HELEN STELLaR

Fantastic airy dreampop band from LA that's bound to blow up in a huge way very, very soon. You'll want to catch these self-released EPs before they go for huge sums on eBay... For fans of Ride, Chapterhouse, Doves, Coldplay, etc. HELEN STELLaR draws comparisons to London's "shoegaze" movement of the early 90's with thunderous drums, thick-grooved bass melodies and distorted guitar bliss. But there are elements to their sound that transcend the genre - for one, the vocals. Jim's voice soars above these huge compositions with its emotive capacity, bolstered by heartfelt lyrics: "There's more to life than death, moonlight in every breath and love is ocean deep/There are stars that you can't see, stars I swear we'll reach/You need me to lead - I need you to believe..." - "Our Secrets", from the I'm Naut What I Seem EP. But their recordings are only the tip of a multi-sensory iceberg that bowls you over when you experience HELEN STELLaR live, where the music has room to breathe and not just be heard, but also felt. With three EPs under its belt – The Newton EP, Below Radar, and I'm Naut What I Seem - HELEN STELLaR has laid claim to a brave and beautiful sonic niche combining the best elements of space-aged electronica and legendary rock 'n' roll. In early 2002, HELEN STELLaR caught the attention of KCRW's Nic Harcourt, DJ and host of the world-reknown radio show "Morning Becomes Eclectic". A week after receiving their first EP, The Newton EP, Harcourt put it on the air. "That was a crazy time for us," says Jim. "We started getting all these emails from people we didn't know asking who we were and where we came from. Then Nic Harcourt himself called us because his listeners wanted to know about us and he didn't know what to tell them." This attention brought HELEN STELLaR to LA for the first time, where Harcourt attended their first show at The Knitting Factory. When the show was over, he asked the band to play live on "Morning Becomes Eclectic" - an honor given to only two unsigned bands before them. HELEN STELLaR's music also made its way to former Rolling Stone rock critic turned filmmaker Cameron Crowe (Singles, Almost Famous, Vanilla Sky), who fell in love with and licensed the track "io", from the Below Radar EP, for his upcoming film Elizabethtown. "What an amazing meeting that was," says Dustin. "To be approached by an artist with so much respect in the music community was such an honor. He uses music so well in his films and to hear he wanted to use 'io' we were awestruck." - Tone Vendor

Having transplanted themselves to Los Angeles from Chicago, Helen Stellar have consistently put heart back into the all too often stale spacerock genre. I’m Naut What I Seem carries on this tradition and adds far better musicianship and more complex song structures than anything on their previous releases…. Helen Stellar is perhaps LA’s best kept secret. 8 Blips out of 10. - Under The Radar

Helen Stellar’s dreamy, detached, post-Verve style pop is a mixture of ethereal vocals, atmospheric guitars, expressive basslines and death-from-above percussion. An expansive, mystical sound… - Campus Circle

Loops of guitar and heavy atmospherics create texture for lyrics…about salvation, fiction and fables on “Temporary Solutions,” made all the more vulnerable and affecting by vocalist Jim Evens’ ethereal delivery. Similar to BRMC or the Dandy Warhols in its dreamy detachment, yet less ironic, Helen Stellar combines piano, bass, guitar and drum in an arresting formula of controlled tension and release in songs like “IO.” - Prefix

[Helen Stellar’s] mixture of expansive, soaring vocals, washed out guitars, ground-exploring basslines and death-from-above percussion make this band a 3-man symphony of oblique expression... - USounds

Chicago’s Helen Stellar are a dead rockin’ cross between the Foo Fighters and the Steve Miller Band (“Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’, into the future”), delivering melodic but edgy space rock fairy tales that are perfect for long drives spent gazing silently out the window at the passing landscape and awkward first kisses on cold bench car seats lit only by the glow of a nearby porch light. - San Francisco Examiner

Like early-’90s Southwestern sad guys Half String and the U.K’s Field Mice, Helen Stellar can blast off and make melancholy, swirling, reverb-layered space music without cutifying it to death.... Singer Jim Evens’ low swoon and ruefully brutal words about depressed girls who attend poetry readings are downright funny and delivered with sagacious detail. But it’s the vast, swooping acoustic drums and drum-machine grooves that endeared Helen Stellar to KCRW’s Nic Harcourt, on who’s morning show you might’ve heard them performing live recently. - LA Weekly