Big Star

as these things *go*

ody Stephens & Luther Russell are Those Pretty Wrongs...

Those Pretty Wrongs (2016) & Zed For Zulu (2019) were both released to great critical success and the duo toured much of the US, Europe and Australia delighting crowds with Those Pretty Wrongs music. There's an undeniable influence of Stephens’ former band (Big Star) in the breezy melodies, the strong, simple and straightforward arrangements, beautifully built around the duo’s harmonies. Both albums were originally recorded at the legendary Ardent Studios in Memphis.

Billed as "Double the PRETTINESS for the price of one" and inspired by the classic truck-stop LP two-fers (along with the desire to update the vinyl pressing with premium cutting, and packaging) Curation Records has teamed up with Those Pretty Wrongs to not only put their two LPs back in print, but to also remind the world of the power of "pretty music."

The deluxe reissue of Those Pretty Wrongs / Zed For Zulu will be available as a Limited 2xLP Vinyl Gatefold Set, as well as CD and digital/streaming formats February 2022 via Curation Records. Click here to pre-order. You'll figure it out.
Here's what folks have been saying about Those Pretty Wrongs...

"What shines through this gorgeous collection of tunes is the ease and simplicity of it all... it’s a collection of beautifully structured songs that could have been written any time between 1963 and yesterday." - Ian Rushbury, POPMATTERS

"... some extremely pretty folk." - Collin Robison, STEREOGUM

"These pure popsters contemporize ‘a golden age of rock and roll,’ with nary a whit of self-consciousness." - Doug Collette, GLIDE MAGAZINE

"Fans of Big Star and all the groups that they influenced - from REM to The dBs - will want to check this out immediately!" - Mark Smotroff, AUDIOPHILE REVIEW

"The music Those Pretty Wrongs makes is enjoyable, warm, heart-filling, soulful pop with acoustic flavors and harmonies – and I can ask for nothing better. Actually, here’s the simplest criteria – I love it. And so will you." - Min Read, POPDOSE

"If you like pop songs full of longing and wistfulness sung and performed with a master's touch, then this should be right up your alley. Those Pretty Wrongs have crafted a lovely homage to the softer side of smart pop that are perfect for late at night or a rainy afternoon." - Mark Deming, ALLMUSIC

"... a great LP that reflects the traditions of past acoustic music... overall it’s a solid win for these two veteran musicians." - Ben Rosner, PASTE

Sorry ody!

The guitar on Lucky Guy really does sound exactly like Thirteen

sequence from Sweet Soul Music thread (copied to main Alex Chilton thread

Judging by "Boogie Shoes" on YouTube, most of the appeal of the Alex Chilton/Hi Rhythm live album might be insrumental, which reminds me: here they are with Terry Manning, better known as a producer and engineer at Ardent etc. but his rough-and-ready vocal approach works better with HRS live than Chilton's (comparing just one track to another):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5lyZHzReSk

(Chilton seems a bit cautious by comparison---their set was a one-off, but so was Manning's w HRS---filling in at the last minute for a no-show, and just taking the plunge, what the hell---this is the only live track on his album, and really seemed like the only keeper---according to the press sheet, he did a Box Tops Chilton parody for kicks, and was ordered to create an album around it, which mostly seemed like filler, but I didn't listen much)

