Song Of the Day: August 25, 2005
I had loved the Embarrassment like I loved my own lungs, so in the fall of 1986 I was intrigued to learn that Bill Goffrier had a new band. Upon hearing their debut EP I was not the least bit disappointed. I've never spent much time with their final LP, the major-label Slam, but all three of their Homestead releases were heavily-relied-upon texts of the era, especially Craps, which contains such parallel-universe hits as "Meet the Witch" and "Ron Klaus Wrecked His House." As for the track presented here, let's just say discretely that this cover of a classic hit single from their youth shows the band somehow both cheeky and reverent and obviously having a great time, a feeling that permeates most everything they ever did.
Also, Dave, Mark, Cody, Chris Hayes, etc. can you verify my failing memory? I seem to recall that when Big Dipper played the Bottleneck in early 1989 that they performed Husker Du's "Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill" as an encore with drummer Jeff Oliphant on vocals. Oliphant had stripped down to his boxers and was frugging madly, and at the conclusion of the number was tackled by extremely tall bassist Steve Michener (ex-Dumptruck) and pitched headlong into the crowd. It was awesome. At least the way I remember it...
6 Comments:
I remember that happening, but was it at the Bottleneck or at Shooters (or whatever that place near Sixth and Vermont was called)? I know I saw Big Dipper play "Jet" there, and somewhere I may still have a poorly mixed board tape to prove it.
Cody
Cody-
Wasn't that place called Smith and Wesson's? It wasn't that show, because while I remember hearing about it, I wasn't there. I also seem to recall that the Sneetches played there once, although I have no idea if that is actually the case. If they did, I'd bet it was a powerful slow night.
Jon
I saw the drummer sing that Husker Du song in Wichita. What a great live band. I love me some Big Dipper.
That version of "Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill" was actually taped at The Bottleneck that night and ended up on an Epic Records promo. I'll post it on my blog for you this week.
HS
And here it is...
http://heyandy.blogspot.com/2005/09/for-jon-harrison-over-at-little-hits.html
HS
How I miss Big Dipper. It's too bad all their stuff seems to be out of print. About a year ago, over the course of a few months, WFMU's Tom Sharpling was talking with the band members about a reunion. I kept waiting for the day, but it seems to have faded away. Who knows?
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