This is Ringo Deathstarr.

Get it?

Doesn’t matter, because the band gets it… giggles… looks downward as their amps hum to life, and blast out some gloriously fuzzy, overblown and honey sweet indie rock.


Hello. We are the nicest band in indie rock.

Pictured are bassist Alex Gehring, drummer Daniel Coborn, and guitarist Elliot Frazier.

The blueprints for this formula should feel familiar enough to anyone who can recognize the ‘shoegazer’ genre of early-mid 90’s, however, this unit started in Austin, Texas in 2007.

If you knew who Eric’s Trip (Sub Pop) was… there is no better comparison.

But that band is under the radar for most, so if you need something to place them in your audio-file cabinet… this would sit nicely between My Bloody Valentine and Smashing Pumpkins before Billy Corgan became a self-indulgent wanker.

Bands like this are not beholden to any rules, so songs can blend sounds and effects while playing around with structures. This presents each song as a new adventure. Tempos are often dreamy slow, which cascade and collapse against the sheer volume of noise they harness into a sweet melody. It’s a pleasant trick, by no means new, but amazingly fun when done on this level.


The band has a few albums, a couple of EPs and some singles floating around, so there is a healthy catalog to sink into if you are just discovering this unpolished gem of pretty noise.

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There is a psychedelic quality that permeates the low-fi aesthetic, both in the audio and in the imagery Ringo Deathstarr presents to the world. Whatever drugs fuel this, they are good drugs. The kind that make you smile. And make you sway back and forth. Ears ringing and body floating. Warm fuzzy indie rock dreams.

Any band that can take this kind of dissonant noise and melt it into a sugary sweet rush is goddamn clever… taste “Rip”.

‘Stare at the Sun’ shows a deeper groove that crashes around itself and still manages to flow…

The My Bloody Valentine vibes are hard to miss when guitarist Elliot Frazier takes over the vocals on, ‘Kaleidoscope’.

The pillow soft voice of Alex Gehring should melt into the heart of any indie rock fan who knows who The Jesus and Mary Chain were. Drift off with, ‘Guilt’.

‘Summertime’ glows with an eyes half shut smile of the perfect hit…