Group Members:
Similar Artists:
Alex Chilton,
The dB's,
Dwight Twilley,
Scruffs,
Loud Family,
Shoes,
Tommy Keene,
Chris Stamey,
Tommy Hoehn,
Let's Active,
Todd Rundgren,
Richard X. Heyman,
Brad Jones ,
Mitch Easter,
Bill Lloyd,
Stories,
The Hang Ups,
Cargoe ,
The Posies,
Matthew Sweet,
Game Theory,
Teenage Fanclub,
The Replacements,
The Sneakers,
The V-Roys,
The Raspberries,
Van Duren,
Prix ,
Bangles,
Jellyfish,
Marshall Crenshaw,
The Flamin' Groovies,
Holsapple-Stamey,
Joey Molland
Influenced By:
The Beatles,
The Move,
The Byrds,
The Who,
The Beach Boys,
The Kinks,
Badfinger,
Buffalo Springfield,
The Yardbirds,
T. Rex,
The Velvet Underground,
Neil Young,
The Rolling Stones,
The Nazz,
Roy Orbison,
Marc Bolan,
David Bowie,
Mott the Hoople
Followers:
Parthenon Huxley,
Loud Family,
Chris Stamey,
Ventilator ,
Tommy Keene,
Bangles,
Gin Blossoms,
Drivin' n' Cryin',
The Westside Daredevils,
Jellyfish,
The Smithereens,
Let's Active,
Matthew Sweet,
Jacobites,
The Posies,
R.E.M.,
The Cucumbers,
Fountains of Wayne,
The Greenberry Woods,
Teenage Fanclub,
Paul Westerberg,
Game Theory,
The Bigger Lovers,
The Replacements,
The Heavy Blinkers,
The Cavedogs,
Joe, Marc's Brother,
Cinnamon,
Smashing Pumpkins,
Material Issue,
The Diodes,
Ric Menck,
Bill Lloyd,
The Luxury Liners,
The dB's,
Susanna Hoffs,
Happy Hate Me Nots,
Boyfriend ,
Children,
Action Figures,
The Nines,
The Jayhawks,
The Shazam,
Frisbie ,
The Mayflies USA,
Scott McCarl ,
The Beatifics,
Cheap Trick,
Mitch Easter,
Richard X. Heyman,
The Broken West,
Meat Puppets,
Ross ,
The Daffodils ,
The Rooks,
Dash Rip Rock,
Popsicko ,
Barely Pink,
Shake Some Action!,
American Princes,
The Black Crowes,
Chris Cornell,
Majority Dog ,
Dream Syndicate,
dEUS,
The Cars,
Limbeck,
Holsapple-Stamey,
The Lime Giants ,
Florida,
Scott McCaughey,
Gone Fishin (Matt Piucci & Tim Lee) ,
Wilco,
Michael Penn,
The Three O'Clock,
Thomson ,
The Shaky Hands,
Buttercup,
Twenty Cent Crush ,
Liquor Giants,
Ric Ocasek,
Squire,
The Grapes of Wrath,
Will & the Bushmen ,
Travis,
Jeff Buckley,
Los Valendas ,
Gigolo Aunts,
Mockingbirds,
The Jigsaw Seen,
Foxymorons,
Stone Temple Pilots,
Foo Fighters,
The Sneakers,
Gunbunnies,
Kenny Howes,
Dang Trippers,
Scout,
Robyn Hitchcock,
Flying Color,
Twin Princess,
Swinger ,
Taxi Taxi ,
Ours,
The Coral Sea,
Nick Rudd,
Honey Langstumpf ,
The War on Drugs,
Hysterics ,
Starling Electric,
The Prime Ministers,
Gallygows,
The Primary 5,
Myracle Brah,
French Semester ,
The Baseball Project,
Crushed Stars,
The Fags,
Broadfield Marchers,
The Hazey Janes ,
Paul Taylor,
Private Eleanor ,
What Gives ,
The Cassettes,
Ghosty,
Push-Pull ,
Wheels on Fire,
Duglas T.Stewart ,
Cotton Mather,
Sleet,
The Holy Cows,
Roofwalkers ,
Guster,
Two Hours Traffic,
Los Chumps ,
Three Hour Tour,
True Love,
Roger Manning,
Wormwood Brothers ,
Ken Will Morton,
This Mortal Coil,
Peter and the Wolf,
Blown,
Gramercy Arms,
Greg Summerlin,
The Afghan Whigs,
Weird Summer,
The Wombats ,
The Weather Machines,
The V-Roys,
Botticellis,
Rain Parade,
Marc Teamaker,
Earl Greyhound,
The Rewinds,
Lou Ford,
Fiction Factory,
Big Country,
Lisa Germano,
Crash Test Dummies,
Paul Collins,
Superdrag,
Moods for Moderns,
Velvet Crush,
The Surrogate ,
Will Rigby,
Bob Mould,
The Rapture,
The Pastels,
The California Oranges,
Mother Hips,
Elliott Smith,
The Figgs,
Marshall Crenshaw,
The Pieces ,
Semisonic,
Paper Airplane Pilots ,
Deal,
The Nerves,
Mojave 3,
Royal Trux,
Outrageous Cherry,
Weed, Inc.,
Bill Fox,
Sean Lennon,
Porchsleeper ,
Uncle Tupelo,
The Wedding Present,
Mississippi Cactus ,
Hop on Pop ,
The Chills,
The New Pornographers,
The Stand,
XTC,
Richard Hell,
Spike Priggen,
The Only Ones,
Leisure McCorkle,
Dr. Dog,
The All Golden,
Crowded House,
Dj Iglu & Hartly Dark ,
Epic Hero,
Tinted Windows,
Shoes,
Pansy Division,
Captain Soul,
Phantom Planet,
The Negro Problem,
Water School,
Guillemots,
The Lemonheads,
Maple Mars,
Chris Knox,
Fastball,
Robbers on High Street,
Hoodoo Gurus,
For Stars,
Sloan,
Getaway Car,
Supremium,
The Minus 5,
The Shins,
The National,
Mazzy Star,
The Knack,
Ride,
The Records,
The Magic Magicians,
Thee Michelle Gun Elephant,
You Am I,
The High Llamas,
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin,
Liz Phair,
Love Psychedelico,
Jon Brion,
Epic Soundtracks,
Pagoda,
Old 97's,
Guided by Voices,
Gene,
Hüsker Dü,
The Mice ,
Cracker,
Novillero,
Death Cab for Cutie,
Wolf Colonel
Formal Connection With:
- Formed: 1971, Memphis, TN
- Disbanded: 1975
- Genres: Rock
- Representative Albums: "#1 Record", "Third/Sister Lovers", "3rd"
- Representative Songs: "September Gurls", "In the Street", "Back of a Car"
Biography
