Customer Reviews

Supercluster: The Big Dipper Anthology

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4 star:		(1)
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Let me start by saying that I've been a passionate music fan my entire life, throughout all genres of rock & roll, and I consider Boston's Big Dipper - Gary Waleik, Bill Goffrier, Jeff Oliphant, Steve Michener - to be one of the greatest rock bands I have ever heard. Incredible twin-lead guitar interplay between Goffrier & Waleik and witty offbeat lyrics from shared lead vocals (Goffrier & Waleik again, complementing each other to no end) combined with a powerful Oliphant-Michener rhythm section to result in one of the most unique bands this country has ever produced.

The new 3-disc Supercluster anthology on Merge Records begins with their debut EP Boo-Boo, an off-the-rails adrenaline rush that always holds melody at the core of its shambolic tunes. Faith Healer and Loch Ness Monster are indie-rock classics, with my personal favorite being the absolutely insane Wrong In The Charts, with its thunderous guitars and references to vital cultural icons such as Gabby Hayes and Jacques Chirac. I'm a mess indeed.......

Then it's on to full-length debut Heavens, possibly the most unique and varied of Dipper's releases. Running all over the map from jangle-pop landmarks She's Fetching and All Going Out Together, to hard-rocking Easter Eve and Mr. Woods, to the mandolin and Oliphant-locomotive drumbeat driving Man O' War, the rousing anthem When Men Where Trains, and the dark twists & turns of the superb Lunar Module, all with the ever-inventive guitars and powerhouse drumming, this album most shows the originality and versatility of Big Dipper.

Disc 2 revolves around terrific 2nd full-length Craps and sees Dipper in a bit of a transitional mode, with songs that are a little more smooth and a lot more pretty, but without the band losing a bit of their distinctive sound. Opener Meet The Witch is one of their crowning achievements, a gorgeous pop masterpiece with each pristine verse rising to meet a grand chorus complete with Byrds-like harmonies. A melancholy mood runs through a few of the best songs: the lovely Bonnie, with its amazing guitar intro & solo; Semjase, which starts bird-chirping solemn and builds into an epic second half; and the haunting Bells Of Love. Not all is mellow though, as the bouncing Hey! Mr. Lincoln and bass-chugging humorous true story Ron Klaus Wrecked His House lend some classic Dipper wit, while A Song To Be Beautiful is best described by Michener in the liner notes as lovely chaos. Disc 2 is rounded off with a load of bonus tracks including the frantic guitar workout Lou Gehrig's disease, the hyper-speed punk of You're Not Patsy, and a tremendous demo (this is a demo?!) of Slam track Life Inside The Cemetery.

Disc 3 contains the post-Slam album that for many years was "lost in the stars" titled Very Loud Array. Far from an odds & ends collection, this contains many songs that are on a par with Dipper's very best and clearly shows that they had a lot more to offer as they soldiered on after the break with Epic. Highlights include the energetic ode to Elvis Wake Up The King, Oliphant's fantastic lead vocal turn on the ultra-catchy Edith (Row) that answers the eternal question of how to successfully bring a Briggs & Stratton into a singalong pop song, bizarre & moody Restaurant Cloud, country-rock Dead River, the exceptionally unique Approach Of A Human Being (where Goffrier's spacey tremolo battles Waleik's jagged crunch throughout), and ending the set is the extraordinary Extraordinary Worm.

The often-maligned major label debut Slam is not represented here. However I've always felt that while Slam certainly suffers from weak production, this album still contains a half-dozen of Dipper's very best songs, namely Love Barge, Impossible Things (Before Breakfast), Bony Knees Of Nothing, Life Inside The Cemetery, Blood Pact, and Picnic. Hopefully someday this album will also receive the remastering job and reissue it deserves.

