Alex Chilton: Ocean Club '77 (Norton Records/2015)

In 1977, Alex Chilton was in a time of transition. The band he'd fronted as a teen idol The Box Tops broken up in 1970 and the Power Pop legends Big Star – the band that Chris Bell had formed with Alex, Andy Hummell and Jody Stevens - had broken up in early 1975. Chilton had just released the Singer Not The Song EP and to properly promote it he moved in New York. There he formed a band with Chris Stamey (later of the dB's) on bass and Lloyd Fonroff on drums. Later that year the band was known as Alex Chilton and the Cossacks and had Fran Kowolski on keyboards.

Ocean Club '77 is what might be dubbed an official bootleg. It was approved by the Chilton estate. It claims to be a soundboard show. Which it may well be, albeit a poorly-mic'd one. The cover art font doesn't do it any favors either. However, the packaging is nice enough, with nice liner notes as well.

The first thing you hear is Chilton ordering a “Canadian Whiskey & Coca Cola on the rocks” from the stage to the bar. So, immediately you know it's going to be a fairly loose affair. Which it is. Although, it's not too loose as the rhythm section of Stamey & Fonoroff are tight-enough.

The song selection is pretty wonderful. “September Gurls”, “In The Street”, “O My Soul”, “Way Out West” and “Back Of A Car” all get confident airings. The Third nugget “Nightime” does as well – a good year before it's release. “The Letter” gets a different, slower arrangement. “Can't Seem To Make You Mine” (a cover of the Seeds' classic), “Window's Hotel”, “All Of The Time”, “My Rival” and “She Might Look My Way” all of which appeared on the rejected Elektra Demos, are in fine form here. As well as covers of the rock classics “Memphis”, “Wouldn't It Be Nice”, Walk Don't Run” and Nelson Slater's Lou Reed-produced “Dominating Force”.

Definitely recommended for the Chiltonphile of Big Star devotee.  

Here's the very special video review version:

Special Thanks to: Ebet Roberts, Norton Records and Dave Rerecich for making me vanish at the end. Into thin air. 

Big Star: Complete Columbia (Volcano/2016)

This year's Record Store Day spawned a number of interesting releases. One of which was Complete Columbia from Memphis, TN cult legends, Big Star. On April 25, 1993 Big Star reunited to play at University Of Missouri. The band hadn't played together since early 1975, and given Chilton's inclination to dismiss the band in interviews it was surprising to even drummer Jody Stevens that the reunion ever happened. Fortunately, it did. The two students who were in charge of the Spring Fling concert at the University Of Missouri were huge Big Star fans and called Jody Stephens, at Ardent Studios (where Stephens still works). He agreed to do the show if Chilton would. To everyone's surprise, Chilton agreed.

The Posies' Jon Aur and Ken Stringfellow, filled in the line-up to replace the late Chris Bell on guitar and the (now) late Andy Hummel on bass, respectively. The band played a great, if sloppy, performance. Legendary music journalist Bud Scoppa, a huge fan of the band, was at this time head of A&R at Zoo Records, recorded the show and it was released to favorable reviews. The album cover artwork is something of a reference to the Radio City artwork and even features a photo from William Eggleston (who also took the photo that adorns Radio City).

The RSD release is the first domestic vinyl release of the album and contains six additional bonus tracks from the show. Upping the number of tracks to 21 over the 1993 CD's 14. It's an excellent and must-have release of any Big Star fan.

Here's The Video Review:

Big Star: Jesus Christ 10" EP (Omnivore Records/2015)

This was a pleasant surprise. I didn't even know about this until I wandered in to a local record store and saw this item staring right back at me in the Record Store Day/Black Friday section of 10" vinyl by the counter. Apparently, this is a taster of the forthcoming Complete Third box set coming out in 2016. This is the third Big Star release on Omnivore Records in the last few years (the others being the Nothing Can Hurt Me soundtrack and Live In Memphis) and by all accounts they've done right by Big Star fans.

What's on it? It 's the album version of the now-semi-holiday classic "Jesus Christ", the demo version of "Jesus Christ" (which made it's debut on the Keep An Eye On The Sky 2009 Rhino box set). Two untitled instrumentals by Chris Bell (that were in the Nothing Can Hurt Me documentary). A demo of "Big Black Car". "Thank You Friends (TV Mix)". And "Another Time, Another Place & You"

"Another Time, Another Place & You"  is something of a holy grail amongst Big Star fans as there is still some debate as to who plays on it, when it was recorded and what it's intended purpose was. Even the songwriting credits are somewhat mysterious. It was co-written with sometime drummer Richard Rosebrough and either Chris Bell or Alex Chilton. The credits in Nothing Can Hurt Me attribute it to Bell/Rosebrough while this record credits Chilton/Rosebrough.

These songs were the some of the last that band recorded (either demos or studio cuts in 1974 for the legendary Third album, and/or the Chris Bell tracks). It's a beautiful looking blue 10" EP and it sounds beautiful as well. It comes with an mp3 download card. The cover art comes from a 1973 Ardent Records promotional Big Star poster. It's so nice that these rare tracks are finally becoming commonplace for all to obtain and are out on various releases for Big Star obsessives like myself to pick up.

If you're a Big Star fan and a vinyl connoisseur, this item is just waiting to be purchased by you.

Here's the video review: