Big Dipper returns! Concert Preview

So its early 1989, and I’m wearing through the vinyl copies of the first two Big Dipper albums Heavens and Craps, and putting “She’s Fetching” and “Ron Klaus” on all my mixtapes. I talked my friend Mary into seeing their gig at CBGB’s because she worked at A&R at A&M Records. To my surprise, she and the rest of the industry insiders were already following Big Dipper and the CB’s gig ended up being an event where half the crowd worked for a record company.

Big Dipper eventually signed with Epic and released an entirely forgettable album, and broke up without recording again. Mary moved to Nashville and opened a music store. My copies of Heavens, Craps, along with the ultra-rare single cover of McCartney’s “Jet” (pictured above) gathered dust along with the rest of my vinyl collection.

Now its nearly 20 years later and those memories came flooding back when I saw this post on brooklynvegan. Merge Records resurrected one of the great forgotten bands of the 1980s, compiled all their Homestead releases (minus “Jet”), and released a 48 track 3-CD set Supercluster: The Big Dipper Anthology in March.

In support of Supercluster, Big Dipper will do three very special live performances — their first together as a band in over 18 years. Here are the dates:

04/24 Maxwell’s (Hoboken, NJ)
04/25 Southpaw (Brooklyn, NY)
04/26 Middle East (Cambridge, MA)

And the bonus…thanks to the wonderful people at Merge Records, in agreement with the band, nyctaper will be recording the Southpaw concert! Its not CB’s and Mary won’t be there (I think), but the buzz will be the same. Big Dipper is back!

Sample the music:
Big Dipper: She’s Fetching MP3

Purchase the Anthology from Merge (here).
See you at the concerts.