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

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

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

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

When I put out the call to Merge Records that I'd like to interview someone from Big Dipper, I did what I usually do: put together some questions, e-mailed them off, and waited for someone to respond. I heard back from guitarist and singer Gary Waleik, and figured I was done. Then I heard from the other guitarist and singer, Bill Goffrier... and then drummer Jeff Oliphant, and finally from bassist Steve Michener. All were eager to talk about the band and its new, 3CD 50-song set, Supercluster.

That, in an of itself, is unique. When bands break up, it seems rare to find all of the original members happy about the past, friendly with one another and enthusiastic about responding to interview questions. Then again, it should be no surprise. Big Dipper -- or, "the Dippah" or "Big Diaper," as the members referred to themselves at various points during our exchanges -- was a fun band, and its members seemed very much to be having the most fun of all. They continue to do so, expressing affection and appreciation for each other and generally carrying on the way longtime friends do. Heck, they even take time to coin terms like "obleeky."

Big Dipper was an indie rock supergroup before there was such a thing. Waleik and Michener came from the Volcano Suns (and Michener also from Dumptruck), while Goffrier had been in the Embarrassment. Given that family tree, the resulting fruit was somewhat predictable: A skewed pop sensibility delivered with fuzzy guitars and an insistent beat. They debuted in 1986 with the six-song EP, Boo-Boo (which included the fantastically frenetic single, "Faith Healer,") followed quickly by the debut LP, Heavens. That one is considered their best by most, and is certainly their most consistent. Standouts like "All Going Out Together" and "She's Fetching (mp3)" are certainly classics, but the rest of the songs here are more than worthy in their presence.

Craps, which came in 1988, is where I came in. I still remember picking it up on cassette at the local record shop on the recommendation of a friend behind the counter who knew I'd love it. I did, and took the chance to see the oft-touring group the couple of times they came through town in support.

Slam followed. At the time, the major label bow seemed overblown and a bit weak. In hindsight, while there is some filler that sounds rushed, there are a lot of good songs here that probably suffer from the slick production. Though it was the first of an improbable eight-album contract, the poor reception doomed the band. Waleik and Goffrier soldiered on after Michener and Oliphant split, but a single ("Approach of a Human Being" b/w "The Beast") was the final whimper.

Fast forward nearly 20 years, and the band is back with Supercluster. The fine folks at Merge saw fit to offer all of the band's non-major label music at a bargain price, and anyone who likes strong hooks, clever wordplay and aural fun would be foolish not to make the investment.

For an much more detailed Big Dipper history, check out Joe Harvard's excellent write up at his Boston Rock Storybook web site.

What follows is part of the responses to my initial questions to the band. The rest will be spread over the rest of what I have proclaimed Big Dipper Week, as I look at the band's discography -- and it's possible future -- in more detail on Tuesday through Friday.

When was the last time you listened to this music? Were there any surprises in looking back at these songs?

BG: I really don’t know when I had last listened to some of our songs. I was surprised I knew the words, and when I don’t, Jeff covers for me.

GW: I’ve been listening to this music quite a bit since we recorded it. I don’t think there were any surprises for me… they’ve been a part of me for a long time.

SM: I listened to it fairly often when I would take drives. It always brought back a lot of memories and that helped keep me awake. I loved listening to the stuff that became the third disc, Very Large Array. Gary sent it to me as they recorded that stuff and I loved it. I'm glad I'll finally be able to play on a few of those songs.

JO: I listen do the Dipper songs all the time. They are such great songs, they never get old for me. I hear different things when I listen to the songs, and I still turn people on to the Dipper every chance I get. I was lucky to have been part of a group of song writers that I feel could go toe to toe with anybody. (There are) all kinds of surprises. I had no idea what they were writing about. The liner notes helped out a lot with their weird song writing minds.

Had the reception to Slam been better, would Big Dipper still be around, and if so, what would it sound like today?

BG: If anyone would have wanted to put out our stuff, we would have kept going with it. Today, just by coincidence, we would be sacking our backing orchestra, and singers, and revisiting our raw early sound.

GW: It’s impossible to answer either of those questions. Who knows? And, besides, we are still around, and we sound like… well, like Big Dipper!

