That made me So Happy.
[RL people excuse the overlap with recent FB posts.] Tonight I went out to the local club to see something called Stroke It Noel: A Fully Orchestrated Performance of Big Star's Third Album. Are you familiar with Big Star's Third (aka, Sister Lovers)? Or with Big Star at all? chances are good the answer is No, because they never got the kind of recognition they deserved (waay back in the early 70s, we're talkin', mostly before all our times.) But maybe you have, because they are awesome. They were HUGELY influential on the underground/college music scene of the 80s, esp. along the NC/Athens axis (in the 80s there was the Triangle, Winston-Salem, and Charlotte in NC, and Athens in GA; it was as if SC didn't exist.)
ANYWAY. Big Star. Alex Chilton. Etc etc seminal. And the 3rd album (perhaps more Alex Chilton #1 solo record than Big Star swan song) = odd depressive, studio-formed awesomeness, released several years after its recording, posthumously for Big Star the band. Now brought to life on stage with a string/woodwind/brass section, the original drummer Jody Stephens, and various 80s southern rock stalwarts (Chris Stamey, Miitch Easter, Mike Mills).
And oh just WOW. that was fantastic, really, I was just grinning thru most. Amazing to hear those songs, to hear a dozen or strings swell in on the verses, to hear the rotating cast of lead singers.......... I'm not doing the best job of describing. For those with no way to be here (thery're doing it again tomorrow night) I'd say: find a copy of Big Star's 3rd, and then try to imagine it live... aww. you might not reach the heights of the reality. (good news is that it's being filmed for a documentary on Big Star that is already in the works.)
OK I'll quit now, because I'm utterly unable to convey the wonder of this event. Sorry? Come out tomorrow night if you can??
Also posted over here http://nnmpsn.dreamwidth.org/113815.html.
ANYWAY. Big Star. Alex Chilton. Etc etc seminal. And the 3rd album (perhaps more Alex Chilton #1 solo record than Big Star swan song) = odd depressive, studio-formed awesomeness, released several years after its recording, posthumously for Big Star the band. Now brought to life on stage with a string/woodwind/brass section, the original drummer Jody Stephens, and various 80s southern rock stalwarts (Chris Stamey, Miitch Easter, Mike Mills).
And oh just WOW. that was fantastic, really, I was just grinning thru most. Amazing to hear those songs, to hear a dozen or strings swell in on the verses, to hear the rotating cast of lead singers.......... I'm not doing the best job of describing. For those with no way to be here (thery're doing it again tomorrow night) I'd say: find a copy of Big Star's 3rd, and then try to imagine it live... aww. you might not reach the heights of the reality. (good news is that it's being filmed for a documentary on Big Star that is already in the works.)
OK I'll quit now, because I'm utterly unable to convey the wonder of this event. Sorry? Come out tomorrow night if you can??
Also posted over here http://nnmpsn.dreamwidth.org/113815.html.