Each day of Big Dipper Week, I'm taking a look at a phase of the band's career. Next up: The Slam LP, the only part of the band's catalog not included on the new Supercluster 3-CD anthology on Merge Records. It can be had, however, for cheap at most online retailers.

If there can be controversy in the life of a moderately successful college rock band with a six-year career, then Slam is it for Big Dipper. As I recall, it was a shock when Big Dipper was swept up in the wave of major label signings as any indie-rock band with a decent record under its belt moved up to the big leagues. It’s not that Dipper wasn’t worthy – if anything, as one of the best bands with the most pop potential of its peers, it was tailor-made for the big time. On the surface, at least. As the one-and-done success of bands like Fountains of Wayne have shown, a novelty hit is about the best most clever bands with great hooks can expect.

Steve Michener: There were a lot of expectations, I think, from fans, and signing to Epic was not one of them. A lot of the criticism directed toward the album was meant for us 'selling out' or whatever.

Big Dipper didn’t even see that level of success, and the band members seem more than willing to dissect the album looking for fault. No love is lost for producer Steve Haigler, who is declared a poor fit, and the band turns the finger of blame back on itself, citing a batch of songs not quite ready for prime time and a watering down of the Big Dipper sound. And that cover… ugh. If the creative department at Epic spent more than 30 minutes on, shame should be the least of their punishments.

Gary Waleik: I don’t think that Slam has been unfairly maligned, but I also think that some people who rejected it out of hand perhaps weren’t disposed to give it a fair listen. My personal feeling is that many of the songs are very good and even among our best, but that the production and performance of those songs did not do them justice.

Bill Goffrier: I was so immersed in the process of making Slam, I was convinced we were making a masterpiece. Being in the band and working on Slam was pretty much my whole life. Perhaps that is not a healthy way to live. It was waayyy too serious. My biggest regret with that album is that we let strangers make decisions for us, like designing the cover. I think if we redid the packaging it would suggest a whole new perspective on the music within.

Perhaps the new perspective Goffrier hopes for can be found through little more than the passing of time. I had left Slam on my shelf for years, allowing it to collect dust. But pulling it out shortly after I heard about the imminent arrival of Supercluster, I was pleasantly surprised at how well it held up. Sure, the production is overly slick and some of the songs find the band’s reach exceeding its grasp, but overall it’s a good album, and a fairly logical progression from Craps. Oh, and that cover of Mott the Hoople's "All the Way From Memphis"? Well, let's just say it's a spirited run through a great song that would have made a better B-side (like the band's blazing cover of Husker Du's "Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill" found on the "Love Barge" single).

Jeff Oliphant: I love the songs on Slam! I listen to the CD quite often, my wife say’s it her favorite CD.

Steve Michener: I think this is a good record. Not our best, but we were blinded by visions of a successful career in music and lost sight of our original vision. Our first mistake was choosing Steve Haigler to produce it. He had nothing to do with our sound and I didn't really like him that much. We had other choices, like the Jayhawks producer and John Croslin, but we should have been thinking outside of the box. I really liked the idea of getting out of town to record so we could focus completely on the recording.

The lack of success of Slam signaled the beginning of the end for Big Dipper. Michener exited, followed some time later by Oliphant, leaving Goffrier and Waleik to carry on. At the time, as I recall, the typical desire to try other things was cited as the reason for the departures, but Michener shares now that there was more to it than that.

Steve Michener: It was during the recording of Slam that the rest of the band started to get down on me for my lack of bass-playing chops. I always knew that I wasn't a musician and had been skating by for years but when the major label came into the picture this became an issue. Not sure why it always does with us borderline musicians when the majors show up. Anyway, there was a lot of tension that started around Slam and continued into the tour that summer that eventually pushed me out of the band. It was very mutual, I was ready to split. I'd been tired of being in a band with the toll it took on my personal life.

Frustration with the changes brought by a major label contract – Epic signed the band to an improbable eight album deal – are aired even within this disc. It’s full of plenty of the trademark Big Dipper guitar-crunch-fueled whimsy, but from the first line of the opening song, Goffrier’s “Love Barge” – “I once thought that I stood on solid ground/but the earth has moved and I’ve been turned around. And the only thing left to hold onto is myself, and myself alone” – it seems clear that the band is dealing with a shifting landscape that feels out of its control. Waleik’s “Blood Pact” is the most overt. Foreshadowing the band’s failure to dent the charts, he sings “Always reeling, never feeling that we had a chance in hell,” going on to say, “Waiting for our chance to meet the Boss, four nervous guys armed with but wit, then in his evil presence stood, offered us a deal, WE TOOK IT!!!”

Steve Michener: That CD embittered the band because it accelerated a lot of tension that ended up driving us apart. I think the songs stand on their own. They are not on (Supercluster) because Epic still owns it until the 12th of never and it would be a hassle to deal with them, I'm sure. I'd love to reissue that CD remixed with the guitars turned up and all the studio shit removed. That would make a great EP. We could call it All the Way from Charlotte. Gary can do that; he has lots of free time.

Labels: Big Dipper Week, music