When I first heard late last year that Merge Records planned to issue a three-disc anthology of Big Dipper music, I was pretty excited. Big Dipper was one of the first bands I got into when I went away to college, and I had the chance to see them live a couple of times and found them wildly entertaining. Their early material -- particularly the EP, Boo-Boo and the LP Heavens -- were fantastic slices of intelligent, noisy pop. Craps, the follow-up, was another classic. Then came the (slight) major label misstep, Slam, a disc that, in hindsight, is much better than remembered. Then, the band seemed to vanish. One single issued on a tiny label came a couple years later, and silence followed.

With the Merge project, the band's slow, sad end comes into focus. A disc of songs recorded after the failure of Slam to catapult the band to success is included, as is the entirety of the band's pre-Epic Records output. Several bonus tracks in the form of demos, compilation entries and assorted odds and ends round out the collection.

Hearing all of it, I was taken back and made to wonder what happened. Why had they split? What have they been doing? Will this lead to more new music? I put out some questions and all four band members graciously responded. I had so much material, one of my standard Monday Interviews didn't seem like it would do this justice. So, I declare April 14-18 Big Dipper Week. Following on last year's Larry Brown Week, a tribute to the late, great writer, I offer a week of content about a late, great band.

Monday brings the bulk of the interviews with the band -- Gary Waleik, Bill Goffrier, Jeff Oliphant and Steve Michener -- while the days that follow will find me (and the band) looking at each of the band's four LPs (for the sake of scheduling, Boo-Boo will be included with Heavens, just as it was on my worn Homestead Records twofer CD) and the new material on Supercluster will be considered the band's fourth LP).

So, check back all week for wall-to-wall Big Dipper.

Labels: Big Dipper Week, music