main blog (@astralcat) might be lowkey shadowbanned also i wanted to have a separate patalliro yapping acc like i do on twitter and bsky (username is malyneratrash on both sites)
you can also confess your sins to me (send asks) as well as depositing offerings in my strawpage
tags:
#astra says a thing: general yapping
#astra brand art: art
#reblog from main: exactly what is advertised
#cool song: music i want to share with yall (usually because it's seiyuu music and they did VA work for patalliro)
and in addition, just like most of the eroica gang he's based on an irl musician. im not gonna tell you out of the gate but i WILL give you a clue: he's from an 80s band
(btw its perfectly ok if you wanna get into this au but don't know anything abt patalliro. the characters are alr pretty detached from the source so u can just treat em as my ocs its fine by me)
hey patalliro fans did you know kazuyuki sogabe (bancoran's VA) was also a guitarist and played for slapstick, the same band that did the patalliro anime's 2nd ED? he's honestly rlly good, here are a few songs of his that i feel really show off his talents
another random bit of stardust street (band au) lore: The original cover of their concept album/rock opera Animal Fables (1984), drawn by Stardust Street's drummer Jada Rochester, which was pulled several weeks after release by keyboardist and songwriter Maraich Justinof, who spearheaded the creative control of the album (of which the story is an allegory for various experiences he went through). The reason?
"Suddenly, I realized: Jada's art style, bless their heart, was ultimately not a good fit for the album. I mean, some parent could see cartoon animals on the cover, assume 'Oh, this must be for kids, little Billy will love this!' and now little Billy's screaming and crying and having nightmares because of 'Clawed Out', the hardest song on the album (and on my vocal cords, but sometimes you just need to scream to get your emotions across) and a borderline-heavy metal tune where our main character, the Tiger, exacts his revenge on the poachers that stole his life away and made him a tool for their violence. I tore into the record company's office that day and told them, 'Hey, something's wrong, we need to do new cover art, pull it right now.'"
— Maraich Justinof
(yes i know it kinda looks like shit, i drew it with my finger so no line weight for me)
prince era maraich justinof art by itself (stardust street/band au)
and bcuz i love over-explaining things: by 1986, bjorn hass, jr. and andersen hass spearheaded a genre change in stardust street from their original bluesy hard rock with prog elements (inspired by led zeppelin, the who, queen, deep purple, bowie, etc.) to hair metal/glam metal similar to bands like mötley crüe, poison, def leppard, guns n roses, etc., starting with 1986's electric candlelight and lasting for 2 more albums w/ hellhounds of heavenly origin (1988) and awaken the beast (1991). most of the members, however, only changed their looks a little, but just enough to fit the aesthetic, however in 1988 maraich decided to fully revamp his image to fit in with the whole scene/impress bjorn jr. (who was one of his paramours). while maraich was already known to get testy and oftentimes physical, most of the time it was because someone royally pissed him off or tried to start shit with someone maraich was close to, and maraich was usually quite a nice guy. however, during the "prince era", maraich developed a sort of persona, with an attitude streak a mile wide and a bad reputation for getting into fights. however, outside of performing & interacting with other hair bands, maraich was still the same as ever, mostly to avoid confusing and/or intimidating his kids (as well as his beloved pet cat colette). by 1992, he'd ditched the whole "prince" image, just in time for stardust street to go through another revamp for the 90s, with 1995's corner shop containing elements of grunge, alt-rock, and thrash/heavy metal (one of the songs on that album, "no way", was written by maraich's bandmate and stardust street frontman thatcher stone as a parody of megadeth) and 1998's have you had enough?, their final album of new & original content (although to this day they still tour under the stardust street name) keeping the grunge and alt-rock influences but sounding much softer, due to HYHE?'s central theme of "endings"
(also an image of the band during their 1977-1985 hard rock prime, just for reference)
The Three Superstars: Founding band members and vocalists Thatcher Stone, Maraich Justinof and Bjorn Hass, Jr.
