Big Star was in born Memphis, Tennessee, in 1971 to Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Jody Stephens and Andy Hummel. This month, Rhino released Keep an Eye on the Sky, a collection that spans 1968 to 1975 and shows the progression of Big Star through selections from such studio precursors as Rock City and Icewater; music from Big Star’s acclaimed recordings (#1 Record, Radio City, and Third/Sister Lovers); and relevant solo work by group principals Alex Chilton and Chris Bell, who formed Big Star in 1971 with bassist Andy Hummel and drummer Jody Stephens. The collection also uncovers a trove of unreleased demos, unused mixes, alternate versions of songs, and a 1973 concert recorded in Memphis. (Buy it at Rhino.)
All told there’s 98 tracks here, revealing the quiet brilliance and subtle influence the band has become known for over the years. Their unique blend of Brit-pop flavored American rock didn’t sell as well as some records of the ’70s, but as time goes by they garner more and more praise as catalysts for an entire wave of pop music. For fans, Keep an Eye on the Sky represents Big Star’s comeuppance, a well-deserved ode that’s been a long time coming. Gorgeous packaging includes never before seen photos, essays about the music, extensive liner notes and thoughts from the band. One in particular that caught our eye was from drummer Jody Stephens, who says, “Sure, it would’ve been nice to have been huge at the time. But, here we are, 30 years later, and Big Star is still playing, our music is turning up in movie soundtracks, and young people are still excited to discover the records. I mean, if that isn’t success, I don’t know what is.”
We agree. We took a moment to catch up with Stephen and talk about Ardent, the future of Big Star, and the success they’re enjoying now, never too late.
How has Ardent changed over the years?
With regard to the labels and our publishing company, the general focus is still on producing music we all like and connect with. With regard to the studios, technology has changed things quite a bit. Most clients use Pro Tools now, but we still have analog projects like The Raconteurs and The White Stripes. Jack White brought those projects to our engineer, John Hampton, on 8 track one inch analog tape. they mixed to 1/2 inch tape.
This weekend during the Monolith Festival at Red Rocks we continued our “WOXY Wants To Know” video series. We had a chance to chat with a couple members of These United States, whose third album Everything Touches Everything is yet another excellent record from one of our favorite bands.
In what quite possibly is the best interview from our time at Bonnaroo, John Roderick of The Long Winters and I sat down and talked. It is also one of the longer interviews but it is not without its really funny moments. John and I cover, among other things, Tool, his MSNBC blog, the next Long Winters album, and other various items.
As Bonnaroo was winding down and we had done all of our interviews for the weekend, I headed off to take some more photos, which we shared with you here. Earlier in the weekend I had seen the guys from Sam Champion hanging around after a performance and told them to stop by our area at some point during the weekend.
Well, when the guys stopped by I was gone, and our stuff was mostly packed up, but Bryan J set a few things back up and let the guys from Sam Champion interview themselves, the results are really funny, view it below…….
Another Bonnaroo interview today, this time featuring our friends from The National. Bryan and Scott sat down with me and talked a bit more about Boxer. We invited Matt in a bit later and all chatted about the Bengals, and old WOXY memories…..Enjoy!
Alot of you know I am a big Wilco fan, so it was obviously a thrill to be able to sit down and chat with guitarist Nels Cline. It happened out of the blue as I saw Nels walking by and recognized him. I ran up to say hello and tell him I was a fan and all that good stuff. I mentioned that we were trying to get Jeff or someone from the band to sit down and talk with us for a minute and he just blurted out, “well, talk to me now.” Of course, I could not resist so we talked for one of our longer interviews (still under 10 min). Check it out below…..
We tried to get Britt Daniel of Spoon to sit down with us during the second day of Bonnaroo 2007 with no success. The band was incredibly busy running around doing other press. However, we were lucky enough to grab Britt and Jim at random on the last day of the festival. It was so spontaneous that we had already taken down our banner and were packing up our area. When I saw the guys and they agreed to sit down, we rushed to get our area back in order and do the interview. Of course, Spoon’s new album, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is in stores this week, I highly recommend you pick it up.
It worked out great though, and Britt even lets loose a BAM during our talk. Check it out.
Big Star was in born Memphis, Tennessee, in 1971 to Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Jody Stephens and Andy Hummel. This month, Rhino released Keep an Eye on the Sky, a collection that spans 1968 to 1975 and shows the progression of Big Star through selections from such studio precursors as Rock City and Icewater; music from Big Star’s acclaimed recordings (#1 Record, Radio City, and Third/Sister Lovers); and relevant solo work by group principals Alex Chilton and Chris Bell, who formed Big Star in 1971 with bassist Andy Hummel and drummer Jody Stephens. The collection also uncovers a trove of unreleased demos, unused mixes, alternate versions of songs, and a 1973 concert recorded in Memphis. (Buy it at Rhino.) 
