Big Dipper – Heavens real Alt College Rock

Big Dipper – Heavens real Alt College Rock

by | Aug 17, 2011 | 1980's, Bob Mould, Merge Records

Big Dipper Heavens LP album cover

Big Dipper

North East rock was never so eloquently defined than by the alternative music vehicle known as Big Dipper. I meant this to be a follow-up post on the music from City Gardens Riot on the Dance Floor post but needless to say when a group makes a melodic dent like these guys did it’s worth one of my retro-posts because a lot of the submissions I’m getting just don’t rank. This is though one of those bands I trekked down to Trenton to see opening up I think for Robyn Hitchcock. Way back when my friend A.Rockman went to Lehigh, I used to go visit him weekend night’s he’d have a late night shift on 91.3 FM WLVR. This is where I first heard Dumbtruck which featured guys from Big Dipper too. This is the independent “college rock” I remember best. Spinning their first EP Boo Boo was a ear explosion of melody and rough guitars minus the delay pedal present in bands like Echo & The Bunnymen with the same sing-song sense. The follow-up Heavens delivered even more of the same jangle rock. Straight-up songs that fit nicely with The Smithereens, The Feelies and the more melodic tunes by Hüsker Dü on my mix tapes. While short lived in their 7 year history it was awesome to see them play on the Heavens tour as I remember them being one of the tallest bands in world who seemed almost cramped up against the low ceiling on the City Gardens stage. Check out their Anthology out now on Merge!

All Going Out Together MP3 by Big Dipper from Heavens
Faith Healer MP3 Originally on the Boo Boo EP

Bonus tracks:
Celebrated Summer
Strangers When We Meet MP3 by The Smithereens from Especially for you (1986)
Stars Grow Colder MP3 by Dumptruck from Lemmings Travel To The Sea (2001) I need to burn something from Positively Dumbtruck which is the correct era unless somebody can swing that my way?
On the Roof MP3 by The Feelies from the Good Earth (1986)
The Killing Moon MP3 by Echo & The Bunnymen from Ocean Rain

Related Junk:
Randy Now Riot on Dance Floor – City Gardens documentary
Album Review: The Feelies release the Good Earth

Live Guided By Voice, Clash, Sex Pistols and Bob Mould

by | Jun 16, 2007 | B-sides, Bob Mould, GBV, Live Mp3s, Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Cure

When in doubt a summer day can be spent lurking around various mp3 blogs and finding a bunch of live jems and forgotten b-sides. To kick it off, with the little Zoester at my side or lap is: Ex-Husker Du maestro Bob Mould live in Santa Monica,CA at McCabes Guitar Shop. His life took a strange turn when he wrote scripts for the WWF. Strange world of rock indeed but allas forgotten disc friday’s blog comes through. Mr. Mould does a nice sprinkling of Black Sheets of Rain and cuts from Workbook.

Next up: one can never get enough live Guided By Voices, here they are live @ Austin City Limits from their last tour from the Aquarium drunkard. Check out his podcast when you get chance.

For whatever reason a few bloggers have been going nuts posting studio and live Clash covers. Both Berkeley Place and Can you see the sunset put up complimenting tracks.
Stands outs are Social distortion doing “Death or Glory”, and anytime Ben Folds does a cover it’s always
with class. Check out his version Of “Lost in the Supermarket”.

And while we’re going down this old punk road, Licorice-pizza posted the set from the last Sex Pistols show in San Francisco, where you can hear the famous
one liner, “Ever Get the Feeling You’ve Been Cheated” by Johnny Rotten.
http://licorice-pizza.blogspot.com/2007/06/ever-get-feeling-youve-been-cheated.html

Bonus: Bandit B-sides posted “A Chain of Flowers” by The Cure.