Pentology Era: The first era of Stardust Street, encompassing their first 5 self-titled albums (1978's Stardust Street, 1979's Stardust Street II and III, 1980's Stardust Street IV, and 1981's Stardust Street V) and the bluesy hard rock (with touches of prog) (influenced by Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Queen, David Bowie, Frank Zappa, The Who, and The Rolling Stones, among others) associated with said albums. Because of this, 1985's Monochrome Neon is often also lumped in with the Pentology Era, with Animal Fables (1984) being treated as its own thing due to Maraich Justinof's heavy creative control leading to a more progressive and somewhat folk-rock sound on that album
EHB Era: Standing for "Electric Hellhound Beast", the EHB era includes Electric Candlelight (1986), Hellhounds of Heavenly Origin (1988) and Awaken the Beast (1991), and is the time period when Stardust Street adopted a more hair metal/glam band-infused style of hard rock similar to popular bands of the time like Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard, Poison and Guns 'n Roses (who actually opened for Stardust Street once in 1986).
'90s Era: The last era of Stardust Street studio albums, consisting of Corner Shop (1995) and Have You Had Enough? (1998). Like the EHB Era, this era was also influenced by popular music of the time, with Corner Shop's grunge, alt-rock and heavy metal sound and HYHE?'s sound being grungey and alternative but softer than Corner Shop with less metal influence. After HYHE?, Stardust Street retired from making new music to focus on their solo careers and families, but to this day they still tour under the Stardust Street name.
Rocky: Nickname for Thatcher Stone. (geddit cuz his last name is stone)
Juicy: Nickname for Maraich Justinof, from his last name
Bibi and Andy: Nicknames for Bjorn Hass, Jr. and Andersen Hass respectively
Jayjay: Nickname for Jada Rochester
Pento Purist: Nickname for a Stardust Street fan who views the Pentology Era as the “golden age” of the band. Attitudes towards EHB and '90s Era SdSt vary, but the stereotypical Pento Purist will openly trash these eras and hate on the Hass twins for "ruining" the band's sound by spearheading the shift to glam metal in EHB and "forcing Thatcher and Maraich to chase more trends" with the '90s Era, but other Pento Purists are largely indifferent to or even like EHB and 90's Era SdSt, they just prefer the Pentology Era.
Just as there are Pento Purists, there are also EHB and '90s Era purists, with similar varying opinions on other eras of Stardust Street
Five Symbols: The iconic Stardust Street logo, first seen on the cover of 1979's Stardust Street II. Each symbol represents a specific member of the band. Top to bottom, L-R: the Tiger (Maraich), the Starbird (Bjorn), the Four Corners (Thatcher), the Moonbird (Andersen), and the Crossroads (Jada).
Prince Era: Term for Maraich's image makeover that lasted from 1988-1992, during the hair-band EHB Era. He adopted a whole new style and acted more standoffish and aloof, leading to him getting into more fights than usual. Maraich did this to fit in with the new direction Stardust Street was going in, as well as to show off for Bjorn. Maraich doesn't particularly like to look back on the Prince Era and calls it "one of the most embarrassing things [he's] done, ever". Another thing is that it was also largely a stage persona, as when he was relaxing at home and out of the public eye, Maraich still looked and acted the same as he ever was.
(⬆️ 1989 magazine photo of Maraich, during the Prince Era)
The '83 Affair: The mental breakdown Maraich suffered during 1983, caused by a miscarriage he suffered earlier in the year, before eventually having delusions that Jack Bancoran was cheating on him with his bandmates, as well as numerous other people. This breakdown pushed Maraich to temporarily leave Stardust Street, living in an apartment on the other side of London where the paparazzi hounded him and spread all sorts of rumours about him, contributing to his declining mental health, before returning in early 1984 after finding a therapist and being prescribed medication for his BPD. During this time period, he would work on his solo project What Will You Do When The Spotlight Shines On You?, which released in 1984 to mixed reviews at the time (one review derisively calling it “P&S music: piano and screaming”), before eventually being considered one of the best albums of the '80s due to its stripped-down piano sound often considered to be one of the foundations of emo music, as well as the raw perspective on the topics it covered, including but not limited to the miscarriage he suffered and his resulting breakdown, as well as his fraught childhood. (However, Maraich has experienced some puzzlement at the album’s popularity, as in his words, “while I believe that I got some very important words and feelings out, I also wrote it during a psychotic break where I isolated myself from my friends & partners, and so I don’t agree 100% with some of the things I wrote on there. I feel like that’s also a very important thing to consider.”)
