The Veda Rays Die Fast When Life Kills

The post-punk experimental band from Brooklyn that shook through the arthouse rock scene last year with Gamma Rays Galaxy Rays Veda Rays has undergone an evolution, easily heard across two recently released back-to-back EPs. The equally haunting but more subdued atmospheric work assembled represents two sides of a conceptual journey — a descent into the underworld and the ascent out of it, surviving but forever changed nonetheless.

"We considered making it a full length, but in the end we decided to break it up into two EPs for the conceptual differences," says Jim Stark (vocals, guitar). "Die Fast is a series of reflections, the equivalent of someone's life passing before their eyes. Life Kills represents what has been gleaned from the experience with a new found awareness."

"Be in the world, not of the world" becomes the traveler's mantra.

The evolution in sound began last year, with Stark and Jason Gates a.k.a. Jason Marcucci reconsidering how they approach recording and arranging instrumentation. The intent was to contain the atmospheric elements of the work, leaving more room for each element and then sonically evoking a greater sense of spaciousness.

"It might seem like an odd way to get there, considering our earlier work," said Stark. "But we were going for something just as full and just as dark as anything we have ever done in the past but in a different manner. We wanted everything to be heard this time around."

Part intentional and part happenstance, stripping away gratuitous layers of distorted guitars wasn't the only change. Stark and Gates are all that remain the previous four-piece band. Bassist Tyson Frawley dropped out to invest all of his energies into raising his son as a single dad. Guitarist Jimmy Jenkins moved to Colorado with his long-time partner.

Neither are completely out of the picture. Stark says that both may contribute later down the line in different ways, and Jenkins had contributed to Better The Devil and Cop Knock on Die Fast before the move. The absence is noticeable, but not for the fullness. Even live, Stark and Gates have compensated by adding sequences and electronic elements to retain their enveloping sound.

Likewise, the changes have opened up other ideas. One of them played out shortly after Gamma Rays Galaxy Rays Veda Rays was produced. The closing track on Life Kills on Time Is A Vise features Julee Cruise, the singer and actress most noted for recording the theme song to Twin Peaks.



Her involvement began after she and Gates met by chance through their mutual work as part of the New York studio scene. As Cruise became curious about the Veda Rays, Gates half-jokingly asked if she would contribute her voice to the track. She agreed without hesitation and Gates almost passed out.

"Cruise, even partially demystified, creates a surreal experience," says Stark. "She fit perfectly in that the song is about being bound to the physical machinations of the physical universe as we understand it. We're enslaved by the ego and organic desires. And this song is about your knowing your place in the scheme of things, allowing yourself to suffer the world instead of being attached to it."

How far down the rabbit hole do you want to go?

The mind bending near mysticism isn't surprising from Stark. Along with his hypnotic and soaring vocals, he readily composes deeply contemplative songs with richly layered meanings, many of them straddling both physical and metaphysical planes of time, thought, and space.

Case in point. Whittled into Time Is A Vise is a Nikola Tesla's thought that everyone is automation, with geniuses being more efficient automatons. Stark then carries this forward with a twist of William S. Burroughs' awareness that "a paranoid is someone who understands a little bit of what is going on," while simultaneously giving nods to both the late Michael Hutchence of INXS and Neutral Milk Hotel.

It isn't the only one that plays like a puzzle box. At the top of the steps descending down, Better The Devil addresses the problem of self-styled indie hipster bands against the grain of original musicians. Untitled 93 contains a Carl Jung postulation interwoven with all the untitled tracks written by Elliot Smith. And even if he didn't hear it while recording the demo, Noble Beast now reminds Stark of Jean Cocteau's La Belle et la Bete, originally written by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont. The beat, a bull being led around by his nose, plays the part of tempter and redeemer. Those are only starters...

The Veda Rays Double Down With Two EPs At 8.0 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale.

I have to be honest. When I first heard Die Fast and Life Kills, it was difficult to listen without longing for the primal beastliness and urgency of their pervious outing. But as everyone settles into the ethereal qualities of both new EP sessions, there will be a general consensus that Stark and Gates have produced something as remarkable as it is unique.

