Each day for the rest of Big Dipper Week, I'll take a look at a phase of the band's career. Next up: The Craps LP, included on the second disc of the new Supercluster 3-CD anthology on Merge Records.

I was surprised when I started this little endeavor to hear from the members of Big Dipper that Craps was a rushed, disjointed effort. It was the first point at which I heard the band, and I literally wore out a cassette of this as a college freshman. It was perfect: rocking songs, tremendous hooks and funny lyrics.

In hindsight, however, I can see the point. At nine songs, it was too short, and there are a couple of tracks that might have been better left as B-sides. Still, it’s an impressive step up from Heavens. The best songs here better anything on that disc, and the performance, arrangements and recording are more accomplished.

The disc begins with a bang as the guitars of Bill Goffrier and Gary Waleik issue a clarion call on “Meet the Witch.” But a funny thing happens a few seconds in: The guitars recede a bit, giving Goffrier’s vocals room to move. When the chorus comes, it’s big, with massed harmonies that take the song to another level. The closing note, held after the music fades, is chill-inducing. It's a presentation that seems nuanced and dynamic in a way the band's previous recordings were not.

The following track is the band’s jewel. “Ron Klaus Wrecked His House” is great for many reasons. It’s a true story (about Goffrier’s bandmate in the Embarrassment), it tells an amusing tale and it has mighty hooks. From Steve Michener’s signature bass line to the slashing guitars that punctuate things throughout to the big, big chorus, it’s a real keeper. Waleik writes in the liner notes to Supercluster that it should have been the band’s big FM single, but Michener seems more realistic: “It was almost six minutes long. Who did we think we were, Gordon Lightfoot?”

The next handful of songs are fine, all good in their own way and more than carried off thanks to solid performance, but there is a bit of fall off after that one-two punch. Waleik’s “Insane Girl” is a searing guitar workout in need of one more strong hook, while “Bonnie,” a sweet love song from Goffrier that centers on the fact that his significant other has a “big back yard” continues the band’s penchant for left field lyrics.

Perhaps the cleverest song on the album is “Hey! Mr. Lincoln,” which finds Goffrier and Waleik’s guitars tussling playfully to create a swirling tapestry over a great drum pattern from Jeff Oliphant. Lyrically, the song is fantastic. Abraham Lincoln, it seems, has some troubles, so Big Dipper buys him a beer: “What’s the skinny, man?” they ask, thus launching one of many bits of wordplay. His music is “the mystic chords of memory, the splitting sound that railed,” while they ask later, “Why the long face?”

It ends with “Bells of Love,” a rocking number with a great Waleik guitar solo, and “A Song to Be Beautiful,” a seeming rallying cry with the chorus, “for a song to be beautiful the artist must be free.” All tongue in cheek if the liner notes are to be believed. Michener reports that a “serious band” took the chorus as its motto, unaware that Waleik was “goofing on people who read grandiose messages into rock music. It’s a raucous close to a refined album.

Bonus tracks here include “He Is God,” a catchy tune first found on the Human Music compilation from Homestead Records, and “Guitar Named Desire,” a manic surf instrumental, as well as a demo of “Ron Klaus” recorded on Waleik’s reel-to-reel “atop my Brookline aerie… Life was so simple in 1987.”

Steve Michener: I think this has some great songs on it but it feels more disjointed than Heavens. I liked the louder production. I remember being thrilled to be in a studio with carpet and a bathroom. We were using two producers who were working tag team. That was interesting. “Ron Klaus” sounds great. I wish I had that bass sound on all the songs.

Bill Goffrier: The band had been on the road a lot, and did not have the wealth of material ready when Craps was recorded. Gary dug back into his song stash for “Song to Be Beautiful,” Michael Cudahy gave Steve some lyrical help to create “Stardom Because,” and Gary helped me polish up an old Embarrassment idea that was supposed to be Neil Young-style anthem about our friend Ron Klaus.

Monday: Band interview
Tuesday: Boo-Boo/Heavens
Thursday: Slam

Labels: Big Dipper Week, music