What makes a cult hero most? Alex Chilton ascended to that lofty rank as the leader of Big Star, a band whose negligible commercial impact is only matched by its considerable influence over an entire generation of musicians. When Chilton’s Paul McCartney met Chris Bell’s John Lennon (or vice versa?), they formed a brief but potent team as singers and songwriters. What resulted was the exuberant power pop of the optimistically-titled No. 1 Record as recorded by Big Star: Chilton, Bell, Jody
Over a year and a half after his untimely passing in the spring of 2010, former Box Tops and Big Star frontman Alex Chilton's loss leaves a profound hole in the hearts of power pop lovers everywhere. Leave it to one of our favorite up-and-coming reissue labels, Omnivore Recordings, to memorialize him twice this year - first with a special vinyl reissue of Big Star's Third for Record Store Day, and now with Free Again: The 1970 Sessions, an expansive look at his songwriting work just before Big
Mark your calendars if you haven't already, music fans: April 16 is the fourth annual Record Store Day! What started as a small declaration of independence for brick-and-mortar, mom-and-pop record stores in the face of industry decline has blossomed into a worldwide celebration with goodies provided by major and independent labels. And because lots of record store fans are also big into catalogue stuff like you and me, a lot of the RSD exclusives focus on reissues or anniversary repressings in
A quick congratulation to start the morning for two notable box sets which took home Grammys last night. Robert Gordon won a Grammy for writing the liner notes to Rhino's Big Star box Keep an Eye on the Sky, while Best Historical Album went to The Beatles' The Original Studio Recordings; receiving that trophy were producer Jeff Jones and mastering engineers Paul Hicks, Sean Magee, Guy Massey, Sam Okell and Steve Rooke at Abbey Road.
The magic numbers for reissues this year looks to be 40: we have no less than three different 40th anniversary sets with release dates in March. We've already mentioned the CD/DVD edition Bridge Over Troubled Water (1971) on that date. And the same day will see the release of the promised new deluxe editions of Derek and The Dominos' Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (a remaster, a double-disc deluxe edition, a double vinyl edition, and a 4 CD/2 LP/1 DVD super deluxe box). And Amazon is
A potentially embarassing confession: it took the death of Big Star frontman Alex Chilton for me to realize just what I knew about him. I knew his name was the title of a Replacements song (thanks, Rock Band), I'd known of Big Star thanks to the justifiable hype over last year's box set from Rhino and I'd known a handful of his most famous, very solid compositions that he either wrote or popularized ("Thirteen," "The Letter," "In the Street") through inevitable cultural osmosis (thanks, That