The Starvations were the first band that I went out of my way to listen to just because I had read about them in Razorcake. I remember reading the interview that they did and thinking that any band that could equate drinking with brushing your teeth was okay in my book. Don’t want to jinx them or anything, but so far, they’ve never let me down and I can’t completely put my finger on why I like them. They’re in a league with bands like the Gun Club and the Pogues: storytelling lyrics, similar instrumentation, and the ability to pull off both dirges and more uptempo songs. But the thing is that they don’t really sound like those bands, they just remind me of them. All three bands have a knack for taking inspiration from traditional roots music, but they never become slaves to convention; they weave in their own paranoia and make the music their own.
–josh (GSL)