musical influences/favourite artists of the Stardust Street members (patalliro band au stuff)
Thatcher Stone (vocalist, lead guitar): Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Deep Purple, The Yardbirds, Frank Zappa, The Kinks
Maraich Justinof (vocalist, keyboards): The Beatles, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Queen, musical theatre, Tom Lehrer, Billy Joel, John Paul Jones, Robert Plant, Genesis, David Bowie, Supertramp
Bjorn Hass (vocalist, rhythm guitar, tambourine, other instruments): David Bowie, Queen, Styx, The Ronettes, Donna Summer, ABBA, The Who, Supertramp, Led Zeppelin
Andersen Hass (bass): David Bowie, ABBA, The Beatles, Queen, Elton John, Genesis, The Yardbirds, Pink Floyd
Jada Rochester (drums): The Beatles (heavy on Ringo Starr, in fact the whole reason why Jada took up drums is cuz they liked Ringo so much), The Monkees, The Beach Boys, other 60s pop/rock artists
Some bonus Stardust Street info (part 2 of this post)
Thatcher's guitar of choice is a Gibson Explorer, while Bjorn and Andersen's guitar and bass respectively are a Fender Mustang and a bass Fender Mustang
Maraich is a huge cat lover, and his most iconic and beloved cat was a calico named Colette after his late mother. He got Colette in 1984 as a way to help him heal after the miscarriage and subsequent massive mental breakdown he had in 1983 that caused him to leave the band, and she lived until 2000, passing away peacefully at 16. Nowadays, Maraich has 4 cats: Maya (torbie & white), Pauline (dilute tortie & white), Tiger (orange tabby with minimal white) and Sterling Jr. (silver broken mackerel tabby)
Colette is also infamous for biting various MTV interviewers and even other artists & band members that visited Stardust Street's shared residence
One of the songs off 1998's Have You Had Enough?, "When Your Time Comes", was written by Maraich about his worries surrounding Colette growing older, knowing she didn't have much time left. The song fit quite well with the album's overall theme of "endings", as said album was Stardust Street's last studio album comprised of new & original content.
There's a lot of divides within the in-universe Stardust Street fandom, with the two most prominent debates being "Which era of Stardust Street sounds better: the original hard rock era from 1978's Stardust Street to 1985's Monochrome Neon, the glam/hair metal era of Electric Candlelight (1986), Hellhounds of Heavenly Origin (1988), and Awaken the Beast (1991), or the alternative, more grungey, and (in the case of the former) pseudo-metal sound of Corner Shop (1995) and Have You Had Enough? (1998)?" and "Do Thatcher Stone's vocals sound better before or after he started going on testosterone in the mid-to-late 80s?" (the latter is especially influenced by the fact that he had to change his singing style when he first went on T to avoid damaging his voice)
Jada Rochester originally drew the cover of Animal Fables, but Maraich Justinof objected and had the album pulled and later rereleased with new cover art, as Jada's art style led him to be concerned that parents might think the album might be okay to play for children, with Maraich being especially concerned over the track "Clawed Out" (which is borderline metal and about Maraich's character on the album, the Tiger, killing the poachers that owned & abused him since he was a cub) frightening young kids.
The media was NOT kind to Maraich Justinof during the whole 1983 thing, and it may have contributed to his mental health getting worse during that time. They filmed him having breakdowns on multiple occasions, had paparazzi camped outside the apartment Justinof was living in at the time, sensationalized his mental health episodes, and even insinuated that his erratic behaviour was due to the fact he was supposedly on drugs and that's why he miscarried(!) (while it's true Maraich has used weed alongside Thatcher, as well as having some drinking problems and taking LSD once, it was nowhere near the amount or type of drugs the tabloids were insisting "Mad Maraich" was on) (also not the first time Stardust Street's members have been accused of taking drugs stronger than what they would take; Thatcher actually caused a minor media stir when he first started T because a paparazzo thought he was shooting up heroin instead)
Patalliro in this AU is Pat Mariner, who inherited Diamond Records (Stardust Street's label initially) from his late father (Thatcher's uncle) in 1979 at the age of 18, and is infamous for his greedy practices and frequent clashes with Stardust Street's manager Jack Bancoran, to the point that sometime in the mid-80s, Jack & Stardust Street left Diamond Records to form their own label, Stardust Records, although Pat Mariner did try to block this from happening and also, in the 2000s, tried to buy back Stardust Street's back catalogue, leading to a huge lawsuit between him & Jack that's still going to this day.
