Strfkr

History

Members include Joshua Hodges of Sexton Blake, Shawn Glassford, Keil Corcoran, and Arian Jalali. Corcoran had been drummer for Vegas-based grindcore band The Weirding Way. The name Starfucker began as a joke by early patron Sam Norris. With guidance from an ex manager, the band briefly changed its name to Pyramiddd before reverting. In 2010, Starfucker announced a signing with Polyvinyl Records, releasing a two-song EP and a full album for March 2011. Ryan Biornstad left the band in August 2011. The group shortened its name to STRFKR in 2012. A single titled 'Never Ever' came out in February 2016, and the album Being No One, Going Nowhere followed in November of that year. The single 'Fantasy' was released in September 2019, and the sixth studio album Future Past Life arrived in April 2020. The seventh studio album, Parallel Realms, was released on Polyvinyl Records in March 2024.

Use in media

Strfkr's track "Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second" landed in a 2009 Target ad from Portland agency Wieden+Kennedy, which AdWeek picked as its "Ad of the Day" on September 4, 2009. That same song later appeared in the series Weeds during a minivan scene with Andy and Audra, and near the end of The Blacklist's first-season episode 14 in 2014. Another Weeds episode, the series finale, used "Biggie Smalls." The 2012 film Chronicle featured "Bury Us Alive."

A Juicy Couture ad directed by Terry Richardson and starring Candice Swanepoel used Strfkr's cover of Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" in 2012, and the MTV pilot for Faking It used it in 2014; the Brazilian soap opera Todas as Flores made it a main track in 2022. The American Skins played "Millions" from Reptilians, while the 2013 film 21 & Over used "Mona Vegas" from the same album. "While I'm Alive," from Miracle Mile, appeared in The Fault in Our Stars film.

The 2014 movie Two Night Stand featured three Strfkr songs: "Rawnald Gregory Erickson The Second," "While I'm Alive," and "Bed-Stuy (Super Cop)." Netflix's Trinkets opened its third episode with "Open Your Eyes." Apple TV's Echo 3 played "Biggie Smalls" in its eighth episode.

Style

Josh Hodges chose the name Starfucker after encountering people he considered 'douchey' who bragged about being a 'starfucker,' representing everything he did not want to be part of. The name also serves to keep the band from taking itself too seriously and from engaging in social politics in the music industry. Hodges described the band's music as 'dance music that you can actually listen to, that's good pop songs, but also you can dance to it.'

The lyrics often discuss death, mortality, and the end of the world, set over upbeat dance music. Samples from lectures by Alan Watts are spliced into several songs, including 'Florida,' 'Isabella of Castile,' 'Medicine,' 'Pistol Pete,' 'Mystery Cloud,' 'Golden Light,' 'Hungry Ghost,' 'Interspace,' and 'Quality Time.' The band, notably bassist Shawn Glassford, has a reputation for wearing women's clothing during live performances, as seen in the music video for 'German Love' directed by Rebecca Micciche, in harmony with an 'anti-fashion' approach. Most of the band's music videos are not made with much of the band's actual involvement or appearance.