The quintessential American power pop band, Big Star remains one of the most mythic and influential cult acts in all of rock & roll. Originally led by the singing and songwriting duo of Alex Chilton and Chris Bell, the Memphis-based group fused the strongest elements of the British Invasion era -- the melodic invention of the Beatles, the whiplash guitars of the Who, and the radiant harmonies of the Byrds -- into a ramshackle but poignantly beautiful sound which recaptured the spirit of pop's past even as it pointed the way toward the music's future. Although creative tensions, haphazard distribution, and marketplace indifference conspired to ensure Big Star's brief existence and commercial failure, the group's three studio albums nevertheless remain unqualified classics, and their impact on subsequent generations of indie bands on both sides of the Atlantic is surpassed only by that of the Velvet Underground.The roots of Big Star lie in the group Icewater (also known as Rock City), formed in 1971 by singer/guitarist Bell in association with guitarist Steve Ray, bassist Andy Hummel, and drummer Jody Stephens. Ray left the group a short time after its inception and was soon replaced by Chilton, the onetime Box Tops vocalist who was just 16 years old when the group topped the pop charts with their 1967 classic, "The Letter." Chilton had recently returned to Memphis after attempting to mount a solo career in New York City; he first played with Bell years earlier in a high school cover band, and with his arrival Icewater rechristened itself Big Star, borrowing the name from a local supermarket chain. Recording soon commenced at the local Ardent Studios, where Bell occasionally worked as an engineer and session guitarist; despite solid critical notice and some radio airplay, their brilliant 1972 debut, #1 Record, nevertheless fell prey to the distribution problems of the newly-formed Ardent label's parent company Stax -- more often than not, the album simply never made its way to retailers.
In the meantime, Bell and Chilton continued to butt heads over Big Star's direction -- the former envisioned a primarily studio-oriented project, while the latter preferred performing live; moreover, Chilton's past success in the Box Tops guaranteed him the lion's share of attention from listeners and critics, minimizing Bell's own contributions in the process. In late 1972 Bell finally left the band -- his subsequent attempts to mount a solo career proved largely fruitless, with only a spectacular solo single, "I Am the Cosmos," receiving official release prior to his untimely death in a 1978 car crash. (A posthumous solo compilation, also titled I Am the Cosmos, was finally issued to unanimous critical acclaim in 1992.) Following Bell's exit, Big Star briefly struggled on as a three-piece before disbanding, with Chilton returning to his stalled solo career; months later, he reteamed with Hummel and Stephens to play a local music writers' convention, and the performance was so well-received that they decided to make the reunion permanent.
Big Star's second album, 1974's Radio City, remains their masterpiece -- ragged and raw guitar-pop infused with remarkable intensity and spontaneity. It also contained perhaps their best-known song, the oft-covered cult classic "September Gurls." (Another highlight, "Back of a Car," bears the unmistakable input of Chris Bell, although the duration and extent of his return to duty is unknown.) Distribution difficulties again undermined whatever hopes of commercial success existed, however, and Hummel soon announced his resignation; Chilton and Stephens recruited bassist John Lightman for a handful of East Coast live dates, including a WLIR radio broadcast later issued as Big Star Live. Work on a planned third album soon began, but the sessions proved disastrous as Chilton, reeling from years of music industry exploitation and frustration, effectively sabotaged his own music -- where Radio City teetered on the brink of collapse, the new songs tumbled over completely, culminating in one of the most harrowingly bleak pop records ever made. An album's worth of material was completed and shelved, and then Big Star was no more.
The story might have ended there, but in 1978 the third Big Star album was finally issued overseas -- various titled Third and/or Sister Lovers, it appeared for years in essentially unauthorized versions containing neither the complete session nor the proper sequencing. Still, the record earned a significant cult following, and with the emergence of the nascent power pop movement, it became increasingly clear just how prescient Big Star's music had been. Countless alternative rock bands -- R.E.M., the Replacements, the dB's, and Teenage Fanclub, to name just four -- cited the band's enormous influence in the years to follow, and in 1993 the Posies' Jonathan Auer and Ken Stringfellow backed Chilton and Stephens for a reunion gig at the University of Missouri, a performance captured on the Columbia live disc. To the surprise of many, the Big Star reunion continued with tours of Europe and Japan, and -- most shocking of all -- even an appearance on television's The Tonight Show, although no new studio recordings were forthcoming. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
