Starbenders stay forever young

Young punk rock four-piece re-imagines teen angst

Some people revile their teenage years. Others spend entire lives trying to relive them. For guitarist and singer Kimi Shelter, her years spent navigating the turbulent waters of teen angst were inspiring enough to form the basis for her band Starbenders. In its brief two-year lifespan, the angst-riddled grunge rock outfit has carved out an impressive fan base enamored with the quartet’s ability to translate hazy memories of suburban rebellion into a crude mix of glam, punk, and grizzled throwback rock ‘n’ roll. “What better thing to do than write about the best time of your life and cling desperately to never having to be a grown-up?” Shelter asks.

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Growing up in a small South Georgia town across the state line from Jacksonville, Fla., Shelter, who prefers to keep her birth name off the record, was the lone punk girl living out the classic maligned punk existence. She hung out around skate parks catching whatever half-baked band was playing and dodging cops after curfew. “I think back to those times and they were the best,” she says. “Everything is so fucking amazing and exciting.”

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Afraid her daughter would descend into delinquency, Shelter’s mother sent her to a wayward youth nature camp where she befriended drummer Katie Herron. They bonded over music and made a pact to one day form a rock ‘n’ roll band of their own. The two spent their college years apart, and Shelter began cutting her teeth in Atlanta’s garage rock underground, taking inspiration from the caustic sounds of bands such as the Coathangers, Black Lips, and Subsonics. “If Atlanta has anything that we’re known for, it’s being violent and confrontational as far as the music goes,” she says. “The gnarliness of the scene was definitely a big influence.”

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After playing in various bands, Shelter began crystallizing the aesthetic of Starbenders and tapped Herron to play drums.

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“There were all of these bands that I was obsessed with in middle and high school and there was this element to them that I hadn’t heard recently, so I started writing in the spirit of that music,” Shelter says. “Starbenders is the most me thing I’ve ever done.”

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She specifically points to the iconic lyric: “All I wanted was a Pepsi, just one Pepsi, and she wouldn’t give it to me!” monologue from Suicidal Tendencies’ Reagan-era punk classic “Institutionalized” as an influence, in addition to songs by the Cramps, Pixies, and Brand New.

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Starbenders’ self-titled debut EP, released late last year, takes the unrestrained grit of those influences and polishes it over with the smooth sheen of pop production.

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Even though it was the band’s debut, the EP had decades of experience built into it. Atlanta mainstay and Lady Gaga alum Nico Constantine produced the EP and gave it the same rock ‘n’ roll gloss he provided on garage rock outfit Biters’ second EP, It’s OK to Like Biters. Jeff Bakos, whose résumé includes working with punk staples such as the Anti-Heros and GG Allin, recorded and engineered the release.

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Shelter’s lyrics seem torn from a fresh, tear-stained page of a teenage girl’s diary. “Please don’t hate me baby/That’s just how the devil made me” from “Bitches Be Witches” contrast with more straightforward lines such as “It’d be so grand if you’d be my man/Ask me to the dance and hold my hand” from “Enchantment Under the Sea.”

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The EP stays true to its loud-quiet-loud grunge roots, but moments of weirdness including the mangled horn breakdown on “Alter Boy” stray from well-worn rock tropes.

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Starbenders’ second release, the “Powder/Diet Coke” 7-inch, offers more glimmers of the band securing its footing among Atlanta’s countless garage rock bands. “Powder” pushes the lyrics past high school, ruminating on the dangers of cocaine addiction.

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So far, Shelter says the band is focused on releasing a steady stream of singles and EPs before a proper full-length arrives.

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The new songs will be “more wiry,” she says, and will continue to explore some of the darker sides of being a teenager: dealing with sexual harassment as a young girl.

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In the meantime, Starbenders has felt a rare amount of success for such a young band. Shelter insists the greatest benefit has been providing the same connection to teenagers that Suicidal Tendencies and the Cramps provided for her. “I can’t wait to get to the point where more and more kids can come and listen to our music and we can be a kind of halfway house for all these kids,” she says. “Some people still want to be a part of that halfway home no matter what their age.”