The Stills Are Frozen in a Lennon-McCartney Predicament

Overheard conversation between two teenage chicks during the set: “Why do they keep playing new songs?” “So we don’t get sad!” It’s not uncommon for young bands to face polarizing-yet-hyped audiences when touring in support of a month-old follow-up album, but Thursday night at Studio A, the Stills were caught in a swath of love-struck Logic Will Break Your Heart fans, ones usually reserved for a Tiger Beat lothario.

Their new VICE album, Without Feathers, is notable for the weighing fact that former drummer Dave Hamelin (he of the lithe Burroughs-figure, fedora and Surface 2 Air tee in the pics) is now the prominent lead singer. We are in odd agreement with the groupies. The Stills circa Logic honed darkly powerful rock – equating unrequited love with the nightmarish withdrawal of unfashionable barbiturates – and thus attracted girls and non-fags. On stage, when former lead vocalist Tim Fletcher (top left pic) broke out “Animals and Insects,” “Changes Are No Good,” and closed with the hit “Still in Love Song,” (see vid below) the crowd swirled collectively in broken hearted excitement. There’s a baffling differentiation between Fletcher’s up-to-bat presence and Hamelin’s bohemian cool.

You wonder if there’s a growing Lennon-McCartney rivalry between these longtime friends. It’s not a petty hypothetical. After much PR chatter boosting the Stills new lineup change as one that’d be unanimously hurrahed, Without Feathers now seems a sizeable flop – not appearing on the Billboard 200 since its release and selling as dismally in their land of Canada. For a major label act with a passionate following, that sucks. The Stills are slightly more talented, studied musicians than their label mates Bloc Party – a band that’s taken their shine by aggressively mastering, albeit exhaustingly so, spastic dance catchiness. Part of a tastemaker brand/label (tees on the bass player and roadie) where each release is tuned to be a vital marching statement, one wonders what the Stills’ future will bring.