Upstate Beat: Johnstown natives, lifelong friends release eclectic new album with the Bitter Stars

In the 1990s, 100 Acre Wood was a prominent local band that generated lots of college radio play and opened locally for big-name artists including Buffalo Tom, Matthew Sweet, Yo La Tengo and King Missile.

“We were very ambitious in the early days of 100 Acre Wood, and we were lucky enough to have a good relationship with Howard Glassman at [Albany music venue] Bogie’s, and he really gave us some amazing shows there, where we opened for a lot of national acts. It was exciting,” said Clarke Hingeford, who formed 100 Acre Wood with his childhood friend, Kyle Pemrick.

Hingeford and Pemrick both grew up in Johnstown and now reside with their families in Charlton. Their friendship and musical collaboration spans not just decades but rather a lifetime, culminating recently in a new album, “Self Appeal and Mass Fulfillment.” The pair’s current group is the Bitter Stars, a trio with Harrison Depew on drums.

At the time of 100 Acre Wood’s success in the ‘90s, indie rock was taking off and some bands found themselves fielding offers from major labels. At the time, 100 Acre Wood met with Dublin-based Mother Records, a label founded by U2 in 1983.

“They listened to our whole demo and loved it. They were very eager to see us live, but we just couldn’t pull it off,” said Hingeford. The band’s planned tour to Ireland fell through for financial reasons.

100 Acre Wood ended up releasing a debut album, “Binge,” in 1994 on Paint Chip Records, a well-regarded local indie label run by Albany musician and audio engineer Dominick Campana of the band Dirty Face.

“It was cool because [the deal with Paint Chip] was so fair,” Pemrick said. “It was so refreshing to have somebody try to organize everybody under one roof, and do it legitimately and with principle.”

“I think that experience really gave us a lot of confidence that musically we were heading in a really good direction,” Hingeford added. “Kyle and I have been writing together for 30 years. So we know each other’s instincts really well.”

100 Acre Wood eventually ran its course, and in subsequent years Hingeford and Pemrick continued to play together in a succession of bands including Dooojj, Nair, Scrapper and Captain Freedom and the Anarchists.

Hingeford built a recording studio in the backyard of his home in Charlton, where the pair continued to write and record music, swapping off on instruments and taking turns playing guitar, bass, keyboards and more exotic musical implements.

“We have such a similar aesthetic that it just makes perfect sense,” Hingeford said.

But the experiences of their youth playing in the local scene inspired, in a tongue-in-cheek way, the band’s current name, the Bitter Stars.

“At 25 I wanted to be a rock star, playing at Bogie’s and thinking I was going to be somebody and something. And you get a little older and you realize that you’re not. And then we started doing music for fun. After I realized that I didn’t want to be a rock star anymore,” said Hingeford.
“It’s always been about fun first, and exploration,” added Pemrick.

The Bitter Stars’ latest album, “Self Appeal and Mass Fulfillment,” is the band’s third in the past several years, reflecting the trio’s growth over time. The album kicks off with “Fjords,” an anthemic track that recalls the guitar crunch and melodic punch of the ‘90s indie rock days, but then the album gets progressively creative and quirkier on tracks such as the dance-punk “Blip in Your Life,” which recalls the weirder art-rock of artists such as David Bowie and early Peter Gabriel.

In a clever twist of words, the album’s title expresses the urge to put creative freedom over a desire for press or acclaim. “ ’Self Appeal and Mass Fulfillment’ means literally that we’re doing this for ourselves first, and if somebody likes it, great, we’re happy. But that’s not our primary reason for doing it,” said Hingeford.

The new album is available on major streaming sites. Visit thebitterstars.com for more.

Spencer joins forces with members of the Bobby Lees

Almost exactly a year ago at Lark Hall in Albany, a chaotic scene erupted from the stage as former Sonic Youth drummer Bob Bert wailed on his scrapyard drum kit, which included two metal trash cans and a bass drum with a gas tank from an old Chevy perched on top.

Bert was playing an electrifying set with the HITmakers, the blues-punk group backing Jon Spencer, a legend in underground rock for his work with Boss Hog, the Blues Explosion and Pussy Galore.

On Sunday, Spencer returned to the area for a show at No Fun in Troy, but this time his band included drummer Spider Bowman and bassist Kendall Wind, both 22-year-old phenoms who got their start in Woodstock band the Bobby Lees when they were just teenagers.

Combined, the ages of Bowman and Wind don’t add up to Spencer’s, who at 59 still looked extremely energetic and youthful – with a full head of jet-black hair – as he unleashed lots of heavy guitar riffs and dexterous knee bends, cushioned by pads smartly sown into his jeans.

Spencer produced the Bobby Lees’ 2020 album “Skin Suit,” and he was smart to snap up Wind and Bowman after the Bobby Lees went on indefinite hiatus at the end of last year after announcing that the financial difficulties of being a touring band had made it hard for them to continue.

The pairing was a rock ‘n’ roll marriage made in heaven, as the force and precision of Bowman and Wind were the perfect complement to Spencer’s old-school swagger and incendiary energy. The trio ripped through some of Spencer’s newer material – such as the scuzz-funk of “Worm Town” and “Do the Trash Can” – as well as older numbers such as the Blues Explosion’s
“I Wanna Make It All Right” and perennial classic “Bellbottoms.”

The Week Ahead

Local swing clarinetist Jonathan Greene, who performs with the gypsy jazz group Hot Club of Saratoga, celebrates the release of his self-produced debut swing album at Caffe Lena tonight. 7:30 p.m.

Indie-rock vocalist Cat Power, aka Chan Marshall, performs a song-for-song recreation of Bob Dylan’s transformative 1966 “Royal Albert Hall Concert” at Troy Music Hall on Friday. 8 p.m.

A Second Line parade on Lark Street in Albany at 6 p.m. kicks off the Lark Hall performance on Friday by Glen David Andrews Band, led by the New Orleans native and trombonist. Local 10-piece musical collective The NoLaNauts open. 7 p.m.

No Fun’s tribute to former Albany venue Valentine’s continues Friday with the Great 518 Cover Show, wherein local bands perform a cluster of songs by a chosen band. Watch Sun Natives cover Oasis; Pony in the Pancake perform the Beatles; Birthday Dan pay tribute to Queens of the Stone Age; and more. 8 p.m.

Bassekou Kouyate, a master of the ngoni — an ancient traditional lute found throughout West Africa — plays a Passport Series show at Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga Springs with his band Ngoni Ba. 7:30 p.m.

Punk and power-pop icon Ted Leo headlines No Fun on Saturday in a solo show as part of the second Valentine’s Music Hall Week at the Troy venue. The Men Who Loved Music, featuring former Valentine’s owner Howard Glassman, open the show. 7 p.m.

Reach Kirsten Ferguson at theupstatebeat@gmail.com.

PHOTO INFO
IMG_8253: The Bitter Stars, consisting of Clarke Hingeford, left, holding studio dog Hector, and Kyle Pemrick, are seen in the band’s Charlton home recording studio. (Photo provided)