Die Fast and Life Kills really belong together, and play perfectly alongside Gamma Rays Galaxy Rays Veda Rays. There are too many meanings, nods, and notes to even begin to list them all. You can find the 4-track Die Fast and 3-track Life Kills on iTunes. Die Fast and Life Kills are also available from Amazon. For upcoming shows in New York and elsewhere, visit the Veda Rays on Facebook.

The Veda Rays Densely Dark, Beautiful

Earlier this year, Jim Stark (vocals, guitar) of the primal post-punk experimental band The Veda Rays, summed up the state of the music industry as a return to "the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days" without any band needing to be propped up by the old guard of big labels and traditional media.

It was early in the morning. And Stark was ready to embark on another all-day mixing session at Dubway Studios in New York. A month or so prior, mostly from their remote Pennsylvania hideaway, the band had already tracked new songs, nine of which made their new LP, Gamma Rays Galaxy Rays Veda Rays, released under their own label, Alleged Records.

Gamma Rays Galaxy Rays Veda Rays is a haunting ensemble of post-punk arthouse rock. 

The band has every right to consider the album a make it or break it moment. Most of the new album is propelled along by four years of songwriting, playing gigs, and making 4-track recordings much like Stark and his bandmate Jason Gates a.k.a. Jason Marcucci (drums) had done since grade school. Much of it also carries with it what Stark describes as a turbulent odyssey of loss and heartbreak.

"One of my best friends died of an accidental overdose, another of my former bandmates was forced out by his family and sent halfway across the country to rehab, and Jason Gates' sister committed suicide after many years of battling psychological problems and substance abuse," Stark said. 

By the way, if Gates' other name sounds familiar, it should. He is a well-known engineer at Dubway Studios, having tracked and mixed artists like The White Stripes, Beck, and Story Of The Year, mostly for Live at VH1. It's astounding to hear on both sides of the work for The Veda Rays.

While most of the attention has been falling on the floating uneasiness of All Your Pretty Fates and the thumpingly hypnotic Honey Pot, Just Dust is one of the most compelling songs with ever-progessing builds. It even sounds great, or perhaps especially great, when it's cut against the confusion of Kenneth Anger's Inauguration Of The Pleasure Dome.


The match up isn't accidental or random. Stark has a habit of dropping in nods, hidden meanings, and homages into some of his songs. He does it in the lyrics. He sometimes does it in his delivery. And he did it with the band's eclectic cinematic meanderings as placeholder music videos.

In every case, the films chosen underscore the dream-like wonderment of the music that has been driving the buzz in Brooklyn. Stark and company clearly have a knack for taking people to some strange and unexpected destinations. And maybe that's the point. The album doesn't take you for a ride; it takes you someplace vividly unforgettable.

Of course, Stark and Gates aren't the only ones to be commended. Tyson Reed Frawley, who came up with the band's name, adds some serious undertones with his bass. Relative newcomer Jimmy Jenkins (guitar) really helps round out the sound. He also plays keys and sings.

Gamma Rays Galaxy Rays Veda Rays is a complete journey. 

Every track on the album deserves to be well played as they drift and surge in and out of experimental, post-punk, and noise pop. Out On Love, Our Ford, and Long May She Roll are grounded in the uniquely pop-infused alternative rock arrangements and shaped by Stark's emotive tenor.

All in all, only Ellipsis misses, feeling too heavy under its own weight. And yet, even that song makes the perfect lead in for the cinematic Deleted, which begins like a ballad featuring guitar wizard Juan Montoya (formerly Torche).

It's not the first time Montoya has lent his skills to the Veda Rays. He also worked on two singles, one of which you can catch on the overtly dramatic Time Is A Vise, which also features singer Julee Cruise. The song does not appear on the album.

Gamma Rays Galaxy Rays Veda Rays Orbits 8.8 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale. 


The Veda Rays are well on their way as an independent act to add to any watch list. While their upcoming touring schedule seems to be confined to the East Coast, we don't count them out for a bigger tour as more people discover something familiarly new here.

Gamma Rays Galaxy Rays Veda Rays by the Veda Rays is available on iTunes. Gamma Rays Galaxy Rays Veda Rays is also available on Amazon. Both online outlets include an acoustic version of All Your Pretty Fates, rounding the album out to 10 songs. The band is already working on their next, possibly an EP that will be ready in the months ahead.