Starving Daughters

Such Buds

(Tender Loving Empire)

Record Review by Adam McKibbin

Tender Loving Empire is a record label, book publisher, T-shirt shop and all-around hub of coolness.  Somehow they found their way to Starving Daughters, an LA-area band that started out as an excuse to hang out and drink beer.  Tender Loving Empire released their five-song EP Such Buds earlier this year; the first edition consisted of 500 hand silkscreened copies.  Out-indie that!

Rare, of course, doesn’t always (or often) equate to worth finding.  But Starving Daughters are a rare sort of treat in an age where even the most modest of bands often feel overexposed and overhyped.  There’s nothing especially earth-shaking about Such Buds, but it’s a helluva EP, recalling indie-giants like Built to Spill and My Morning Jacket.  Chris Tillotson sings enigmatic lyrics, shrouded in psychedelic guitar haze and a few extra doses of reverb; his way of stretching echo-affected extra syllables out of some words is reminiscent of Band of Horses frontman Ben Bridwell.

The band clearly identifies with a sort of shambling, almost accidental artistry - their limited communication with the outside world thus far has made it clear that they were born (and at least partially remain) a party band - but this belies the levels of patience and sophistication that make Such Buds such an enjoyable EP.  Every time it seems like Tillotson and fellow guitarist Jack Hutchings are going to content themselves to stretch out languidly and do the whole psych-out slow-burn thing, they add a few new wrinkles and keep momentum from slipping.  The gleeful climax to “Sorry I Asked” bears more resemblance to the unabashedly epic rock thrust of bands like The Arcade Fire than the bleary-eyed wankery of some bands operating with the same set of influences.

The songs were recorded in Tillotson’s own room; a fitting and presumably entirely necessary approach, but a limitation nonetheless.  At the risk of offending lo-fi-philes, it’s pretty tempting to imagine how the scope of their songwriting would be affected by the addition of a full range of studio weaponry (and/or an ace producer).  A full-length is supposed to be coming soon around the corner, and it wouldn’t take much progression for Starving Daughters to become a blogosphere favorite.