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Star & Micey

Below is a video of the guys performing a new song called “Jesus and the Devil,” which they’ll be cutting real soon with Curry Weber and John Hampton.  It’s a real fun song with a folk gospel feel.  Watch Nicky Reds punch Josh in the leg at the end.

Here’s another vid from the MMF booth. It’s an unreleased song called “Only I Would Know.” 8Ball and MJG walk up at the end.

And here’s one of them doing a tribute to Alex Chilton by performing “Thirteen” going into one of their unreleased songs, “Gonna Lose My Mind.” This was the first time they played it and ended up changing it up for the Barbarella showcase (if anyone has footage of it, please let me know – jdavis@ardentmusic.com).  They played it at the Hi-Tone the other night and it was incredible.

Alex Chilton’s passing took everyone by surprise and was just terrible news.  But Jody Stephens, stunned and in mourning, pushed forward with John Auer, Ken Stringfellow (of The Posies and current Big Star band members) and original Big Star bassist Andy Hummel. They did the scheduled panel set up by Bob Mehr and put together a tribute to Alex with guest appearances by Chris Stamey of The dB’s, Curt Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets, M. Ward of She & Him and acclaimed solo artist, Mike Mills of R.E.M., John Doe of X, Sondre Lerche, Chuck Prophet, Evan Dando of The Lemonheads, Amy Speace, Susan Cowsill, and The Watson Twins.

You can view the set list here and here are some videos from the show.

Heather West reads a letter from Alex’s wife, Laura Chilton.

M. Ward performing “Big Black Car”

Sondre Lerche singing “Ballad of El Goodo”

Chuck Prophet performing “Thank You Friends”

Susan Cowsill, The Watson Twins, and Andy Hummel singing “September Gurls”

Mike Mills singing “Jesus Christ”

The scheduled May 15th Big Star show at The Levitt Shell (with Star & Micey opening) will still go on as a tribute to Alex. More details to come. And this Tuesday, March 30, Minglewood Hall (1555 Madison Ave) will host an informal memorial gathering for the late, great Alex Chilton. The remembrance, which was organized by Chilton’s sister Cecelia Chilton and his wife Laura Chilton, will take place from 5 to 8 PM and is open to the public.

Diane was working at Ardent back when Radio City was being written and recorded and she used to run around with Alex Chilton and the band.  She claims that “September Gurls” (about her and John Fry’s sister-in-law), “She’s A Mover” (talks about Diane in Catholic school, I believe), “O My Soul” (Diane said Alex didn’t know what a soul was but only knew soul music) and “I’m In Love With Girl” were written about her (or at least that’s what Chilton was telling her).

A little over a year ago, we were getting some things out of Diane’s storage for my brother and we came across 3 or 4 boxes of her vinyl records, which were collecting dust.  She said I could have any of the records I wanted.  I found 8 mint condition, original promo copies of #1 Record (1 was unopened) and 3 copies of Radio City, also in mint condition and original promo copies!  I immediately gave them to most of my co-workers at Ardent because they are the folks that appreciate the band most and I kept a copy of each for myself, of course.  Now I need to get Big Star’s Third on vinyl, but I definitely have all the digital tracks.

Also, Ardent engineer, producer and Big Star guru, Adam Hill, found this picture of my Uncle Buddy (Diane’s brother) with Chris Bell from the 70s.  Buddy was in a local band called Target and I believe this is from one of the mini-tours they did with Big Star back in the 70s.

Like so many others recently discovering Big Star, I wanted to share my appreciation of the band and some of my family history regarding the originators of power pop.  Click HERE to download some free tracks from Big Star and Chris Bell that will give you a little introduction, just in case you didn’t already know about them.  And here are some links to purchase their music if you like what you hear.

Big Star “Keep An Eye On The Sky” Box Set 4-CD Set
Chris Bell “I Am The Cosmos (Deluxe Edition)” 2-CD Set

Big Star “#1 Record” Vinyl
Big Star “Radio City” Vinyl
Big Star “3rd” Vinyl
Chris Bell “I Am The Cosmos” Vinyl
Big Star “#1 Record/Radio City” CD
Big Star “3rd” CD
Big Star “#1 Record/Radio City” MP3 Download
Big Star “3rd” MP3 Download

For anyone that cares, I’ll have another post up soon regarding my Granddaddy, Richard “Johnny” Davis, who was one of the best trumpet players in Memphis.

Joseph Davis
Ardent Music

The audience was one of our best. I think I met, and shook hands with, almost all of them after the show as they passed through the exit. Ardent Music’s Jake Rabinbach (Jump Back Jake) had a smile on his face. No one seemed to mind the inadvertent new arrangement of “September Gurls.” I had just taken off my shoe to locate the source of pain on my toe when Alex started the song. Before I could get my sock and shoe back on he had sung through the first verse so I brought Jon, Ken and myself in with a drum fill for the first chorus. The new arrangement comes off pretty good in the “low fi” YouTube video of it I just watched.

David Fricke, being the nice guy that he is, attended and wrote about the show. His account is much more interesting than what mine would be. So here you are…
http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/11/19/big-star-rock-1-record-radio-city-classics-at-rare-nyc-gig/

Thanks to all who came and lent their wonderful spirits to the show.

- Jody