The pivot to hair metal in the mid-80s was Bjorn and Andersen's idea, and the more hard-edged sound of their 90s albums (sans Awaken the Beast) was courtesy of Thatcher & Maraich
The band all have nicknames used by their fandom: Thatcher's is Rocky (since his last name is Stone), Maraich's is Juicy (from his last name Justinof), Bjorn and Andersen are Bibi and Andy respectively, and Jada's nickname is Jayjay
I'll be updating this with more info when I can think of more stuff
(also an edit cuz i used the wrong terminology. turns out glam rock is NOT interchangeable w/glam metal/hair metal. i was thinking of groups like motley crue and guns n roses)
band au has changed a LOT since it's inception... i've fully fleshed out a lot of it, for example, i came up with a discography of all their studio LPs!
Stardust Street (1978) (contains "Stop Lying To My Heart", the song that catapulted Stardust Street into the spotlight)
Stardust Street II (1979) (introducing the iconic "Five Symbols" logo for the band as seen here)
Stardust Street III (1979) (containing one of their most well-known songs in-universe, "Number Twenty-Six", which I will explain later)
Stardust Street IV (1980)
Stardust Street V (1981)
Animal Fables (1984) (a concept album/rock opera with more folk/prog rock influences than their usual at the time hard rock sound influenced by bands like Led Zeppelin, Queen and The Who, this one was almost entirely written by Maraich after his brief leave from the band in 1983 amid his mental health taking a sharp decline due to a miscarriage he suffered; basically this album was a way of welcoming him back to the band. The story the album follows is somewhat inspired by Maraich's experiences before he formed Stardust Street with Thatcher & Bjorn, I'll explain it later in its own post)
Monochrome Neon (1985)
Electric Candlelight (1986) (marked a huge pivot in Stardust Street's sound to glam/hair metal)
Hellhounds of Heavenly Origin (1988)
Awaken the Beast (1991)
Corner Shop (1995) (another style change, this time to a grungier & more alternative, almost metal sound)
Have You Had Enough? (1998) (their last studio album of new music, although the band still continues to tour once in a while; a lot of the songs have a theme of "endings" and keeps Corner Shop's alt-rock & grunge sound, albeit somewhat softer)
I've also been writing a bunch of fake quotes from interviews, memoirs & the like inside this big old ellipsus document, as the main writing projects for this AU are in-universe "memoirs" from the band members and a fictional "ultimate guide" to the band. Here's a few:
"While I love touring and getting to see all these new places, early on we were still figuring out how to do everything. Now, we all share the same room and pile onto the beds together (what happens in those rooms, however, is none of your business), but when we did our first tour in '78, Jack booked us all different rooms. Andersen must've gotten a dinky little room without Bjorn or something, because I vividly remember Jack telling us about him marching down to the front desk to scream about them 'treating [him] like rubbish' or something for minutes on end. Kids were crying and people were getting frustrated that they couldn't check in, but he wouldn't leave until they gave him and Bjorn a bigger and more luxurious room together. Long story short, we earned our first of many hotel bans, from the Hilton in Liverpool, and Jack made sure we got one room for all of us from then on. Although I doubt it's made the twins' attitude about rooms any better, judging by how many times I've heard 'HOW DARE THEY PUT US IN A PIGSTY LIKE THIS!' over a perfectly regular room."
— Thatcher Stone, 1985 magazine interview for the Monochrome Neon tour
-☆-
"I got the idea for 'Number Twenty-Six' after dozing off on the bus and missing my stop, and suddenly I was confused as hell, not having a slightest idea of where this bus was going. As soon as I straightened things out and got back home, I began to think: what if there was a bus that seemed normal, but then once you get on, you suddenly feel sleepy and can't fight it, and bada bing bada boom, you're heading down an endless road, with you and the other unlucky passengers unable to get off, and so after a few weeks of being trapped on this potentially supernatural bus, everyone goes crazy and starts eating each other to survive. (laughs) You know I had to give it that signature Stone touch of going somewhere completely unexpected. But also kinda plausible. I mean, have you ever heard about the Donner Party? I guess it's in our instinct to just eat each other when things get dire. (pause) I think Maraich would taste rather sweet, considering all the chocolate, ice cream and pastries he eats."
