Kate met Wayne, they began dating, and she joined Crystallized Movements, who by then had become a legitimate cult entity as independent labels were making the bedroom scene a worldwide phenomenon. Wayne: "Our first record was received really, really badly — but you know, all my friends liked it. People were horrified, except for the 100 people who actually bought it, who were really really excited. That's what taught me the power of, you know, 100 people being really excited — some people go decades looking for that 100 people trying to get them really excited."
As that 100 people grew, so did the roster of their label, Twisted Village Records, swelling to incorporate all the bands and projects they were creating, from the excessive-even-for-them speaker shredding of Vermonster to the lengthy and (relatively) tranquil drones of Magic Hour — a supergroup of sorts formed when Kate and Wayne snagged the rhythm section from their recently defunct touring partners Galaxie 500 (Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang, a/k/a Damon & Naomi). By '96, though, having run their course, Magic Hour called it quits, and Kate and Wayne began two major projects: opening a record store, and putting together what would become Major Stars.
"Major Stars was a little different from our previous bands," Wayne explains. "For starters, Dave's [Dave Lynch, their first drummer] favorite drummer was Peter Criss, and his favorite band was Kiss — so that tilted the sound a bit, made it more 'rock.' " If anything, Major Stars came across as a refreshing blast of in-your-face rock in what had often been a somewhat serene psych scene. "Look," Wayne continues, "this is a loud band, we're loud! We play things for a long time at high volume!" "Right," Kate chimes in, "but at the same time it's not that we're loud for loudness' sake — well, not 100 percent. There's something very powerful about high-decibel improvisation, something very other-planey."
Ten years and eight albums later (including 2007's Drag City monolith Mirror/Messenger), the prolific duo are still at it, within Major Stars' massive collective of revolving musicians. Oh wait, did I just call them a collective?
"Noooo!" screams Kate. "We're not a collective, we're a rock band — like a rock band led by [Ferdinands] Marcos!" Her reference to the Philippine dictator has to do with Wayne's OCDish drive to create more and more and more music. "We're constantly working on new stuff," he admits. "The second a record is finished, we're already halfway into the next one — and if we're not, I go fucking crazy!"
"People who are OCD get shit done," Kate sums up, "and Wayne gets shit done!"
MAJOR STARS + EUNUCH + THE SECRET SEAS + BRAINLESS ONEDERS | P.A.'s Lounge, 345 Somerville Ave, Somerville | February 7 at 9 pm | $8 [21+]/$11 [18+] | 617.776.1557 or www.paslounge.com
