“I did most of my growing up in a small southern town. Spanish moss hung from hundred year old trees and folklore was far from fiction. My mom was an elementary school teacher. The little building where she taught was across the way from my high school. A massive field separated the two institutions and I would walk across it everyday on my way home. In those days, I was a complete skate rat that loved rock ‘n’ roll and punk. My taste for music hadn’t yet expanded past my elementary view of what ‘good’ was.”
“One afternoon when I was crossing the field, I saw a whole bunch of black shattered plastic everywhere. I wasn’t one of those hip kids whose parents were super into vinyl, so this was my first introduction. Apparently some rednecks had been out in the field the night before using records to skeet shoot. All of them were destroyed but one. The singular wax platter covered in mud revealed itself to me as Miles Davis and Horns. I had no idea who this Miles Davis was but I put the record in my backpack nonetheless.
The next day I asked around to all my friends to see who had a record player. One of my friend’s said their parents had one sitting in the attic and for $20 it was mine. I got the record player and miraculously Miles Davis begun to play. “Tasty Pudding” leaked into my room, popping and cracking its way into my heart. So thus began my love affair with vinyl and the magical way it was presented to me.
After discovering that most everyone’s parents had record collections gathering dust, I had a grand idea. I would compile a list of artists I was interested in and circulate it in class. I asked willing classmates to go through their parents’ records and gather the vinyl I was seeking. It was a great hustle. All I had to do was break off a few bucks to get the rarest records.
My list included Led Zeppelin, Miles Davis, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, David Bowie, The Stooges, The New York Dolls, and on and on. It goes without saying that my mother received a few phone calls from angry parents. Mom began to take me to record stores in order to satiate my growing taste in music. My passion has gone in and out of many genres and sub-genres since then. While out on tour, Starbenders favorite thing to do is check out the local record shops and see what rarities we can score.
My top 3 favorite songs to hear on vinyl are: Alice Cooper, “I’m Eighteen,” The Rolling Stones, “Sister Morphine,” and The Beatles, “Girl.”
—Kimi Shelter
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Starbenders on Tour:
AUGUST
Wed 19th – Birmingham, AL at Saturn Birm
Thurs 20th – Nashville, TN at The Basement
Fri 21st – Indianapolis, IN at Melody Inn
Sat 22nd – Louisville, KT at Seven Senses Festival
Sun 23rd – Columbus, OH at Spacebar
Mon 24th – Detroit, MI at Northern Lights
Wed 26th – Pittsburgh, PA at Howlers
Thurs 27th – Rochester, NY at Flour City Station
Sun 30th – NYC, at Piano’s
Mon 31th – Brooklyn, at Pine Box
SEPTEMBER
Wed 2nd – Asbury Park, NJ at The Saint