— Thatcher Stone
-☆-
“I first wrote what would become ‘Little Light’ in March of 1983 [for the cancelled Get On Home album], when I first realized I was pregnant. It was originally meant to be a sort of letter of encouragement towards my future child, about how I hoped they’d do all sorts of wonderful things. Then, [the miscarriage] happened, and in my initial wave of grief, I scrapped ‘Little Light’. I couldn’t even look at the lyrics I’d written in my notebook for years, because to me at the time, it was just uncomfortably taunting me with what could have been."
"Then 1986 rolled around, and I became pregnant with Figaro. I decided to give ‘Little Light’ another chance, now with a message of ‘Hey, I’ve been through some real rough patches in my life, but now it’s all done, and I hope you can be just as brave as me.’"
"As soon as we were done touring in February 1987, Thatcher wanted us back in the studio for a new album since he'd come up with some new stuff while on tour, and even though my bandmates were all ‘Are you insane? Maraich is eight months pregnant, we just finished a tour and you want to record another album?’ and lecturing him, I went right up to them, showed them ‘Little Light’ and told them how much this song meant to me, and just like that, we went in to record it. (In retrospect, they might have been scared of me throwing one of my signature fits.)""But then, everyone besides Thatcher was under the impression of ‘oh, we’ll record the other stuff later after Maraich has his kid’, but after we finished recording ‘Little Light’, I felt really motivated. I was like ‘Hey guys, I’m really on a roll and you could probably see that I haven’t slowed down at all. I wanna record the rest of the album.’"
"And of course, they were all worried for me and trying to get me to back out and I was just getting really frustrated with them for some reason. I decided that I wasn’t gonna leave the studio unless we began recording for what would become Hellhounds, and I guess they were so scared of me flipping out on them that they agreed to my demands. In retrospect, it was kind of a dick move, but again, I was eight months pregnant and very cranky. But I guess it all worked out, as Hellhounds was a huge success, and ‘Little Light’ ended up being the lead single off that album and spent five weeks at #1.”
— Maraich Justinof on "Little Light", 2008 interview to celebrate Hellhounds of Heavenly Origin's 20th anniversary
-☆-
"It was 1978 on our first tour, and we were in Rome. We'd finished up our set and were getting ready to leave to go to our next stop in Paris, but right as we went onto the bus, Jack told us 'nope, we can't leave yet, Thatcher's MIA'. And of course, that's really bad, we can't leave without our frontman, right? So we all join up with Jack to search for him in the streets of Rome."
"At some point, I get turned around, and now I can't find anyone. I was already somewhat frustrated with how things were going since by now I just wanted to get out of Rome, and the other thing is, I didn't know my way around this city, and I only spoke the teensiest bit of Italian, not enough at all to ask for directions. Adding onto that were my worries of 'oh my God, what if they're so caught up in finding Thatcher that they leave without me, or worse, I make everything worse and now they're gonna hate me now?!' and you've got a recipe for a weapons-grade screaming and crying meltdown on the streets of Rome. Seriously. I probably looked and sounded like a two-year-old who just got told they couldn't get ice cream. People were trying to check on me and I was just flailing around and shoving them away."
"But I guess every cloud has a silver lining: one of the people who heard me absolutely losing it just happened to be Thatcher, and in the blur of everything I didn't realize he was there until I'd already delivered a swift chop to his legs and knocked him over. I can still remember what he said: 'Maraich? You should get a job karate-chopping down trees with that arm strength!' It was just so ridiculous it just managed to snap me out of everything, which all too well could've been what he was aiming for."
"I of course had to ask Thatcher what he was doing and tell him how we'd all been looking for him, and Thatcher said he wanted to get a snack from somewhere before we left. Which is the most classically Thatcher moment ever, so I just had to laugh. All of a sudden, I was feeling much better, and after a bit of wandering, we located everyone else and were all ready to leave. You never forget your first tour, they say."
— Maraich Justinof, talking about one of his worst tour experiences ever in his opinion
