Big Star returns

Happy news for you power pop fans. Right now, the new Big Star album is slated for late August, coming out on Rykodisc. This would make it their belated fourth studio album: Third (aka Sister Lovers) was recorded in '74 but got its first official release in '78, after the band had broken up. This might be a record for time lapse between albums except that the New York Dolls are also working on a belated third album now.

(Actually, the way that I found out about the Dolls record was when one of them inquired about Alex Chilton lyrics. They also know other members of the Star crew. Interesting connection there.)

The B-Star's line-up is the same that they've had since the occasional reunion shows that they've been doing since the early 90's: perennial leader LX Chilton and drummer Jody Stephens plus Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow from Posies (who have their own album coming out). Info about the contents of the new record are somewhat mysterious for now: at a panel at last year's SXSW, when asked what a new B-Star album would sound like, the group cagily replied "that's what we're going to find out!"

Looking to come out in conjunction with this is a B-Star bio in September from Chicago Review Press with this wonderful title: "The Short Life, Painful Death, and Unexpected Resurrection of the Kings of Power Pop." Sums up things pretty nicely, doesn't it?