Other Star People-Diamonds In The Belly Of The Dog (1999)


 

Artist: Other Star People

Title: Diamonds In The Belly Of The Dog

Label: A&M

Format: CD

Catalog Number: 069 490 384-2

Year of Release: 1999

Country and Year of Edition: US 1999

Sell Price: $2.84

Sell Date: 7/24/26

Condition: VG+/VG+

Discogs Last Sold:  7/19/26 M/M $5.51

Low: $0.95

Median: $2.84

Average: $3.86

High: $10.98

Current low price: $1.99

Curren Number on Sale at Discogs: 11

Have/Want: 75/24

Where Sold: Rio de Janiero, Brazil

Time It Took To Sell:  16 years

Where and When Bought: roommate's discarded CD collection

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: C

Sad To See It Go: No

Despite having Jennifer Finch from some L7 downtime and my old schoolmate Todd Phillips drumming a decade after Bullet LaVolta and more famously Julianna Hatfield's band, I initially found this late 90's commercial alternative album as unappealing as much of what came out in that time period.  I almost gave it a D minus after the first listen, but the unit clearly has some song sensibility despite the bland alternarock state of the art 1999 production from Roy Thomas Baker.  Baker of course had a massive prog, rock and AOR resume before this with his production work for The Cars being the standout for work on this release.  Something like "Then There's None" has a little Byrds/Monkees outro that sounds disembodied from the music somehow.  When I first played it on random shuffle, after it was done a mid-90's Belly song I didn't know came up and I though to myself THIS ONE FINALLY sounds good, but ha it wasn't the band at all.  

Something happened after I got over the first listen where I started to like the songs more.  "Drip" continues my liking water related songs with a cute little vocal shift up from Finch.  I finally put my finger on way I passionately disliked the frontman Xander Smith who later went on to another band I ignored called Run Run Run.  Then it hit me, one of my most hated bands of the early aughts was Postal Service.  This is an earlier generation, more guitar oriented alterna-pop with male/female dueted vocals, similar in sound. Some awful writer might use a indie rock critic cliche like "sun-kissed pop" to describe it.

This sold to someone in Brazil after the recent passing of co-band-leader Jennifer "Precious" Finch.  This band didn't last very long and after a decade of being in L7, it made sense in a way to start on something fresh, local and yes, commercial while the connections were in place.  Maybe the band name is an LA in-joke since the selling point of the new band was that they played with "other star people."  The dollar bin was littered with records like this, but I didn't buy this one, it came from a discarded collection of other titles from that time frame.  Even with the notable notibles, I didn't know anything about this band even though I was on the radio at the time.  If I had known Finch & Philips were in this band, I certainly would've given it a shot.  Since I heard the band without knowing anything, I didn't have the "established veteran bias" and was psychologically free to instantly hate it as I would if a bunch of twenty two year olds got signed to A&M and got to work with Roy Thomas Baker on their first shot.  Maybe that would have been better.  Pro tools records sound like pro tools records: a little too clean even with the pedigree and post-grunge aesthetic.

I feel like I unearthed an obscure time capsule relic here.

FOR FURTHER REVIEW:

Varous Artists-Where Are The Now File (1991)

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