Northstar - Is This Thing Loaded?

Northstar - Is This Thing Loaded?

Rigged And Ready

Is This Thing Loaded?

Broken Parachute

My Ricochet

My Wishing Well Disease

Taker Not A Giver

Daybreak

Train Hopping In Dixieland

Cinderella

Black Heart Valentine

Produced by: Jesse Cannon

Triple Crown Records (2002)

Nick Torres described his hometown of Huntsville Alabama as a stagnant hole with no music scene where the only things to do were drink and play guitar. Like many bands from the early scene, the motivation to escape a somewhat inevitable fate proved enough to start a band--thus came Northstar in '97. The group underwent numerous lineup alterations as a three-piece, four-piece, and a five-piece all before signing to Triple Crown Records in the summer of 2002.

"Is This Thing Loaded?" is the groups debut album on Triple Crown Records and features Nick Torres (lead vocals, guitar), Tyler Odom (lead guitar, vocals), Shawn Regan (bass guitar, vocals), and Gabe Renfroe (drums). Regan was replaced by Jake Fisher, who had left the band just before their signing to Triple Crown, for the recording of the group's final release: "Pollyanna (2004)."

"Rigged And Ready" was the album's single which describes the difficulties of heroin abuse: "birthmarked my arms in vein" / "shooting bullets through my blood, the bullets barely missed my brain" / "and fly for five days around my bedroom in a haze" etc.

"Broken Parachute" is supposedly written for Torres' father whom supposedly died in a sky diving accident. Much of the song alludes to the need to escape the pains of reality as a result of the loss of his father. The line, "one million miles from the city where the lights won't burn our eyes, that is where the wild things are, that's where gold falls from the sky" references Maurice Sendak's children's book "Where The Wild Things Are"-- the "city" symbolizing the the land of the Wild Things where everything is much happier. The line, "I know somewhere my life won't be like this, pulling out the poison with a kiss on the bottle's lips" reinforces this notion but from an aphotic perspective--the phrase "pulling out the poison with a kiss on the bottle's lips" clearly alluding to drinking his pain away...but also referencing the Jawbreaker song "Kiss The Bottle." (Northstar released a cover of Jawbreaker's Chesterfield King on their b-sides compilation Broken Parachute put out by Speak Music Media in 2008.)

During a show in Orangevale, California in 2003, Northstar paid homage to their good friends in Taking Back Sunday by intertwining a part of "Cute Without The E/Cut From The Team" at the end of "Taker Not A Giver" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6jJJWgiasw)

The song "Daybreak" was written by lead guitarist Tyler Odom and is the only song not written by Torres.

"Train Hopping In Dixieland" honors the band's roots in Alabama--as the state is known as the heart of dixie.

Huntsville is also home to the historic Redstone Arsenal-- the U.S. Army post where Wernher von Braun developed the Saturn V moon rocket during the mid 1960's.

Associated acts:

Cassino (Torres, Odom)

Stars Below

Destry (Odom)

Northstar is:

Nick Torres (lead vocals, guitar)

Tyler Odom (lead guitar, vocals)

Jake Fisher (bass guitar, vocals)

Gabe Renfroe (drums)

Northstar (1997 - 2005)