Life is nothingness, and nothingness is life. Greetings, friend and associates from around the globe. It is I, Terrence, American Buddhist, with a brand new review– a first for this space as it’s a live concert review.
As you know, after a privileged life as the scion to a hoop-skirt dynasty family, I renounced the pleasures of the modern world and became a Buddhist. Giving up a life of tennis, fast automobiles, and tender, soothing, resin-encrusted nodules of cannabis, I plunged deeply into suffering, nothingness and the attainment of the godhead. At my monastery in Japan I worked tirelessly with a succession of masters in order to divorce myself from the superficial world and become part of the greater universe.
Since those days I have relocated to a mountain-top retreat in Northern California, where I am free to further my studies and design my own regimen of walks, meditation, and music reviews.
But occasionally I must make a journey down to the USOUNDS office in order to set some things straight with the parsimonious editor of the moment and his gaggle of hangers-on and yes men. The first day I arrived in town the company car, a lime green 1967 Citroen DS, was being repaired so I was forced to sit around the office all day making “small talk” with assorted indie-rock rejects. Nodding sagaciously and peacefully, I produced a large bong from deep within the folds of my voluminous saffron robe and sparked bowl after bowl of excellent cannabis cup 2002 sativa. The wonderful and pleasing aromas enveloped me and I was free to nod and smile without listening to a word being said around me. Instead I focused on a Koa by 8th century master Kuei-Shan that seemed apt:
Impermanence, aging, and illness
Do not give people a set time.
One may be alive in the morning,
Then dead at night,
Changing worlds in an instant.
We are like the spring frost,
Like the morning dew
Suddenly gone.
With that thought coursing through my mind, I left the office for Silver Lake, where a band called Helen Stellar was performing. Although I have devoted my life to attaining clarity in nothingness, and equality with suffering, I still have time for live music shows if they will transport me to another world and fill my soul with new feelings.
Helen Stellar is a band splitting its time between Chicago and Los Angeles. Their ethereal, expressive sound may remind some of Slowdive, but to me they sound like nothing so much as the feeling one gets minutes before the sartori arrives and your mind is filled with the blinding white light of total nothingness. Their mixture of expansive, soaring vocals, washed our guitars, ground-exploring basslines and death-from-above percussion make this band a 3-man symphony of oblique expression, with undercurrents deep enough to sink a Spanish Armada of tone. By focusing on themes larger than themselves, larger than music, their universe stretches across the cosmos and into the realm of the eternal.
The show at the Silver Lake Lounge started with dense fog, allowing the members, the audience, and even the holdover bartenders to relax inside the envelope of light and sound. Instantly the false simplicity of guitar strumming brought me to a slightly new plane of existence, as I surreptitiously puffed a small joint underneath my orange robe. As the vocals swelled and rose, joining their compatriots guitar, bass, and drums in the heady mix, I leaned back and allowed the swirling sound to fully penetrate me. The music built and destroyed, ebbed and flowed, and gave and took away in the space of a few minutes. The most famous words of the immortal Basho filled my mind:
OLD POND
FROG JUMPS IN
THE SOUND OF WATER …
Basho
Every soul is an old pond, filled with water, just waiting for something to jump in and activate the sounds buried deep within. Helen Stellar jumps in, I jump in, we all jump in. Outside after the show I shared a joint of Kush with my new friends, high from the music, souls invaded with the promise of old ponds, stirring under the clear Los Angeles night, sounds echoing through our minds and across the sky.
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You can find out more about Helen Stellar at their website, which also features several mp3s
Terrence rulez
Thank you, my son. But it is not I who rule, but rather we who rule, as it is we who is I and I who is we, as the universe evolves into nothingness and the Satoris is achieved.
I have never heard of this group, but after this review it sounds like a must.. thanks terrence– keep up the good work my man
Helen Stellar Rocks. Don’t miss their show at the Roxy in Los Angeles, May 10th. It’s sponsored by KCRW, and more information is available at KCRW.org
This could be the strangest review i have ever read. I’m filled with curiosity and plan to be in attendence to see what this is all about. thanks for the brilliant article.
Terrence I think you have buddhist and ‘buddha’ as in ‘green’ confused but I like your reviews very much!
Deaf, dumb, blind– h.s. has it all
Does anyone know if Helen Stellar is playing in the Northwest anytime soon? their website is out of date, talking about shows in Chicago only. Come to Seattle or Portland or Olympia!!!
hey guys,
my name is brian, and i manage the band. hey aaron, i’m working on getting them up there near portland sometime in late june. thanks terrance for the excellent review. the website should be updated soon. i look forward to getting to know all of you. email me if you want at brian@helenstellar.com or join the mailing list off the website.
Hey manager dude, when is the next album coming out? What’s the lowedown playa?
hey del,
currently the guys are in los angeles recording their first full length at westlake studio’s. it should hopefully be done by late june. it will make you soar with audio pleasure! get ready for a journey through wonderful bliss…
The Slowdive comparison is right-on, too bad Slowdive was poncey nap-rock. These guys put me to sleep. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….
thanks for your constructive criticsim crispy…the band and i will take that into account…hardly
Nice.. somehow I had never heard of these guys before, but since hearing the mp3s on the website I have bought the album and it’s amazing… this is one of those bands you can’t really understand until you listen to the entire record all the way through, each song seems to preface the next. Thanks for this article and introducing me to Helen Stellar. PEACE
hey brady,
next time you visit the website feel free to join the mailing list. http://www.helenstellar.com
so what’s the latest on this band, by the way this is a kick ass article, terrence you are my new hero. anyway though it’s a bit old and I wanted to know what was the scoop.
check out helen stellar live at spaceland on thursday, august 14, 9:30pm – swirling lights, walls of sound, ephereal euphoria – see you there
hey guys…the band will be in l.a. recording and playing some gigs through april. after that they will relocate to chicago. look for some fabulous new songs…you’ll fall in love all over again!