Thanks to Merge Records and producer Gary Waleik for doing such a wonderful job with this reissue. This is a beautiful first-class package from Bill Goffrier's always-attractive cover art, through a foldout digipak containing glossy photos, entertaining liner notes from the band on each song, and insightful essays from Waleik and Boston radio personality Tom Scharpling (also a catalyst in the upcoming reunion shows). The remastering job is excellent, bringing out the power and nuances of the songs and making them sound as though they could have been recorded yesterday. Put quite simply, despite a traditional guitars / bass / drums lineup, nobody plays guitars and drums quite like this and Big Dipper sounds like nobody else. If you consider yourself a rock music fan, particularly of genre labels such as "indie-rock", "post-punk" or "power-pop", and have not heard Big Dipper, you have no idea what you're missing. Please do yourself a favor and find out.......

..but finally, oh yes finally, Big Dipper have a proper anthology, collecting all of their Homestead material plus some post-Slam tracks. Great liner notes, including members thoughts on each of the tracks. Kudos to Merge for putting this out, and lets see if Big Dipper gets together for a reunion tour.

Good record and I was pleased that I got it in about 4 days after the order.Can't beat that with a hickory stick.I am a newbie ordering stuff from Amazon and I was a bit hesitant at first but the reviews of some of the companies and people who've dealt with them eased my fears. Thanks.

Big Dipper were the darlings of the indie crowd back in the late 80's-- the band who never had a hit, but should have been at the top of the charts. Hook filled pop, ringing guitars, snappin' drums and great melodies, I still wonder how it happened they never made it big. This anthology includes everything they released on Homestead, their first label from the still incredible "Boo Boo", one of the best debut records I've ever heard to "Craps", their second full length album (by the way, that platter is still sitting on my old turntable in storage-the last vinyl I played when I switched to CD)plus a nice selection of bonus tracks, singles only tunes, and demos-and that's only the first two of three discs.

When they released their one and only Major Label album- "Slam", the indie crowd turned on them for "selling out" and they failed to capture a new audience, were dropped by Epic, and Steve Michener, bass, left the band. While "Slam" is not included in this collection, the third disc is comprised of recordings the band made after the Epic fiasco, and gives us a good idea of what could have been. "Restaurant Cloud", "Lifetime Achievement Award", "Approach of a Human Being", and "Extraordinary Worm" are all standout, but really, there isn't much throwaway material here, if any. This collection has been in constant rotation on my player since I got it, and if you love power pop, you'll love this too, Even if you weren't there back then.

I haven't even heard these CDs yet and I'm giving them 5 stars---because I've been waiting for years for a re-release of "Craps." And here it is with all of the other Big Dipper releases, for a price I'd pay just for that one CD!

My nominees for best under-rated 1980s releases: "The Crossing" by Big Country. "Are You Shakespeareanced?" by Trip Shakespeare. And "Craps" by Big Dipper. This one is going to be worth the money. Thanks to whoever is responsible for bringing these back out.

I have had this compilation CD since it came out this spring and it has rarely been out of my CD player in the car. Without a doubt the finest music to emerge from the Boston rock scene of the late '80's. I feel cheated that I never heard of this band until recently. The music defies categorization except to say that it has tremendous heart, energy and wit. The playing is sloppy but never derivative - it is truly unique and joyous to listen to. The lyrics may strike you as plain weird at first but they all have their own logic if you give them a chance. It helps if you were a geek as a teen/young adult. It helps even more if you were studying a science related field. I give it 4 stars only because the 3rd CD of unreleased material doesn't hold up in comparison to the 1st 2 CD's. The band ran out of steam after their major label debacle and it shows.

What an awesome collection by one of the great indie bands of the 80's. Only dissappointment is lack of live tracks. Of course, a live collection would be an excellent follow up release!!! <hint hint>

From the embers of the Embarrassment and the Volcano Suns came Big Dipper - smart-alecky aggro-pop from Beantown. There's nary a dud on this collection, which includes the Dipper's first EP (Boo Boo) and subsequent indie LP's (Heavens and Craps) in their entirety. It also includes heretofore unreleased recordings made after the band was signed and unceremoniously dropped from major label Epic records. For the price of a single CD, you get the whole catalog - so picking this one up should really be a no-brainer.