SM: I don't think we would still be around but we may have lasted a little longer. We were all growing up and moving on. I needed a life that was a little more stable. I admire bands like Yo La Tengo who stuck around, evolved and still sound like the core sensibility is there.

JO: If Big Dipper had made it big, and continued to make music we would all be in rehab! If we put out a record today the songs would just as great as they were back in the 80’s! Great song writers still write great songs. Although my songs would be the hits on the CD.

What have the members been doing since the band split, and what was it like getting back together to rehearse and play a few shows?

BG: It has been a hoot to play with the guys again. We tend to get pretty silly, so it is like drinking from the fountain of youth.

GW: It’s been a lot of fun getting together to play music at first. We’re starting to sound pretty sharp, and we’re having a lot of fun playing some old songs, some slight variations on same, and we’re even trying some brand new ones. It’s a very happy time.

SM: When I left the band I moved to San Francisco. Played with Barbara Manning and the SF Seals for a few months and recorded with them. Played with Richard Buckner and the Doubters for a few months and recorded a little with them. Left those bands and went back to school to get my RN degree. Got married, had two boys while living in Bay area. Got sick of Bay area and moved to Walla Walla, Wash., where my wife and I went back to school to learn how to make wine. We opened Trio Vintners in April of 2006 and now we make wine as a part time job. I'm still a nurse. My boys are 10 and 8 and they love to play music. One sings and plays guitar and the other plays drums in a band called Fireboltz.

JO: I have been a dad, husband and working in the finance business. I would not change a thing; life is great, and I just love to go with the flow, and spend time with my wife and kids. It was great getting back together with the guys. Some things never change we have a great time together, and the songs sound better than ever! We are going to rock when we play the shows in April. Those who miss the show will wish they never did!

Do you hear a Big Dipper influence or your particular sound in anything out there today?

BG: I don’t notice it. But then, I listen to folk, show tunes and vocal jazz.

GW: I’m not sure. Some people say that we influenced bands like Weezer, Fountains of Wayne, Guster and the like, but probably they have been influenced by some of the bands we liked also. So it’s kinda hard to trace that. If you can quantify that other bands are deliberately trying to a) have the lead singer sing slightly sharp, b) have the backup vocalist sing slightly flat harmonies in a lower range, c) have their bass player strum a very midrangy thunderbroom, d) have their drummer play impeccable power pop patterns even as his sunny smile captivates all the females within a two mile radius and e) write lyrics that are geeky and oblique (obleeky?), then yes, I’d say that those bands are trying to mimic Big Dipper.

SM: Sure, I think the nerdy stuff that is hip now owes something if not to big dipper than to our peers. When I first heard and saw Weezer, I was pretty sure they had heard of us.

JO: I hear bits and pieces of bands that might have or still listen to Big Dipper, although we had a very unique sound. I don’t think there is a band that sounds just like the Dipper.

I love the fact that we had our own sound, and didn’t sound like ever other band at the time. I remember that everybody wanted to sound like R.E.M., we must have played with 500 bands that tried to sound like another band that was popular at the time. I don’t think that works very well, and it’s not interesting to listen to.

A lot of college rock from your era is being reissued now. Why do you think people now are primed to hear this music again?

BG: I can only hope that people will want to hear it again. Better still is if a new audience finds it entertaining.

GW: Nostalgia, maybe. Possibly the natural 20 year cycle that seems to dominate in pop culture. Or probably because the music was really good, people deserve to hear it again, and the bands deserve to be heard again.

SM: A lot of people who hear Supercluster are telling me it sounds fresh and new now. I think a lot of stuff is very heavy and emo and intense now and this is fun, bouncy, intelligent pop with loud and noisy guitars. It stands out. Perhaps we were a little ahead of our time as were dozens of bands that were around at the time. Radio, press, consumers didn't have the chance to hear most of our stuff. If we were around today with the Internet i think we would at least had the chance to reach the large audience we thought we deserved. They may have hated us but at least we would have know.

JO: It was a time were some of the great song writing bands were not being noticed. Such as Camper Van, the Connells, Glove Fist etc. Twenty years later the media is finally realizing how great the bands were back at that time. I hope they get their just due and sell millions of CD, and have even more downloads.

Labels: Big Dipper Week, Monday Interview, music

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