starvelab and the artful unease, unsteady alt rock ground of "Shiver" (Official Video)

"This blood is holy, and only a crime / This soak is swollen, one note at a time..."

The artful unease, unsteady alt rock ground of "Shiver", by composer, filmmaker, multimedia artist / performer Michael Trigilio, expressed in post rock heaviness, ornate almost vintage operatic synth constructions, appropriate bass and drums bluster, an undercurrent of stormy noise and Trigilio's underplayed stoic vocal performance. AND this all works so well as all these ingredients feel foreboding in it's unsteadiness, in it's quiet before the storm, as an artful sort of tropicália of cross-generational modes of music and temperaments. We do live in a particularly unnerving time, at least if you open your eyes to what is happening, culturally, politically. We seem to be put upon or, at least, quietly threatened by the men in blue suits every other day. 

"This blood is holy, and only a crime

This soak is swollen, one note at a time
This bed is broken, this blood is all black

These people hate you, this cancer is. . .

And when you wake, you shiver sometimes
And you're afraid you might miss your mind
I'm only dreaming again, forgive me again.
This car is crashing again, forgive me again."

Trigilio shares this:

"Shiver is the first single from the new album 'This Avalanche,' a project in production for over a year. 2025 has been rife with horrors for our culture and planet. Amid the ongoing collapse, my own mortality and health have sung a constant song of terror and survival, as I cling to love and imagination. After a decade-long detour into noise music, I began writing music with lyrics again in 2024 and began producing 'This Avalanche' in 2025, with 'Shiver' being an early favorite for first single to release."

Trigilio is not a creative who stays still but manifests his work in different pools of art that overlap at times, spill into one another. He also is an artist whose work seems to me, to be a mixture of bloodletting and catharsis. And art as a form of emotional purging always raises the bar in terms of art as communal connective tissue. Great stuff. Read the liner notes below as it reveals pivotal moments and accomplishments. 

LINER NOTES (excerpted / bracketed):

[starvelab – the music project of multi-hyphenate artist Michael Trigilio – is a genre-busting, hyperactive endeavor, playing with idioms of rock, funk, EDM/IDM, chamber-music, noise, metal, and the avant-garde. Both an indie production studio and a person, starvelab produces a peripatetic, constant stream of sound evoking the prolific output of Guided by Voices or Ty Segall. The uneasy restlessness of this music conjures a twisted amalgam of Brian Wilson and Morris Day with Trent Reznor and John Zorn. Recent releases include Crushed Pepper, a pastiche of 90s era New Power Generation; 15 Years of Tape: 1993-2008, a retrospective collection; and Metastatic, a 12-track LP made on laptop during the six months Trigilio underwent chemotherapy.

A seasoned producer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist, Trigilio first studied composition with guitarist Jesse Hernandez and frequent John Cage collaborator Philip Krumm. After a five-year stint as a Buddhist priest, he enrolled in graduate studies at Mills College where he studied under Pauline Oliveros, Gail Wight,, and John Bischpff. A prolific video-artist, performer, filmmaker, and educator, Trigilio co-founded Neighborhood Public Radio in 2004 and hosted a regular radio show, The Starve Zone, at Berkeley’s KALX through the mid 00s. His work has been included in exhibitions at, among others, the Contemporary Museum of Baltimore, LACMA, MOCA, MCASD, Anthology Film Archives, Artist’s Television Access, and the 2008 Whitney Biennial.]

-Robb Donker Curtius

 

The Chicken Wheel will take you to the AP Go Fund Me- and any amount is so appreciated!

THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM 

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5OeVSTT47FGJ0CrkVTH2St

https://soundcloud.com/starvelab

https://starvelab.bandcamp.com/

https://www.instagram.com/starvelab/


Starvelab is multimedia artist Michael Trigilio, a composer, filmmaker, performer, and artist with commissions from LACMA and Dancers' Group, residencies at MOCA and the 2008 Whitney Biennial, and dozens of shows at museums and galleries nationally and internationally

starvelab, alt rock, shoegaze, noise rock, indie rock, post rock, multimedia artist / composer Michael Trigilio, Official "Shiver" Video, new album 'This Avalanche', bloodletting, catharsis, personal storytelling,