After an otherwise mediocre start to the year, the second half of 2014 looks set to be more promising for aficionados of music films. For a start, fans of Big Star who’ve been waiting for Nothing Can Hurt Me to arrive on UK screens will finally have their patience rewarded when Drew DeNicola and Olivia Mori’s film about Alex Chilton and co finally gets a UK release next month.
Alex Chilton’s career after the dissolution of his most iconic band, Big Star, has been described as “a cautionary tale” by REM bassist Mike Mills in the new issue of Uncut, out on Thursday (March 29).
A bit late posting this today, as deadlines have meant that my ongoing fascination with the Big Star box set finally had to be transformed into a review for the next issue of Uncut.
As you can see, plenty of interesting new things have turned up since I last posted a playlist, not least new albums from Jim O’Rourke and, amazingly, Os Mutantes. This week’s problem, though, is the immense distraction of two wonderful-sounding new boxsets from Rhino; one dedicated to Big Star, the other a four-CD set called “LA Nuggets”.
Memphis power pop is such an ever-expanding genre that Big Star's Alex Chilton, the godfather of the scene, must wish he'd taken out copyright. The Scruffs are one of several pre-Replacements acts who tapped into that antsy girls-on-my-mind mood and pursued the blend of melancholia with added rock'n'roll rush to a logical conclusion. Fronted by Stephen Burns, this second Scruffs album (recorded in 1978/9) contains band staples like "Go Faster", "Alice, Please Don't Go" and the post-Flamin' Groovies blood-letting of "Treachery".
