(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)
Artist: The Clientele Album Title: The violet hour Year released: 2003 Year reissued: 2025 Details: standard black
The skinny: Here’s one that’s been on my vinyl wish list for a very, very long time, perhaps even from day one of my collecting vinyl in earnest. “The Violet hour” was my introduction to London-based dream pop outfit The Clientele and to say I was obsessed with its gauzy sound for the larger part of the 2000s would be putting it mildly. I’ve been intently following the group ever since and every single one of their long players has found a place on my record shelves, all but this one… until now. As I wrote when the song featured below appeared on my Best tunes of 2003 list, the original recordings had been thought to have been lost, which was why this was the only album in their discography that hadn’t seen a recent vinyl reissue. When it was located, incidentally in the year of the album’s 20th anniversary, I was hopeful that this reissue would finally see the light. And now, two years later, here it is and I wasted no time in procuring a copy. It’s a thing of beauty.
Here’s a band that may be largely forgotten to the quickly moving trends of musical history.
Stellastarr* was formed in 2000 out of the ashes of a couple other short-lived bands, arising from the burgeoning indie rock scene in Brooklyn and Manhattan that would also give us The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Vampire Weekend, and TV on the Radio. Three of its four members, singer/guitarist Shawn Christensen, bassist Amanda Tannen, and drummer Arthur Kremmer, were art school student and friends who were interested in starting a band but their plans were still loose, a chance meeting with guitarist Michael Jurin and a successful jam session put them on a more focused path. They would release three full-length albums and an EP and tour domestically and internationally with the likes of Jane’s Addiction, The Raveonettes, Editors, and The Killers. They never officially broke up, going on a hiatus in 2009, and as far as I can tell, there’s never been any talk of a reunion. None of its members have really looked back. Jurin remains in the music industry, performing solo and in several bands, and scoring a few films. Tannen and Kremmer are both graphic designers. And Christensen paints and makes films, winning an Oscar in the short film category back in 2012.
Listening to their music now, especially their first two albums, makes me both nostalgic for that time and place and has me wondering what could have been for the quartet. I absolutely loved their self-titled debut, not bothering me in the least as it did many of their critics that they wore their influences on their sleeve (The Cure, Pulp). Their second album, “Harmonies for the haunted”, showed maturity and saw the group forging their own path, even if their sound did lose some of its punchiness and immediacy in the process. “Civilized”, the final album, was the real disappointment, which was perhaps why it was their final album. Perhaps they had already punched out their clocks.
Those who enjoyed playing baseball video games in the mid-2000s might recognize “My coco”. It was easily my favourite song off Stellastarr’s 2003 self-titled debut. It’s a rocking number that is instantly likeable, a thumping beat, ticky tacky high hats and a dancing bass line start it all off. Duetting male (equal parts Robert Smith and Jarvis Cocker) and female (a breathless Louise Wener) vocals run through the chorus line once, before it kicks into higher gear with soaring and chugging guitars and serious bass backbone. The effect it creates feels like fighter jets, and indeed, the whole song sounds like a dog fight out of top gun. But what really kills me is the instrumental break, the duelling guitars throwing it down, so that you can almost smell the sweat off the musicians shredding each others faces and it all explodes when the vocals kick in, call and response like, an energy that would light up any dance floor.
Even now, whenever this song comes up on my Apple Music shuffle, I have to listen to it a second time. It’s one of those infectious songs that just doesn’t seem long enough.
For the rest of the Best tunes of 2003 list, click here.
Artist: Amy Millan When: October 17th, 2025 Where: Club Saw, Ottawa Context: I’ve seen Stars live five times and Broken Social Scene twice* but it had been quite a while since I’d seen either one. However, this wasn’t the reason why I really wanted to see Amy Millan, even though I do often lean towards the songs she sings with Stars. I had never seen her play live solo, just never got the chance, even though I had enjoyed her two previously released solo albums. Before buying the ticket, I had only given her newest album, “I went to find you”, a cursory listen, only becoming much more familiar with it in the week leading up to the show. Having said all this, I still found myself surprised at how much I enjoyed Amy Millan’s performance. Her extremely talented backing band included Christine Bougie** (guitar and lap steel), Stefan Schneider*** (drums), as well as fellow Stars members Chris McCarron (guitar) and her partner Evan Cranley (trombone and percussion), and she brought her friend Jenny Whiteley up onstage mid-set to duet on “Baby I”****. But it was Millan herself who lit up the stage, not only with the lovely, lilting, and soft touch on vocals that we’ve come to know and love, but with her in-between song banter, proving herself to be humble and hilarious and human. It was such that she could have played anything and we would have been with her the whole way. But she pleased Stars fans with a couple of their tunes, including a lovely solo performance of “Ageless beauty”, a personal fave, and with the exception of a Weeping Tile/Sarah Harmer cover, the rest of her set was solo material, mostly from that new album, performed so beautifully that it has infinitely risen in my esteem. Point of reference song: “The overpass”
Amy Millan close up and personalChris McCarron and his headband on guitarStefan Schneider on drumsEvan Cranley with his tromboneChristine Bougie rocking the guitarAmy dueting with Jenny WhiteleyEvan on the percussion Chris McCarron and his game faceAmy and StefanRocking out
*Both times with Amy Millan
**Has performed with Shania Twain and Bahamas.
***Has performed with Owen Pallett, Belle Orchestre, among others.
****A song Whiteley had written and Millan had covered on her first solo album, “Honey from the tombs”.
My (life in) music lists 