Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Throwbacks - Big Star


Taking a page from Howie - here's a power pop group that is oft overlooked I find. I stumbled on this band some years back when trying to figure out the origin of the song "Thirteen" as covered by Elliott Smith. Behold, Big Star. Some of their songs might be familiar to you (namely Cheap Trick's cover of "In the Streets," which became the theme song for That 70s Show), but these guys are somewhere between the Flying Burrito Brothers and the Beatles. You can sort of imagine being 15 and really connecting with these songs hardcore. It's not the most sophisticated lyricism but the melodies are clean, catchy, and full. It's fun listening. So, for your pleasure, I'm posting two albums for the price of one - rereleased as a set: #1 Record and Radio City. I find the songs where they're letting it go a little are much better than the ballads, which can get kind of cheesy and high school. Songs like Feel, In the Streets, O My Soul, She's A Mover definitely put a kick in your step and have a more rootsy feel. This is pure pop - most of the songs are under 4 minutes, and it's a fairly basic composition, but there's definitely something to be said for doing pop well. And they do.

Listen

7 comments:

EricMLeventhal said...

Holy shit. I was going to post this album later tonight.

We think alike Brynna.

Hos Misting Hos said...

shut up. no way.

Unknown said...

Great minds think alike. You guys are doing a crack job here. Keep up the good posts.

EricMLeventhal said...

Way. I swear on my life. Fucking bizarro. I wouldn't have posted both; probably just #1 Record...but, I mean, yeah, nutso.

Tinsel Town said...

So funny. My dad stockpiled this album because of the cover art. The photo called "Red Room" was taken taken by William Eggleston a pioneer of color photography.

Lev - Didn't Weiss have that poster in the bottom right hand corner during college?

Thanks for the post B.

EricMLeventhal said...

Weiss did have that sex positions poster. Very well executed. Who is this?

Tinsel Town said...

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