Big Star's new album?

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Just saw an article in MOJO on the new (and long rumored) 4th Big Star LP. Anyone holding out hope that this will be good? The story was short, but pretty interesting with an anecdote about how Macca gave a thumbs up after hearing some tracks.

― dodgerlane, Friday, 13 May 2005 04:17 (twenty-one years ago)

One of these days I'd love to see one of these old bands actually come through. How cool would it be if the Stones wrote an anthem this summer that owned the radio or if this Big Star album was as good as the others?

― Cunga (Cunga), Friday, 13 May 2005 04:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Keep dreaming.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 13 May 2005 04:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Alex and Jody have been touring with the Posies as Big Star on and off for the last decade, so they're not exactly out of practice. I'm pretty anxious to hear it.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Friday, 13 May 2005 04:21 (twenty-one years ago)

My guess is it will be competent, derivative, and bland, just like all their other albums.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 13 May 2005 04:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Fingers crossed

― A Viking of Some Note (Andrew Thames), Friday, 13 May 2005 04:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Saw the Mojo bit too, which says the album was written and recorded from scratch in a few weeks time. Actually, several of the tracks, at least the Chilton songs, sound intriguing and very un-Big Star like. That is to say unlike conventional power pop. There was something about a baroque or neo-classical intrumental and a disco tune as well. But yeah, I'd be surprised if they could actually pull it off too.

― tonygoo, Friday, 13 May 2005 04:49 (twenty-one years ago)

wow hurting, have you actually heard "their" third album? I can't imagine anyone who had, pro or con, to use your three adjectives in describing it.

Scare quotes around "their" because the three albums also differed from each other a lot in terms of authorship and players. First album very much a Bell/Chilton collaboration (with Stephens and Hummel rounding out the quartet), 2nd album hardly any Bell, 3rd album both Hummel and Bell are gone...it's really a Chilton solo album with help from Stephens, Dickinson, and a couple dozen guest musicians. It's also famous for being a bit of a mess.

― rattanman, Friday, 13 May 2005 04:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I just don't like power pop I guess.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 13 May 2005 05:08 (twenty-one years ago)

but...power pop...the third album??? Just admit you've never heard it!

― rattanman, Friday, 13 May 2005 05:08 (twenty-one years ago)

OK, OK. I ADMIT IT! UNCLE!

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 13 May 2005 05:09 (twenty-one years ago)

i ain't your uncle, I'm your sister, lover.

― rattanman, Friday, 13 May 2005 05:10 (twenty-one years ago)

My daughter! My sister! My daughter! My sister!

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 13 May 2005 05:12 (twenty-one years ago)

I'll tell you one thing though, on #1 Record, "they" sound a little too much like the band that does the Friends theme song for my liking.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 13 May 2005 05:14 (twenty-one years ago)

You know what happens to nosy fellows don't you?

But seriously, my buddy who also hates Power Pop was converted by the Third Album aka Sister Lovers (still can't get him into the first two). Some beautiful disintegrating depressing ballads on there, great pop songs, very wierd album. You might like it.

x post
yes, you mean "That Friends Show", I hear you.

― rattanman, Friday, 13 May 2005 05:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Friends theme song = The Bodeans (I think)

― cdwill, Friday, 13 May 2005 05:21 (twenty-one years ago)

The Friends theme song = The Rembrandts

"...sound a little too much like the band that does the Friends theme song for my liking."

You do realize that first album came out in 1972, right? The Rembrandts were probably riding tricycles then.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Friday, 13 May 2005 05:30 (twenty-one years ago)

that 70s show theme surely

― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Friday, 13 May 2005 05:31 (twenty-one years ago)

You do realize that first album came out in 1972, right? The Rembrandts were probably riding tricycles then.

-- Johnny Fever (--...), May 13th, 2005.

Of course. But power pop never changes ...

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 13 May 2005 06:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually, one of the dudes in the Rembrandts was in the Quick back in the SEVENTIES.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 13 May 2005 06:15 (twenty-one years ago)

i've never liked these guys

― Aerodynamic (Aerodynamic), Friday, 13 May 2005 14:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Geez, I love BS, but I have a hard time believing that this will be any good at all.

― On the bass, 57 7th, he wrote this (calstars), Friday, 13 May 2005 14:27 (twenty-one years ago)

[[[that 70s show theme surely]]]

Wasn't that Cheap Trick?

― PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie), Friday, 13 May 2005 14:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I will slap you all...

― Jimmy Mod, Sultan of Sexxitime (ModJ), Friday, 13 May 2005 14:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I hope it's better than the song Hot Thing that was released as Big Star a couple years back on a greatest hits record. It wasn terrible--warmed-over Memphis funk with these awful horns and some of the worst lyrics imaginable. Hot thing/you're going to set on fire/come on over/hot thing. Ugh.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Friday, 13 May 2005 14:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Was it *those* awful horns? The Memphis Awful Horns?

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Friday, 13 May 2005 14:41 (twenty-one years ago)

The record will be awful but everyone will say they like it. cf Go Betweens, Wire, Mission of Burma, etc etc

― Aaron A., Friday, 13 May 2005 15:21 (twenty-one years ago)

The last two Go-Betweens records were pretty good. Not this one, so much.

Wire's was awful, true.

Mission of Burma's was actually nice.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Friday, 13 May 2005 15:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't imagine it'll be very good. I saw them three or four times after they got together with Stringfellow and Auer, and it never quite worked--except for the great version of "Duke of Earl" they did at their first reunion, which didn't make it to the record. The Posies guys *didn't know how to play the song*, which I suppose proved Alex's point about the whole Big Star reunion thing. They did do what I think is the best version of "Baby Strange," which they'd been doing since 1972. Chilton can't sing any more, either, and I think he's been playing the casinos with the Box Tops one too many seasons at this point. I guess the only thing that would make me happy is if they had decided to record at Willie Mitchell's studio, with Teenie Hodges on guitar or something--that would've been cool. But they got their fans to think about.

I also hear the original dB's are making an album.

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Friday, 13 May 2005 17:45 (twenty-one years ago)

[[[that 70s show theme surely]]]

Wasn't that Cheap Trick?

it is a big star song performed by cheap trick. I believe it was the original version for the first season tho

― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 13 May 2005 18:08 (twenty-one years ago)

I believe it was the original version for the first season tho

nope -- it was a different bad cover version. and I say this as a man who pretty much worships both Cheap Trick *and* Big Star.

― J (Jay), Friday, 13 May 2005 18:12 (twenty-one years ago)

any excuse to (again) link to this unbelievably great quick video.

― dan (dan), Friday, 13 May 2005 19:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Dan, that video made my day!

― PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie), Friday, 13 May 2005 19:07 (twenty-one years ago)

>> Wire's was awful, true.

WTF?? I assume you mean Send and there hasn't been another album since then that sucked, but I have to disagree TOTALLY with that statement...

I'm not convinced this new Big Star is going to be any good though, I haven't actually heard any but I hear solo Alex Chilton is pretty awful and he's supposed to be an alcoholic mess live isn't he? Has he sorted himself out now?

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Friday, 13 May 2005 19:45 (twenty-one years ago)

he's great live. at least five years ago when i saw him at the metro with those posies

― steve hise, Friday, 13 May 2005 19:46 (twenty-one years ago)

i don't know, i think a new big star album could be decent. not that it'll be able to touch the band's previous output, but if you get Chilton with a decent band and he puts even the tiniest bit of effort into the proceedings, there's definitely potential. Chilton solo is the vey definition of hit and miss, but there are plenty of moments that are as good as his stuff in big star--just in a vastly different way. And contrary to someone's post above, i think he can still sing--at least he sounded alright on Set, his last solo album...dude's got an amazingly great voice.

― tylerw, Friday, 13 May 2005 20:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Chilton solo is the vey definition of hit and miss, but there are plenty of moments that are as good as his stuff in big star--just in a vastly different way.

A Man Called Destruction, from the mid- to late-90's, is kind of quietly classic, with his Memphis blues thing intercut with 60's surf pop and underpinned by all these funeral brass arrangements.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Saturday, 14 May 2005 05:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I have to say--listen to AC's singing on the Gary Stewart cover included on "Loose Shoes and Tight Pussy," "Single Again." A truly horrible vocal. His *musicality* and charm are kinda still there, but the voice itself has lost range, he sounds phlegmy to me. He's been coasting for years. I do think that "Man Called Destruction" contains some great stuff, esp. his take on Danny Pearson's "What's Your Sign Girl" and his own "Don't Stop," which is as close as he's come in many years, on record, to his great pop creations. I mean he probably needs to quit smoking, right?

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Saturday, 14 May 2005 18:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I saw him play the "Save the Shell" benefit at Overton Park, and "What's Your Sign Girl" was the big highlight. I'm sure it's naivete, but I have a tiny twinge of excitement about new Big Star.

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Saturday, 14 May 2005 19:29 (twenty-one years ago)

BTW, if someone can tell me why Like Flies On Sherbert gets the degree of shit it does, I'd appreciate it -- b/c the reviews I've read trashing it bear no resemblance, best as I can tell, to the actual record.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Sunday, 15 May 2005 01:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I understand why people trash "Sherbert." But I also understand why people don't like punk rock or any number of things that aren't calibrated pop music. The worst offenders are whoever wrote those liners for the reissue of the first two Big Star albums, and those guys at All Music (drunk, non-energized, two radio stations bleeding into each other, howling on the roof).

I'm old enough to say: I bought "Sherbert" when it came out, in 1979, on the original Peabody label. And I always got it. It's all about my pet peeve concerning folks who are so, so worried about "songs" and "polish" and other nice but hardly essential factors, over how ya do it. That record might be craz-ee, but the musicianship is actually superb--you got to know how to play to be able to "nonplay" like they do. In other words, it grooves, esp. on "Rock Hard" and the great "Hook or Crook." And "Boogie Shoes." How many people, having made those Big Star records, would've kept on doing the same thing, worrying over the power-pop verities and so forth? You gotta stay loose to be able to appreciate that record, and many others too, and it taught me a lot about what music was all about and what it wasn't.

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Sunday, 15 May 2005 18:48 (twenty-one years ago)

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