Astra Heights 'Good Problems' album

“We are Hispanic," says bassist James Morales, "and Bernard, our lead guitarist, is half-Greek and half-Chinese. It's weird: four Hispanic guys from small-town Texas playing British-inspired music." Astra Heights are an L.A-based band of four brothers and one "honorary brother" who play crisp, melodic, timeless rock and roll meant to fill big spaces. They grew up in a family of eleven kids in the rural shrimping town of Palacios, Texas, forming later when they moved two hours away to Houston for college.

The band's music -- as demonstrated by 'Astra Heights', their debut release “Good Problems” -- extends the lush British tradition of pop-rock as invented in the '60s by the Beatles and subsequently further cultivated and tweaked by '70s supergroups such as Queen and T Rex, by '80s visionaries such as The Smiths and by the titanic '90s rivals Oasis and Blur. The band's name blends the Latin phrase ad astra, which means "to the stars," with the Houston Heights neighborhood they liked.

Produced partly by noted Beatlesque producer David Kahne and partly by Bill Leffler 'Astra Heights' teams with unabashedly large rock tunes that interweave the Morales' love for melody, rhythm, and harmony. Some songs, such as "Good People" and "The March," address the vexations of living through today's difficult politics; others, such as "Whole World Changes" and "Well Farewell" are about love and girls. "We don't try to write a certain type of song," James says. "We write a song and then let it become whatever it becomes. It may crystallize into something that has a Spanish sound, like 'Whole World Changes', or it may not. We're not afraid to play any style."

“We know we're a pop band," Mark says. "Some people will relate to the joy of some of our songs, or to the frustration we depict in some of the others. Some of the rock songs, like 'Good People', are a little cryptic. But they're rock and roll through and through. When you get to some of the poppier songs, they're obviously about love."

Astra Heights are a brilliant example of coaxing something vital out of the various parts of one's reality. The band combines their youthful experience in harmony with their later love of London pop-rock and the rhythmic vitality that is their birthright. A heavy influence has been their 80 year old grandfather who still plays in a Tejano band. "When we go see our grandfather play his music, " James says, "there's always a groove there. That naturally had an effect on us, on how we play our music, on the idea of making a song move. For us, rhythm is its own kind of melody."

To all of this rich stuff, the Morales add their generous notion of the large -- even if it's rooted in some cool notion of Suede selling out an enormous venue in Rio. "Just by virtue of writing these big songs, we separate ourselves from the pack, says Mark, “It's very stadium-rock, with lots of la-la-la's going on. We have all these strange influences bearing down on us. And when we’re performing they all come.

That's Astra Heights.

press quotes
".... an amalgam of hooky rock with references ranging from the Stooges to Queen to Matthew Sweet." – LA Times

"The surprise of the evening was Astra Heights…Drawing from The Clash, The Beatles, and classic rock, the band hammered out an exciting set of harmonious punk rave-ups. And Morales, with his ragged voice and high pompadour, made an intriguing front man, coming off like Joe Strummer mixed with Ritchie Valens." – New York Newsday

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