Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Starcrossed

RIYL

Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus, the Smiths, the Cure

Inception

San Diego , 2001

Influences

Bauhaus, Joy Division, the Cure, Sisters of Mercy, the Chameleons UK, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Wire, Clan of Xymox, the Smiths, Mission UK, For Against, Echo and the Bunnymen, Depeche Mode, the Church, Skinny Puppy, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, Killing Joke, Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, the Jesus and Mary Chain, the Pixies, Dinosaur Jr.

Discography

2012
Sponsored

“The first bass line I learned was Joy Division’s ‘Disorder’ in 1986,” says Starcrossed singer/guitarist Mark Haemmerle, aka Mark Starcrossed, who founded his band in 2001.

“We combine ’80s new wave and indie rock with a touch of shoegaze, goth, and dance beats,” says Haemmerle (formerly of local goth rockers Sleepy Hollow and Winter Winds). “So, basically, it’s guitar-and-bass-driven rock, with preprogrammed electronics and a drum machine.”

According to singer Christina Haemmerle (whose brother Dominic Balli is well-known in the reggae world), “Our sound is dark electro-pop, but with a twist.”

“I’d call it ’80s rock meets modern electronics,” says bassist/guitarist John Falk, a member since 2005. “We sometimes also have go-go dancers for the live shows.”

From the start, Haemmerle (who DJs under the name Horror Head) and company drew inspiration from life itself. “I used to deliver pizza for Round Table,” says Haemmerle, “and every time I got off freeway 52 and went into downtown La Jolla, there was either an accident or someone who almost caused one.” Thus was born the band’s popular sing-a-long anthem “All the Fuckers in La Jolla Drive like Shit.” Sample lyric:

“ 'Cause your car cost more, don’t mean you own the road
Best get off my ass, don’t make me lock 'n' load.”

“So I wrote a song about how shitty people drive in La Jolla. It’s not just people that live there; it seems to be everyone. I think, when you get in that area, it just seems to happen. For a video, I started collecting accident footage from every time I drive down there…I caught some footage of a fire truck and a police car at a two-car accident on the side of the road. I also got footage of the crazy traffic when one of the stop lights went out.”

Haemmerle (who admits a fondness for weird rockers like Wesley Willis and Captain Beefheart) has also written a song about the local suicide cult Heaven's Gate. "I was shocked and surprised when I heard about the Heaven's Gate cult, and I wrote the song shortly after it happened," says Haemmerle of "39 Dead." The song refers to the mass suicide that occurred in Rancho Santa Fe in March 1997. Eighteen men and 21 women took their lives at the instruction of music professor Marshall Applewhite, who'd promised his followers a comet ride into the afterlife with aliens.

"I heard it on the news today/ 39 people dead they say/ A madman had led them astray.../ Triangles on their faces and money in their hands/ he told them they would venture to faraway lands."

The band's music also includes clubby tracks such as “Discotheque Love Song,” which rings like Dead or Alive meets Sisters of Mercy, while “The Wishing Star Kills Tonight” (“All your sighing makes me cry/ all your crying kills the show”) is drenched in breathless beats à la the Motels.

Singer/keyboardist Christina Haemmerle (“When I was younger, I used to look just like Drew Barrymore”) frequently injects a bit of chick power into the proceedings (“If you need me/ call my name/ I won’t come running/ but I’ll show”), particularly on “Wind Up,” which sounds for all the world like a Jesus and Mary Chain outtake (“Never knew that being optimal/ meant I was more than the perfect doll”).

Starcrossed was nominated Best New Electronic Artist for the San Diego Music Awards in 2007, the same year their guitarist Bridgit Bardell died from a heroin overdose. Mark Haemmerle runs the audio/video production company Devil Town Studios, and began hosting an open mic night in January 2008 at the Skybox Bar in Clairemont.

Their CD Samurai was released in March 2012.

Sponsored

Upcoming Local Shows

No shows scheduled

Post a show View show history
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader