Each day for the rest of Big Dipper Week, I'll take a look at a phase of the band's career. First up: The Boo-Boo EP and the Heavens LP. Both are included on the first disc of the new Supercluster 3-CD anthology on Merge Records.

From the get-go, it was clear that Big Dipper might offer a lot of different things, but humongous hooks would be front and center. From the opening slash and burn of guitar from Bill Goffrier and Gary Waleik, each swooping and diving around and through the lines of the other while Steve Michener’s bass and Jeff Oliphant’s drums drive the tune’s insistent beat, “Faith Healer” reveals itself to be a tremendous song. Then comes Goffrier’s vocal, an urgent, high-pitched declaration: “Dealing with the faith healer and trusting in the palm reader.” Noisy sing-alongs aside, the song also pointed out the fact that Big Dipper lyrics would not be restricted to the typical “moon/June” constructions. Such terrestrial fixations would not elude the band; they’d just be expressed in more creative – and somewhat strange – fashion.

The entirety of the Boo-Boo EP flies by in a brisk 17 minutes, its six songs setting the template for what was to come. It’s ragged and, according to Waleik’s liner notes to the new Supercluster anthology, abbreviated. Writing about an early version of the song “San Quentin, CA,” he says, “An earlier version from our first recording session, the same on that yielded ‘Faith Healer,’ ‘Loch Ness’ Monster,’ ‘Ancers,’ ‘Lou Gehrig’s Disease,’ ‘You’re Not Patsy’ and ‘Which Would You Rather?’ Homestead wunderkinds Gerard Cosloy and Craig Marks were disappointed that we didn’t include all of those on Boo-Boo. Sorry, guys. We never meant to make your lives difficult… honest.” The last three songs Waleik mentions are bonus tracks on this disc, at least two of which didn’t appear during the band’s original lifespan.

Steve Michener: (Boo-Boo is not a real EP but a collection of songs recorded at various times. But still I like the diversity and the sound quality.

Bill Goffrier: Those projects were just good fun. “Boob”(Boo-Boo) was done very democratically with the concept that Dipper was a songwriting forum for Gary, Steve and I. Jeff, “The Kid” was not a main writer.

The Heavens LP appeared just months later, and while the sound is largely the same, the performances are more assured, the songwriting stronger. It is Big Dipper’s acknowledged classic, a solid album with monumental highlights in “She’s Fetching” and “All Going Out Together.” In what would be a sad constant for the band, these incredibly catchy songs ventured no farther than the playlists of college radio stations. In the liner notes, Michener admits, “I always thought (‘She’s Fetching’) would be a big radio hit for us. I was wrong.”

Beyond those two towering achievements are a lot of songs that are fantastic in their own right. There is the jaunty “Man ’O War,” the hard-charging “Easter Eve” (with a bass line conjured when Michener attempted to figure out the line from the Minutemen’s “Courage”) and Waleik’s hooky “Lunar Module.” The absurdist bent to the band’s lyrics remains, including “When Men Were Trains” (penned by Christmas frontman Michael Cudahy) and Waleik’s “Mr. Woods,” who “can’t see the trees for himself.”

Bill Goffrier: Heavens stretched the band’s concept to include more collaboration between writers, and even outside writers in the case of Michael Cudahy, our friend from the band Christmas. Michael even filled in for Gary at a live gig once.

Steve Michener: Heavens was our first real album and my favorite. When we were putting it together after writing all the songs I noticed a theme of space and stars and religious thru the disc so I suggested heavens as a title to pull it all together. There was a push and pull in the band b/w pop elements and noise elements. I’m glad we remastered this because the original sounds muffled and that snare drum sound is awful.

Monday: Band interview
Wednesday: Craps.

Labels: Big Dipper Week, music