Stars & the Dears celebrate landmark albums 20 years later with vinyl reissues, anniversary shows

Two bands that were part of the avant garde of the Montreal music scene explosion of the mid aughts are looking back at their 2004 albums in a big way this month. The Dears and Stars have reissued their albums No Cities Left and Set Yourself on Fire, respectively, and will be performing them in their entirety at a joint show on Saturday, Sept. 28, as part of the POP Montreal festival, with additional anniversary shows happening in other cities.

No Cities Left was the Dears’ second album, one that showed significant expansion of both their “orchestral pop noir romantique” sound and the drama of their lyrical themes — deeply personal narratives that often rang political. (We were in a shitty place in 2004, with a global movement forming in protest to dictatorial manoeuvres and world-war-baiting military action. Sound familiar?)

The band says that revisiting this material is challenging logistically, and has been prompting a lot of reflection on a personal level.

“From the technical side, the vision of the band was always about the live representation and recreating the album one-for-one on stage. So trying to restage this 20 years later remains the biggest challenge —we don’t use any backing tracks and are playing everything live. And, to be frank, we are still short two or three players for these shows. On the other hand, there are all the feelings we get from not having played the songs in so many years — and thinking of the person I was when the album was released. There’s a lot of reflection on how much our lives have changed in the last 20 years. The person who sang those songs still exists inside of me, in some sort of kernel form, but largely it’s more about — and has always been about — what the audience makes of it.”

For Stars, their third album Set Yourself on Fire also balanced the growth of their sound from their previous bedroom indie pop LP Heart, with a heightened passion influenced by the apocalyptic atmosphere.

Looking back at this set of songs now, the band recognizes the “plus ça change” dynamic, but what has remained consistent is how they see the world, their own obsessions, and how fans have embraced it all.

“While getting ready to play these shows, it has occurred to us that two things were primarily on our minds in those days: sex and death. Nothing much and absolutely everything has changed, for you and for us, but these songs still sound the way they did when we sang them for the first time and you heard them for the first time, and our dreams became your soundtrack. The inclusion of ‘Petite Mort’ and ‘Rollerskate’ on the vinyl reissue feels right.

“More sex than death forever and ever, please. And that goes for everyone.”

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The POP Montreal show featuring Stars & the Dears on Saturday, Sept. 28 is SOLD OUT. For more on Stars, please click here. For more on the Dears, please click here.

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