Thus ends Big Dipper Week, where I've taken a look at each phase of the band's career. We end with Very Loud Array, the disc of unreleased songs that closes the new Supercluster 3-CD anthology on Merge Records.

After Slam, Big Dipper seemed to disappear. In those pre-Internet days, there were really only four ways a band like Big Dipper could stay on the radar: Tour, college radio, music magazines and, only rarely, a brief mention on MTV. The band resurfaced with a two-song 7” single on Feel Good All Over in 1991, giving fans like me hope that they’d land back in indie-land where they belonged and pick up where they left off with Craps. It was not to be. By that time, Steve Michener and Jeff Oliphant had left their posts on bass and drums, respectively, and only Bill Goffrier and Gary Waleik remained from the original lineup.

Bill Goffrier: I kept going when Gary left, but we agreed that that was where the line was to be drawn on the name “Big Dipper,” so the remaining three of us played and recorded as, eventually “Saucer.”

Gary Waleik: It was too difficult for us to continue on past 1992 for a bunch of reasons. We didn’t have a label or an audience… two pretty important things, I think. Also, I don’t think that any of us felt like we had to be limited to careers in rock. Bill’s a painter and a teacher. Steve has a nursing degree and runs a new wine business in Walla Walla. I had a radio career to fall back on. Jeff is using his considerable charm and talent to make his mark in the world of high finance. And we’re all family men. So there were bigger and sometimes more interesting fish to fry.

They did leave behind an impressive batch of unreleased music, however. The two songs from that single – “Approach of a Human Being” and “The Beast” – were among several tracks that should have been released long before now. They weren’t, and that’s to Merge Records benefit now, for the cream of the crop constitutes the third disc of its three-disc anthology, Supercluster. That disc, dubbed Very Loud Array, constitutes a great lost Big Dipper Album. It’s a strong batch of songs that feels at times like a more logical follow-up to Craps than Slam. Where the band’s major label bow and swan song continues the crunchy pop of Craps, the songs on Very Loud Array are more organic, sounding less like an in vain stretch for the big time and more like four friends playing incredibly catchy songs for the entertainment of themselves and a small cadre of friends and fans.

There are clear winners here. “Wake Up the King” kicks things off with a blast of pop energy, while “Lifetime Achievement Award” shows how skillfully the band is able to conjure smart hooks with stripped-down instrumentation. Like the rest of the band’s catalog, the disc contains a few tracks that fall short of their best, but nothing here would have sullied the band’s reputation, then or now.

“Big Dipper recorded the new tunes sensibly and faithfully, a practice we had temporarily abandoned while making Slam,” Waleik writes in the Supercluster liner notes.

Steve Michener: If you listen to Very Loud Array you hear that, musically, they were a much better band. I think they missed out on my creative voice in the band though since the bass players after me were mostly just talented musicians but not much else. That's how it seems. It’s nice to hear some of the outtakes and oddities. Merge did a fantastic job and Gary deserves the credit for putting this together.

Bill Goffrier: The concept only took shape when we considered compiling the lost recordings from the post-Slam years. A working title was Lost in the Stars, and there were other recordings included, depending on whether you heard Gary’s or my sequence. I am glad that Gary took the ball and ran with it, because his preferences probably best present the range that was the sound of Big Dipper.

The four original members have been back together of late, rehearsing for three live shows next week on the East Coast to celebrate the anthology’s release: April 24 at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, April 25 at Southpaw in Brooklyn and April 26 at Middle East Downstairs in Cambridge.

For us fans stuck in the Midwest, there is some hope. Waleik says that if these three shows go well, some summer dates in larger cities like Chicago might follow. As for whether the Very Loud Array songs will show up in the set list, or, hope against hope, a new record might result from all of this, well, it depends who you ask.

Bill Goffrier: There is a great deal of material we could record. It is a matter of making time, or having time, as facilitated by the support people like those at Merge Records.

Gary Waleik: Yes, I hope to do as many new songs as we can (probably 3-4).

Steve Michener: If we had more time to practice I'm sure that some new stuff would come out, but given the time constraints we will probably be lucky to re-learn the old stuff. There might be one or two in the live set but don't hold your breath for recording. We could do Internet recording but for me Big Dipper is sitting in a room bouncing ideas.

Jeff Oliphant: I would love to write some songs, and record the band again. I hope we get the opportunity to do it. We could put out a great CD. Again I would write the hit songs! We could write about how our bodies are breaking down, or how important is to invest. I could write a whole album about investing in the financial markets!

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

Labels: Big Dipper Week, music