However!
So Chilton does okay after all, though yeah of course Hi Rhythm Gang is the main interest, esp. horns and bass, though everybody steps up--most songs go on a little over four minutes and a half minutes; the studio originals were at least a minute shorter, but but we get more solo turns and full Section flexing, comfortably. Fave is the penultimate performance, "Hello Josephine," where a Hi man starts the vocal, Chilton coming in later: a very robust 7:12 work-out, calm as ever. Also: Motown gets the Memphis treatment on "Where Did Our Love Go," with Chilton as okay stand-in for Diana Ross, though this is one of he shorter ones, as it probably should be).Does not sing as high, loud and fast there as on "Lucille" or "Maybelline." Sounds like Pat Boone looking to go rong on "Kansas City." Any of yall heard this one? xgau sez:
On the Loose [Hi, 1976]
In which Al Green's sidemen, perhaps disgruntled at Al's unwillingness to record their material, get together and cut it. Some stickler for detail is sure to point out that the singing on side two is completely out of tune, but that's OK--so is most of the singing on side one, which I prefer to Full of Fire. One of the more carefully thought out tracks features a mildly malicious lyric about Green himself, but it's the eccentricity of the music, which sounds as if it includes a banjo, that does him in. Loose indeed. A-
Anyway, very good music for a holiday weekend, has me looking to go for b-b-q chicken.

― dow, Thursday, July 1, 2021

That's this
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81gT88tp2qL._SL1200_.jpg

Alex Chilton and Hi Rhythm Section:
Boogie Shoes: Live On Beale Street

MAGNET Magazine
@MAGNETMagazineHappy birthday #ChrisBell (@BigStarBand, @chrisbell_story, @ArdentStudios).

You gave us light. Read two exclusive excerpts from “There Was A Light: The Cosmic History Of Chris Bell And The Rise Of Big Star” (@PermutedPress):

https://magnetmagazine.com/2020/10/29/magnet-exclusive-excerpt-from-there-was-a-light-the-cosmic-history-of-chris-bell-and-the-rise-of-big-star-by-rich-tupica/

https://magnetmagazine.com/2019/01/15/magnet-exclusive-excerpt-from-there-was-a-light-the-cosmic-history-of-chris-bell-the-rise-of-big-star-by-rich-tupica/

That book is good, I have it.

good stuff, alex chilton was/is the coolest

how did it take me this long to realize that line from "in the street" is "wish we had a joint so bad" i always just kind of blurred it over for some reason.

What did you think he was singing? Serious question

Wish we'd had/adjoined so bad

Never thought it could be anything else.

i've heard that song a million times and never thought about what he was singing there, haha

i should start listening to words in other songs, see what's there!

Worth a try, what have you got to lose?

I've spent the last 30 years thinking it was "wish we hadda joined some band" and frankly wish I still did.

Never been sure if the joint is a spliff, or a crashpad (cos they're hanging out on the street)

I always like it when this thread is revived because I think mark s's opening comment taught me not to get upset about opinions on a music message board

Karl unfamiliar with joints?
Nope that’s not it

I can see the confusion since the song or album or anything else the band did otherwise doesn't have much of a stoner vibe.

Aside from the entire third/sister lovers album of course

Right I knew that would come up. But is it even a stoner vibe, exactly?

huh? oh sorry man--is stoner vibe about exactly tho?

But is it even a stoner vibe, exactly?

Any downs at all
Any downs at all

alex chilton tilted toward harder drugs, i think. chris bell seems like the most stoner of all stoner guys of all time.

in general big star codes way more with drinking imo

otm
https://popturf.com/locations/music/big-star/tgi-fridays-former

“Play it for me guitarist”

ilxor tylerw:

nearly half of the setlist is made up of covers, including tunes by the Kinks, Loudon Wainwright III and T. Rex. Perhaps the most interesting of these is the only (as far as I know) known Big Star version of the Velvet Underground’s “Candy Says.” Remarkable that, along with his later cover of “Femme Fatale,” Chilton was so tuned in to the softer side of Lou Reed’s songwriting at this point in the 70s. Most of the proto-punk/punk scene focused on the other extreme of his stuff, right?

At least once, also covered "The Bed" (but as he says, "no tape has emerged"---has it?)

Started to doubt myself about this factoid but here’s where I got it — holly George warren’s Chilton bio. pic.twitter.com/vktevlinm4

— Tyler Wilcox (@tywilc) March 31, 2022

Here's some anecdotal evidence that he may not even have known about some of the other side of Lou Reed's songwriting:

"Sweet Jane" was already becoming a bit of standard among those 'in the know' in those pre-Rock'n'Roll Animal days: Mott The Hoople recorded it at Bowie's urging as the opening cut on All The Young Dude's, and I was recently reminded the Brownsville Station included it on Yeah! (the album which gave us "Smokin' In The Boy's Room").

Wow at Brownsville Station. Mitch Ryder was apparently into Loaded, believe he covered something off of it, "Rock & Roll" maybe.

Then the Runaways borrowed his arrangement for their version.

XP Yeah, "Rock & Roll" on the Detroit album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mag6jxiHXXk

Steve Hunter on guitar and Bob Ezrin producing.

Yes, was just reading about that connection.

yeah, that's a good album---I always liked Ryder more than xgau, and I'd give this an A minus:

Detroit [Paramount, 1971]
Despite the old strain and stridency, the way Mitch Ryder swells with an infusion of the Host upon contact with a Wilson Pickett song is more welcome than ever. So is former Detroit Wheel Johnny Bee--these days any drummer who can play rock and roll without turning into some machine is a precious resource. And whoever told Mitch to put Ron Davies's "It Ain't Easy," Chuck Berry's "Let It Rock," and the Velvet Underground's "Rock 'n Roll" on the same album wins a James Taylor dartboard. B+

Seems like Brownsville Station could have done Chilton & Co. a solid and covered "Don't Lie To Me".

Pulled out my vinyl Yeah! and their "SJ" cover has a chiming electric guitar part straight out of "September Gurls" while Alex may have appreciated them marrying "Barefootin'" to a T. Rex "Bang A Gong"-style riff.

From Dave Marsh’s Lou obit:

So I turn around about the third time I’m playing the tracks back to back, top volume on those huge speakers we had (the floor speakers in the huge square cabinets, ElectroVoice maybe?) and there stands Johnny B, Mitch Ryder’s great drummer and one of my mentors in how to listen and what to listen to. And he’s doing one of his B things–Stewart will know what I mean, with his jaw dropping and his fingers poppin’–because Mitch’s rehearsal upstairs had just ended. And then the rest of the band comes in and we are all standing there with our brains in tatters.

Six months later, I’m sitting at a table at the Waldorf, some room where Mitch is doing an debut party for his Detroit, and they hit “Rock’n’Roll,” which they’d worked up about a day after first hearing it. We were sitting right up front, and Lou leans over from across the table next to us and says, “That’s what that song was supposed to sound like.”

Was trying to remember that story, thanks!

lou borrowed Detroit's guitarist for rock'n'roll animal.

Producer too, if I read C. Grisso/ McCain’s post correctly.

Yeah, Ezrin brought in Hunter and another Detroit (this case, city, not Mitch's band) guitarist, Dick Wagner, to play on Berlin and then the Rock N Roll Animal tour + album. Wagner was leader of the Frost, holding their own between Stooges, MC5 etc., but one prob may have been that they were on Vanguard. Also good with Ursa Major, which incl. Billy Joel early on, then a guy from Amboy Dukes.
Ryder quoted Reed's comment in his often scary and scarry autobio, but I didn't repeat it because hadn't seen verification.
Bringing it back to Chilton, he and Ryder both settled into working the oldies band and solo newies circuits: "Time to make another $9000 album for Germany," Ryder cheerfully announced to an interviewer. Europe has been his base for a long time.

So about this new Guided By Voices song.

I like it. Pollard’s output has been generally strong with this latest lineup.

Why talk about it here? Not policing, just curious.

It's a tribute to Big Star called "Alex Bell".

The title kind of broke my brane.

Ha, it took me seeing the 7" cover art to actually understand the title.

I assume he wanted to avoid confusion with the former Hull City striker.

https://www.programmecollector.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/book_chillo.jpeg.jpeg

a musical tribute to alex trebek and kristen bell