Park/Civic split 7"

Well, Civic broke up, but Park went to a 10 year career of greatness. They released such great albums as "No Signal," "It Won't Snow Where You're Going," and "Building A Better____."

The band just announced their breakup a few days ago. This 7" is a piece of their history. It is rare, but I do have a few left over from the pressing. A copy was recently put on Ebay by Miles from Park.

I currently have a copy available on auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=018&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&viewitem=&item=280083084457&rd=1&rd=1

If you are interested in obtaining a copy of this rare gem, please contact me at: starrynightrecords@yahoo.com

Starry Night Continues

In 1997 I moved to Springfield to go to grad school. I met Jon Heupel, who was then a young guy in excellent local band, Park. I liked their music and asked if I could get two songs to use for a split 7" record with Civic, a band out of Champaign. Jon agreed. David Aufox from Civic was a friend and he helped with layout and design for the 7", in addition to contributing two awesome songs from his band, Civic. The record came out at the end of 1997.

I think it's an excellent record, both bands put up strong efforts and the songs are great. The one mix-up, was that Metropolis used the wrong track off the DAT tape so the songs don't match the label.

I continued Starry Night in conjunction with my zine "October Leaugue Communications" through 1999:

SNR 1: Park/Civic "The Sound of Sirens" split 7"

SNR/October League 2: Communiques 1-5, released between May 1998 and March 1999. A series of zines/guerilla marketing campaigns in the central Illinois area.

SNR/October League 3: "Michilimackinac" limited edition of 100 cassettes. Experimental keyboard weirdness. Released in April 1999, and amazingly, sold out.

SNR/October League 4: "October League Basement Tapes" I bootlegged several local emo solo projects, added two songs from Michilimackinac, and some spoken word oddities. Limited edition of 100 featuring handmade covers. Sold out.

Starry Nights that never were:

In 1999 I was scheduled to do a 7" with the Pee Chees, a band from Berkeley, CA. featuring the two owners of Lookout Records. Due to numerous wranglings, not the least of which was lack of funds to do a pressing that would satisfy them, it didn't happen.

Also, I was set to put out a 7" solo side project from Lance Hahn, lead singer of one of favorite bands, J-Church, called Cilantro. This was set for late 1999, but I was finishing school and I ran out of money basically. It's a shame, because the songs were frickin' solid. I'm fairly certain he ended up releasing at least one of the tracks on his Honey Bear label.

Starry Night Records Genesis

Starry Night was started in 1995 by myself and Eric Fron as Take Out The Trash Records. At the time, central Illinois was a hotbed of punk and emo and our desire was to help document the movement and indulge ourselves in our love of vinyl records.

We were just one tiny player in what then was a big game. Polyvinyl, Playingfield, Grand Theft Autumn, PunkPlanet, were all taking off in the Chambana/Bloomington/Normal area alone, never mind Chicagoland.

The great bands of the time are too numerous to name.

And so, we made a handful of records with loving care.

Here is our limited catalog:

TOTT/SNR #1 Rumple 7": Melodic hardcore punk out of Rockford, IL.

TOTT/SNR #2 SSB 7": Hardcore from Urbana. A limited release of 300 on red vinyl.

TOTT/SNR #3 Hand to Mouth/Mary Me 7":

Hand to Mouth was this amazing band from Urbana that played politicore melodic punk with wit and so much energy. They were an incredible live band and I am very proud of this record.

Mary Me was a side project formed by Rob Arrol and featuring Todd Bell and Roy Ewing from the seminal emo band, Braid. If you don't know who Braid was, look it up.

As far as I know this was their only stand alone release, but they did appear on several comps for Allied Recordings.

"Arrol formed mary me in the fall of 1994 with Roy Ewing and Todd Bell (rhythm section for emo kings “braid”). Partnered with John Yates’ Allied Recordings, mary me appeared on several of Allied releases, including the “Emergency Broadcast” EP; “Need Me Never” EP and “Attack of the Indie Snatchers” CD sampler. Mary me disbanded in 1996. Arrol went on to play in several Champaign “super groups,” including: Belva Plane (w/”Twiggy’s”/”June and the Exit Wound’s” Todd Fletcher; “Little Engine’s” Matt Pearson and “Titanic Love Affair’s” Ken Hartz); Mutual High Life (w/”Titanic Love Affair’s” Ken Hartz and “Cowboy X’s” Alex Moore); and Shotgun Wedding (w/”Moon Seven Times” Brendon Gamble and Lynn Canfield). Arrol was also a founding member of Todd Fletcher’s “June and the Exit Wounds,” along with Peter Pollack and Champaign rock notables Don Gerard (“The Farmboys,” “mine.,” “Moon Seven Times”) and Charlie Dold (“The Farmboys,” “Milo”"

TOTT/SNR #4: Nekhai Naaza cassette only: This was to be a 10" that never happened. Nekhai was hardcore from Israel in the vein of Los Crudos.

In 1996 Eric and I split the label and I went on to do a couple of projects with my Starry Night label.