STRFKR

Formed by songwriter Josh Hodges, whose knack for buoyant melodies shaped the outfit, STRFKR began life under the eye-catching name Starfucker as an indie-electro project. Their self-titled first album surfaced in 2008, its dance-oriented tracks securing a contract with Polyvinyl. Despite frequent personnel shifts, the band reached the Billboard 200 for the first time via their third LP, Miracle Mile, released in 2013. On the spacier fifth album, Future Past Life, Hodges tempered his bright synth-pop leanings with hazy textures and acoustic guitar, and the record appeared on Polyvinyl in 2020 alongside the all-instrumental Ambient 1. For 2024’s nearly hour-long Parallel Realms, the group fused earlier melodic, groove-driven, ambient, and experimental threads into a cohesive alternative-dance statement.

After spending four years in New York City, Hodges returned to Portland, Oregon, and issued two albums as Sexton Blake on Expunged, among them the lo-fi ’80s-covers collection Plays the Hits. Seeking a lighter vehicle for his work, he enlisted Shawn Glassford of Mr. Fredrick and Ryan Bjornstad of Junkface. Their early shows, marked by instrument swapping, dual drumming, stage diving, and flamboyant costumes, caught the ear of Dylan Magierek, who signed them to Badman Recording Company. Hodges and Magierek then brought home recordings to Type Foundry for added layering, and the resulting debut album reached listeners in September 2008, earning praise for its plentiful hooks. Multi-instrumentalist Keil Corcoran joined the following year.

A mass-market campaign that featured “Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second” brought wider exposure, prompting the band to weigh alternatives such as PYRAMID and Pyramiddd before retaining the original name for Reptilians, issued on Polyvinyl in 2011. Bjornstad departed soon after; touring guitarist Patrick Morris stepped in as a permanent member late that year. Continued growth led to another name adjustment, and the shortened STRFKR was adopted in 2012. Between tours the trio finished Miracle Mile, which arrived in early 2013 and debuted at number 178 on the Billboard 200.

Reduced to the core of Hodges, Glassford, and Corcoran, STRFKR released Being No One, Going Nowhere on limited “early bird” vinyl in November 2015, with the wider edition following in 2016; the set charted across Billboard’s vinyl, rock, alternative, independent, and Heatseekers Albums lists, topping the last of those. In February 2017 Polyvinyl began rolling out Vault, a three-volume series of demos recovered from Hodges’ failing laptop, with Vol. 2 arriving in July and Vol. 3 completing the 64-track run that December.

For the fifth album, Hodges revisited 2014 sessions recorded in Amsterdam with Mathias Janmat and David Hoogerheide. Working with those two, the remaining members expanded the tracks into a subdued, atmospheric sound built on acoustic guitar and synths; Future Past Life emerged on Polyvinyl in April 2020. Later that August, Hodges issued the instrumental-synth set Ambient 1 under the STRFKR banner.

Reconvening as a quartet, the band distilled ideas from earlier releases into a seamless alternative-dance collection laced with experimental and ambient details across seventeen tracks. Parallel Realms, produced by the group and Jeff Brodsky and mixed by Chris Coady (Beach House, Yeah Yeah Yeahs), was issued on Polyvinyl in March 2024, with Coady granted freedom to shape the nearly hour-long sequence.