BY Mark Guarino, Daily Herald Music Critic
May 05, 2006

GOLDSTARS DESERVE TO COME OUT OF THE GARAGE:
Three chords, snarling guitar riffs and a menacing organ is the template of The Goldstars, a Chicago garage rock band that resurrects the primal era bands like Question Mark and the Mysterians, The Zombies and local heroes The Shadows Of Knight. The band pares down further on this second album, a 31-minute assembly of back-to-basics rock. With personnel from The Krinkles, The New Duncan Imperials and Poi Dog Pondering, these are the right players for such a dynamic group sound. Singer Sal delivers the taunting swagger ("you got a fire/and I aint gonna put you out") and also self-deprecation ("you sent me back, back in the line/I took a number and it was 99") of a singer hanging at the edge of convention while the band does more than just bash away behind his back. Not that there arent straight- forward knockouts ("One & One") and covers (courtesy of surf rockers The Ventures and 1960s oddity The Swamp Rats). While the band keeps the energy dialed up, the album turns a corner on songs like the title instrumental. As the organ rides a wave, the drum stomps and the spidery guitar work sets the mood, The Goldstars show that they deserve a better parking space than the garage.

BY Monica Kendrick, Chicago Reader Music Critic
May 09, 2006

GOLDSTARS This local band is the very picture of unglamorous, roll-up-your-paisley-sleeves garage rock. Their second full-length, Purple Girlfriend (Pravda), carries so much Nuggets baggage--especially the basket-weave repetitiveness and alley-cat vocals--that you could mistake them for pimply, hairy teenagers who've arrived via time machine. (In fact their lineup includes two-thirds of the long-running trash-rock trio the New Duncan Imperials.) They're as unpretentious as the bar they share a name with but confident enough to do instrumentals, and Skipper's Farfisa gives "Fire" and Mel Torme's "Comin' Home Baby" a squealy slinkiness. The album came out last month, but this is the release party. They'll be joined onstage by a Kansas City burlesque troupe, the Burly-Q Girly Crew. The Handcuffs open. 9 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, 773-227-4433, $8. --Monica Kendrick

Andy Downing, Chicago Tribune Music Critic
Published October 13, 2006

GOLDSTARS EARN BROWNIE POINTS FOR FRENETIC BREW

The Goldstars are not new to the local music scene--the quartet includes former and current members of the Krinkles, New Duncan Imperials and Poi Dog Pondering--but the group bashes out its brand of freewheeling garage rock as if it were a gang of hungry newcomers.

The band's second LP, "Purple Girlfriend" (Pravda), is a ramshackle affair, surging through bluesy psychedelia, foundation-rattling guitar duels and organ-driven freak outs that sound like lost outtakes from the "Nuggets" era.

"The [music] they make is so immediate," says "Purple Girlfriend" producer Ted Cho. "They wanted to record it really quick and not worry so much about mistakes. It's an honest, live, hit-it-hard kind of approach. And it worked."

Goldstars' bassist/vocalist Matt Favazza, who goes by the stage name Sal, notes that the group was intent on capturing the feel of its live show--where the usually reserved homemaker/stay-at-home dad channels the manic energy of everyone from Paul Revere and the Raiders' leader Mark Lindsay to the Mooney Suzuki's Sammy James Junior.

"I had never really fronted a band, but I always thought I wanted to give it a try," says Sal, who initially struggled with the leap from Krinkles' drummer (a position he held for nearly a decade) to attention-commanding frontman. "I was really trying to find myself up there, but it was terrifying. I'm still learning things every time we play."

Sal's stage antics fuel the loose feel of the music, which is both by design and circumstance; the players' hectic schedules don't allow much, if any, time for rehearsal. Guitarist Dag Juhlin has a regular gig with Poi Dog (which is currently recording a new album at Wall To Wall Studios in the West Loop) and organist Skipper backs outsize R&B singer/personality Andre Williams.

"Usually we can jump right into it," says Sal. "We'll kind of look at each other after a song or two and it's like, `OK, we still know these songs.' Then you're right back in it and--boom--we're the Goldstars again."

"Purple Girlfriend," which was recorded and mixed in less than five days earlier this year, trumpets this well-worn chemistry between the band members, who have been playing together for the better part of six years. Skipper's Hammond organ weaves through "D.M.V." like a slithering python; Drummer Goodtime's beats back "Fire" like a rhinoceros trying to stamp out a raging inferno; Sal sings with ragged desperation throughout, his lyrics turning self-deprecation into something of an art form. ("You sent me back, back in line," he sings on "D.M.V." "I took a number and it was 99.")

This time out the band relied less on that garage-rock staple--cover tunes--than it did on its 2003 debut (though it does tackle songs by the Ventures and the Swamp Rats). Instead it let Sal deliver his skewed diatribes over the rough-hewn musical backdrop.

"Angry Eyes," which on first listen sounds like a throwaway ("You're going to talk about that song? Really?" questions Sal), exemplifies this approach, the humanity in the lyrics reflecting a lucid, everyday simplicity. "You caught me red-handed," Sal spits, caught checking out another woman. "Now I have to deal with your angry eyes."

"I wasn't sure how that song was going to turn out," says Sal. "But I guess on a certain level it sort of worked. I try to write from personal experience or something that's interesting to me. The song is almost like a snapshot. It's something I think most people can connect to."

www.rocknrollpurgatory.com
November 2006

I love almost all ten of the tracks on this disc. Organ laden, garage, psychedelia with smart lyrics and a raw edge that makes this a real fun listen. Admittedly, I do skip past a few tracks, but the other songs make up for the ones that fall flat. Some of the best tunes on here are “D.M.V.,” “Comin’ Home Baby” (which is an awesome instrumental), “It’s All About You,” “Purple Girlfriend” (another kick ass instrumental), and “One + One”. A plea bargain has been struck, and this disc will serve some time in my player for sure. – Lisa

Monica Kendrick, Chicago Reader Music Critic
Published January 05, 2007

Most of this quartet's members come from two groups with higher profiles, Poi Dog Pondering and the New Duncan Imperials, but for a party band that knows how to leave a house satisfied it's hard to beat the Goldstars. Bassist-vocalist Matt Favazza brings some of the infectious pop energy of his previous outfit, the late, underrated Krinkles; the Goldstars' 2006 release, Purple Girlfriend (Pravda), is distinguished by a dogged devotion to an off-kilter sense of soul--not to mention some killer organ parts. --Monica Kendrick