JamsBio (Free subscription) | 11/20/2008
In the early 70's Big Star released #1 Record & Radio City , two classics in the power pop canon from a band that should have lived up to its name.
Popdose (Free subscription) | 10/31/2008
You get what you deserve, Big Star fans, so here are the rest of the tracks from the 2000 bootleg What’s Goin’ Ahn. The “rough mixes” of songs from Radio City (1974), like the ones from #1 Record last week, aren’t lost treasures by any means, but the demos of songs that didn’t make it [...]
Popdose (Free subscription) | 10/24/2008
Last week Bootleg City featured a 1978 concert by AC/DC to celebrate the release of their new album, Black Ice, which came out on Tuesday. This week I’m moving down the alphabet to Big Star, to celebrate the release of … oh, right, they don’t have a new album coming out. (They shouldn’t have [...]
Glorious Noise (Free subscription) | 10/23/2008
I had never heard the Yoko Ono song, "Mrs. Lennon," before. But Alex Chilton certainly has. In a 1987 interview with Dawn Eden, he admitted that "it's just like [Big Star's] 'Holocaust.' Exactly." The Bob: Did you have that song...
Philadelphia Inquirer (Free subscription) | 10/14/2008
Few musicians take as much unfettered glee in the sheer act of performance as Jonathan Richman. At the First Unitarian Church on Sunday night, Richman frequently stepped away from the microphone and put down his guitar to dance. As his body twisted and bucked (the crowd was particularly fond of his sweeping high kicks), his eyes were wide and distant, as if he'd been swept away by his own songs.
Moon in the Gutter (Free subscription) | 10/12/2008
I just came across this on YouTube and am blown away that it even exists. This is actual footage of the fabled Big Star in the studio circa 1971 when they were recording their first monumental LP. While I am thrilled to see the footage of a young Alex Chilton, I am even more excited to see the clips of the late Chris Bell (one of rock's great undervalued heroes). This was really thrilling to find...one...
IGN (Free subscription) | 10/04/2008
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Album) Mellow and sensitive indie rock for mature youth.
Salon (Free subscription) | 09/30/2008
"Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" director Peter Sollett talks about young people looking for love on the streets of New York.
The Independent (Free subscription) | 09/08/2008
Back in the early Seventies, Big Star made their mark on the post-Sixties landscape with their brand of melodic, melancholy pop, and were described by the rock critic Jason Ankeny as the "quintessential American power- pop band". Alex Chilton, formerly a teenybopper pin-up with the Box Tops, had teamed up with Chris Bell, an old mate from his home town of Memphis, Tennessee, to join a band called...
Hecklerspray (Free subscription) | 09/01/2008
The Cambridge Dictionary (that’s the Online Advanced Learner’s edition for all you fact fans) defines 'cult' as ‘someone or something that has become very popular with a particular group of people’, and it’s hard to find a mention of American band Big Star without this word sneaking in. What we generally take cult to mean is that the thing in question isn’t of much interest to the world in general,...
The Independent (Free subscription) | 09/01/2008
Alex Chilton was a teenybopper pin-up via his first band The Box Tops. In 1971 Chilton teamed up with Chris Bell, an old mate from his home town of Memphis, Tennessee, to join a band called Icewater. He changed the name to Big Star, and they made a debut album, No 1 Record, that critics acclaimed as a masterpiece, but which was heard by virtually no one on account of abysmal distribution.
PCL LinkDump (Free subscription) | 08/31/2008
"In 1971, Memphis act Big Star laid down tracks for what became one of the greatest rock albums of all time, the aptly-titled "#1 Record." During the historic sessions, bassist Andy Hummel and co-founder Chris Bell shot the following footage." Footage and music uploaded by conan1982 (via Up-Tight ) Note: The music, Big Star's "Thank You Friends", is from their "Third" album, also known as "Sister Lovers"...
Maud Newton (Free subscription) | 07/30/2008
Fellow Big Star fans, take note: Oxford American’s second Best of the South DVD includes snippets of Thank You Friends, a silent 16mm film shot by Chris Bell and Andy Hummel while the band was recording #1 Record. The rest of the footage is due out in a Rhino box set later this [...]
The KEXP Blog (Free subscription) | 07/18/2008
OK, I’ll admit it: This record jumped out at me because of the amazing/ridiculous outfits on the cover. Then I pulled it out and read the comments on the front (and the fascinating biographical info on the back, which I’m sorry isn’t included here), and realized something of which I had been woefully unaware: [...]
Billboard (Free subscription) | 07/17/2008
As expected, Rhino will on Sept. 23 release expanded reissues of the Replacements' final four albums for Sire Records.
