Astrobrite (styled in lowercase letters) is an American

shoegaze Shoegaze (originally called shoegazing and sometimes conflated with dream pop) is a subgenre of indie rock, indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion (music), distortion and effects, a ...

project by Scott Cortez (

lovesliescrushing Lovesliescrushing (stylized lovesliescrushing) is an American ambient and shoegaze band from East Lansing, Michigan, United States, formed in 1991. The two primary members of the band are Melissa Arpin-Duimstra (vocals) and Scott Cortez (guitars, ...

) which has included members of

Mahogany Mahogany is a straight- grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus ''Swietenia'', indigenous to the AmericasBridgewater, Samuel (2012). ''A Natural History of Belize: Inside the Maya Forest''. Austin: Universit ...

(Andrew Prinz),

Majesty Crush Majesty Crush was an American indie rock band influenced by the shoegaze genre popularized in the UK in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Hailing from Detroit, Michigan, they formed in 1990 and broke up in 1995. The band's lineup consisted of lead ...

(Odell Nails),

Paik Paik is a post-rock/space rock band, originally from Toledo, United States, currently living in Detroit, Michigan, United States, that includes Rob Smith and Ryan Pritts. Bassist Ali Clegg left the band in 2005, and has since been replaced by Sa ...

, Darkred (Rob Smith), Xebec (Doug Walker),

Coaltar of the Deepers Coaltar of the Deepers are an alternative rock band from Japan. They formed in May 1991. Although primarily influenced by shoegaze and post-rock sound, their sound incorporates musical elements as diverse as thrash metal, electronica, neo-acoust ...

(Narasaki),

Airiel Airiel is an American shoegaze band from Chicago, Illinois. Frontman Jeremy Wrenn described Airiel's music by saying, "It's loud, it's pretty and you can dance to it". History Airiel was formed as Airiel Project One in 1997, in Bloomington, I ...

(Andrew Marrah), Fauvely (Sophie Brochu), Melissa Arpin-Duimstra, Jason Baron and many others. The current line up, since 2020, is (Kelly Coffey) and (Ryan Davis).

Career

Astrobrite began in 1993 as a solo project and, in 1995, the band expanded in order to tour. Astrobrite went on an initial hiatus in 1997 and Scott Cortez moved to

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the western end of Lake Erie along the Maumee River. Toledo is the List of cities in Ohio, fourth-most populous city in Ohio and List of United Sta ...

for six months. Early in 1998, he relocated to Chicago. In 2001, Astrobrite's first album ''Crush'' was released, composed of material from the 95-97 period. Adam Cooper ( Alison's Halo) mastered and mixed ''Crush'' and ''8 Candy EP''. Later in 2001, Scott Cortez flew to Tokyo, Japan to play the Seven Winters shoegaze festival. The trip fostered relationships with the Japanese shoegazer community and enabled a return to Japan to record a studio version of "Crush", entitled "Supercrush", the recording featured (Narasaki) of

Melt Banana Melt-Banana is a Japanese noise rock band that is known for playing extremely fast noise rock and hardcore punk mixed with experimental, electronica and pop-based song structures. Since forming in 1992 the band has released ten albums and toure ...

(Watchman), and (Tak) Dive. In 2004 Astrobrite was signed to Vinyl Junkie Records in Japan and released "Pinkshinyultrablast". From 2004 to 2008, in addition to recording Astrobrite material, Cortez was recording and performing with STAR. On April 17, 2007, a new studio album ''Whitenoise Superstar'' (stylised as ''whitenoisesuperstar'') was released under Vinyl Junkie. It was mastered by Narasaki and it features Japanese singer Yukari Tanaka (from Hartfield) in several tracks. Musically, the album adds some

atmospheric drum and bass Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated as DnB, D&B, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-bass lines, samples, and synthesizers. The genre ...

elements to its composition. On August 27, 2008, Astrobrite released ''One Hit Wonder'', a compilation album comprising previously unreleased songs and b-sides, with a more lo-fi recording. 2011 saw the vinyl reissue of ''Crush'' on BLVD records, this prompted Cortez to consider performing as Astrobrite again. Breaking another hiatus after nine years, Astrobrite played several live shows in the summer of 2012, including the Part time Punks Shoegaze fest in Los Angeles and the Beautiful Noise festival in 2013. ''Boombox Supernova'', was released on November 1, 2011, a compilation album of unreleased songs with ambient influences from 1994-1998. Next year, on August 14, 2012, a studio album titled ''All The Stars Will Fall'' (stylised in

all lowercase Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing systems ...

) was released. The third and last track, "Wandering Birds (Blind)" and "Till The Stars Fall From The Sky" respectively, feature vocals from Gel Set (Laura Callier) and from Japanese singer Linden (Purple Bloom). In October 2014, Astrobrite became a three-piece group when Sophie Brochu (guitar, vocals), and Sarah Sterling (drums) joined the band. In 2015, ''Deluxer'' was released by Vinyl Junkie and Astrobrite did a small tour of

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

in support of the release. The album features vocals from singer Sophie Nagelberg. Astrobrite dedicated the album to Danny Lackey. In 2022, Astrobrite performed at the Julia War Fest, marking a significant event as it featured the new line-up, Ryan Davis and Kelly Coffey; playing regularly in Chicago. In 2024, Astrobrite was asked to play the Slide Away fest by the band

Nothing Nothing, no-thing, or no thing is the complete absence of ''anything'', as the opposite of ''something'' and an antithesis of everything. The concept of nothing has been a matter of philosophical debate since at least the 5th century BCE. Ea ...

Discography

Albums

* ''Crush'' (2001, Clairecords) * ''Supercrush'' (2002, Music Mine) * ''Pinkshinyultrablast'' (2004, Vinyl Junkie) * ''Whitenoise Superstar'' (2007, Vinyl Junkie) * ''All the stars will fall'' (2012, Vinyl Junkie) * ''Deluxer'' (2015, Vinyl Junkie) * ''Suprema Demos'' (2015)

EPs

* ''Candy Swirl EP'' (1994) * ''Cherryflavor EP'' (1995) * ''Futuramic EP'' (1996) * ''Smile EP'' (1997) * ''Everything'' (1997) * ''Sugar Blast'' (1999) * ''8 Candy EP'' (2001, Sonic Syrup) * ''Noriko EP'' (2002) * ''Starless'' (2012, EverythingIsChemical)

Singles

* ''Slowpoke/Overdriver'' (1996, Highback) * ''Suckerpunch/Peach Fuzz'' (1996, Alacrity) * ''Jingle Bells'' (2011) * ''Her Beautiful Skin/My Forgotten Valentine'' (2011) * ''I Am Endless Sky'' (2013) * ''A Blasted Pink'' (2014) * ''Heaven'' (2016)

Compilations

* ''One Hit Wonder'' (2008) * ''Boombox Supernova'' (2011)

References

External links

Astrobrite MySpace Page

Astrobrite Bandcamp Page

Strangeways Radio Shoegaze Spotlight on Astrobrite

Vinyl Junkie Home Page (current label)
* {{Authority control American shoegaze musical groups American noise pop musical groups American rock music supergroups Musical groups established in 1994 1994 establishments in the United States