[Little Star play their record-release show tonight at Mississippi Studios (3939 N Mississippi) with Alien Boy and Drunken Palms as part of the Portland Mercury‘s FREE Ear Candy music series—don’t miss it!]
Iconic ’70s power-pop band Big Star is shrouded in the mythos of the short-lived, like Gordie Lachance’s dead high-school-football-star big brother in Stand by Me. Portland’s Little Star is like that movie’s soft-spoken younger brother (played by Wil Wheaton), who carves out a place as an empathetic storyteller, even while the ghost of a larger-than-life idol looms in peripheral vision.
The sweet goth-punk debut full-length from Little Star, Being Close, turns a difficult breakup into a glorious Viking funeral. Traditional Viking funerals sent the dearly departed into the afterlife by sailing them out to sea in flames. This ritual cast the beloved into mysterious horizons, an open-ended goodbye. Being Close deals with a breakup as a similar kind of open, dignified farewell. Singer Daniel Byers set out with the goal of creating a respectful tribute to his former partner, the positive memories they shared, and their futures apart.
“Relationships are more fluid than we realize,” Byers says. “They might shift from romance to friendship, but they can’t just disappear from the earth completely. Recognizing this is a way of keeping the memory alive and acknowledging that someone has a place in your life. It helps me feel better about change. Keeping a memory close, just in a different way.”