Black Cat Bone

Yessir. Great band indeed.

Album: Radio City

Songs: "Back Of A Car" or "Kangaroo" (depending on my mood)
Also "September Gurls" is one of the all-time great power-pop tracks. If you want to know what it's about, hear this.

By SisterLovers, Big Star's might have become fragmented and dissolute, but in its own way it started out pretty frayed, too. Even on something like "Feel," the opening track to #1 Record, there's a sense that the compactness of the harmonies threatens to pull apart. Actually, it sounds like that the entirety of that debut is kept in place by Chris Bell's guitarwork, just the transition in harmonies on "The Ballad of El Goddo" ("...just to hold...on") or the slamdunk powerchords on "Down the Street" (which ironically was popularised through a Cheap Trick version!).

Radio City shows signs of collapsing at many minute- something like "Way Out West" or "Oh My Soul" is somewhat shambolic in its approach, but there's an amazing pognancy and desperation in there, too, just in simple things like Chilton trying to stretch his old Box-Tops falsetto on September Gurls, only for the music to cave in around him. I wonder whether the (admittedly fairly limited) lyrical content plays a part too, a lot of the songs almost wilfully feign innoncence in spite of themselves.

SisterLovers is a melodic car crash of a record. I love it, but for some reasons I have reservations about the styles it spawned- it seems that several indie acts (and Chilton, too?) since have evoked this record as a means to hide their timidity and introversion under the guise of self-sabotage. Yet, if I'm totally honest, it contains most, if not all, of my favourite Big Star moments- those strings on "Stroke it Noel" that follow Chilton's plea "do you wanna dance," his drunken cry "get me out of here, I hate it here" (Nighttime), the way that "Jesus Christ" defiantly bursts through the murk and recalls, for a brief moment, their first record. But it's a total mess, everything's scattered around the place. That's definitely part of the appeal and the thing that makes the record so alluring, but it might summarise power-pop's limitations as well as its appeals.

That said, by all accounts, I imagine that Big Star were very much the victims of poor distribution, management and general misfortune.

Sir John Coan wrote:

Mspecktor wrote:

Sir John Coan wrote:No grit.

Say wha? I can imagine someone thinking that about #1 Record (& being wrong, but still,) yet to say as much about Radio City is to suggest you mightn't be listening closely enough.

Album: Radio City

Song: Daisy Glaze/She's A Mover/Mod Lang (3-way tie.)

No. No grit. Those songs sparkle, there's an undeniable polish there. It detracts from the music for me.

You are crazy. Grit goes deeper than superficial polish, and only about half of one record (of three) is undeniably polished.

toomanyhatz is closer to the mark . . .

toomanyhatz wrote:One thing I love about them is that though they're a pop band, there's nothing sunny about them. Everything sounds jagged, jarring and slightly disassociated from reality.

I'm glad Mspecktor and toomanyhatz went before me.

Album: Radio City

Song: ST 100/6

Radio City is a fantastic album where everything threatens to fall apart, but somehow they manage to keep it together.

album: Third
song: Daisy Glaze

Why is everyone talking about the "3" albums-don't negect 2005's "In Space". It's almost as good as the others-which means it's almost perfect.