"Rock Sounds of People" (one-sided LP, 1998 - Twisted Village) *''Rock Revival'' (1998 - Twisted Village) AMG review *''Space/Time'' (1999 - Twisted Village) *''Distant Effects'' (2002 - Squealer) *''Live in Europa'' (split LP w/

, 2003 - Plastic Records) *''4'' (2005 - Twisted Village) *"Black Road" (7", 2005 - Twisted Village) *''Syntoptikon'' (2006 -

Important Records Important Records is an American independent record label based in Groveland, Massachusetts. The idea behind the label is to be like a good record store, with releases from diverse artists and genres. History John Brien started Important Records ...

) *"Portable Freak Factory" (7", 2007 - Important Records) *''Mirror/Messenger'' (2007 - Drag City) *''Return To Form'' (2010 - Drag City) *''Decibels of Gratitude'' (2012 - Important Records, Twisted Village) *''Motion Set'' (2016 - Drag City) *''Roots of Confusion Seeds of Joy'' (2019 - Drag City)

Sources

References

External links

Major Stars page
on MySpace
Interview with Major Stars vocalist Sandra Barrett
''

The Fader ''The Fader'' (stylized as ''FADER'') is a magazine based in New York City that was launched in 1999 by Rob Stone and Jon Cohen. The magazine covers music, style and culture. It was the first print publication to be released on iTunes. It is o ...

'', posted October 15, 2007
"Maximum Volume: Major Stars turn it up on their Drag City debut"
'' The Phoenix'', November 19, 2007 {{Authority control Musical groups from Boston Psychedelic rock music groups from Massachusetts Drag City (record label) artists