Stars After Stars After Stars

Spendid Magazine Review

If nothing else, Spike Priggen is a generous man. Not only does he offer both Stars After Stars After Stars and his first album, The Very Thing That You Treasure, for free download on his website; he also sent us a CD featuring the originals of the songs he covers on Stars....

Yes, you read that correctly: for his second outing, Priggen elected to record a covers album. Given that he spent his entire life recording his debut, it's understandable that he might have trouble coming up with an album of new material in just two or three years, but it's still odd, to say the least. Even if the songs he covers aren't very well known, it's a strange career move.

Then again, after listening to Stars After Stars..., you get the idea that maybe writing your own material is overrated, particularly when you're able to make other people's songs sound so much like your own, as Priggen does. In part, this is because the songs he covers -- tracks from acts like Hot Bodies, the Pontiac Brothers and The Jacobites -- are hardly chart-topping hits, so Priggen can apply his Stipe-like vocals and power pop sensibilities to them without immediate concern about unfavorable comparison to the originals. Thus, Jennifer Jackson's "When You Looked At Me" becomes Beatles-tinged country-rock, while Hot Bodies' "In The Inside" and the Pontiac Brothers' "Be Married Song" evolve into big, crunchy pop-rock.

Songs by better-known acts give more of a sense of how much Priggen makes each tune his own. His version of Alice Cooper's "I'm Eighteen", for example, is just as rocking, but his twangy vocals are a distinct change. Similarly, his version of "Questioningly" is a million miles away from what The Ramones did with the original -- it would work well on an early REM record. In Priggen's hands, The Zombies' "How We Were Before" becomes a hybrid of power pop and flamenco, and Big Star's "Nightime" evolves into a beautifully understated acoustic lament.

It's unlikely that Stars After Stars After Stars will bring Priggen much attention or acclaim, except from power pop aficionados who have a thing for covers. That said, it's definitely worth your time to investigate it; not only is it free, but the accompanying blog functions as the sort of old-school liner notes most artists can't be bothered to provide, offering background information and revealing the personal significance behind each song choice. Priggen deserves a bigger, more devoted fan base, and Stars After Stars After Stars can only help it grow.-- Matthew Pollesel

Note From Spike: The music is actually only available as pretty low-res Realplayer files for the most part, although I have been putting them up as mp3s one at a time. I'm not actually giving it away for free (at least, I wasn't meaning to).  Also, I've actually written many more songs than ended up on my first CD and have already recorded 11 songs for my next CD which will be all original songs. As far as it being a weird career move for me to record an all-covers record, I'd have to say, what career? Cool review though. Starts off like it's gonna be really negative, but I won him over!

Downtown Express Feature

Volume 18 • Issue 4 | JUNE 17-23, 20

Spike priggen
Saturday, June 18th
The Lakeside Lounge
162 Avenue B
between 10th and 11th Sts.

Power pop tribute album

New York-based musician sings cover songs

By David Chiu

Spike Priggen may not be a recognizable name to most casual music listeners, and that’s fine with him. “Yeah, nobody knows who I am,” deadpans the 41-year-old singer, songwriter who has been part of the alternative rock scene for over 25 years. “I’m totally obscure. Most of the music I like is really obscure so I can take some solace in that.”

Obscure also best describes the NewYork-based musician’s choice of cover songs that make up his second solo album “Stars after Stars After Stars.” It consists of tracks originally recorded by the Ramones, Big Star, Alice Cooper, and the Zombies, as well as songs by the Jacobites and Hot Bodies, two local bands from Priggen’s hometown of New Haven, Connecticut. Making the covers album started out as an excuse to experiment and test new production techniques. “I did it for fun early on to begin with,” he says. “It kind of grew into a record that I wanted to release.”

Rather than recreating the songs in their original letter-perfect form, Priggen applied his distinct power pop melodic touch to them; one might have thought the catchy songs were truly his own tunes. “I’ve been doing them for so long that I can almost forget that I didn’t write them,” he says. “I just had it in my head from the way I remember them. I didn’t want to have them be just like the originals.”

The songs transported him back to the ‘70s and early ‘80s during which his musical tastes developed. One song he felt proud of interpreting on the record is “When You Looked At Me” by singer/songwriter Jennifer Jackson. “I think we added a pretty arrangement on that one, like what Harry Nilsson did on the Badfinger song “Without You.” Priggen even goes as far to cover “A Slow Soul” by the British pop group Scritti Politti. “It’s more of a soul ballad before they used drum machines,” he says. “It’s as far away from their later [‘80s synth pop] stuff.”

Priggen employed several talented local musicians for “Stars after Stars After Stars;” the biggest highlight according to him was having Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos play on several tracks. He has been friends with Carlos for over 25 years since meeting him backstage at a Cheap Trick concert. “It was almost like having Ringo Starr and [Led Zeppelin’s] John Boham playing drums on my record,” he says proudly. “I couldn’t think of anything that comes close to that.”

Cheap Trick were one of the bands that fostered Priggen’s love for power pop as a kid in New Haven; one of his other influences were legendary cult band Big Star, whose “Nightime” is on Priggen’s record. “I loved Big Star since when I was 12 or 13,” he says. ”I’ve always been a big fan of theirs, back when it was literally me and two other guys in New Haven knew who Big Star were.”

Spike (nee Michael) Priggen had been playing music since 1978 as a member of various bands in New Haven. He was a part of the city’s underground punk and New Wave scene (whose graduates included musician/producer Jon Brion, and Mark Mulcahy and Ray Neal of the rock band Miracle Legion). Priggen later moved to New York to study photography at the School of Visual Arts; he also formed a band called Blue Period, which later evolved into the Hello Strangers during the ‘80s. He was involved with other ensembles including the Boston-based Dumptruck; he later launched an independent label #1 Records and produced various projects. “I figured out over the last couple of weeks that a band I was in, in 1980, called TV Neats is on three different power pop compilations,” he says, indicative of his long musical resume.

After years of playing and recording with other people, Priggen finally released “The Very Thing You Treasure” (2001)—his first album under his own name—to acclaimed reviews. Recording and releasing that album proved to be a challenge when Priggen was involved in a car accident that sidelined him for several months, and suffered a vocal ailment. “I couldn’t sing for like a year,” he remembers, “between recording the music and the singing—it sort of made that record take a long time to get done.

Priggen is already busy working on a new album of his own original compositions. He doesn’t plan to go out on an extensive tour, although he will play a few local shows. Right now, he hopes that people will like and enjoy “Stars after Stars After Stars.” “I like to play and sing,” Priggen says simply. “That’s about it really. It’s like a big vanity project. I’m not making these records because somebody’s paying me. I’m making them because I’m taking money out of my own pocket and doing it.”

Spike Priggen & Band Lakeside Lounge Saturday Night

Spike Priggen w/
Chris Erikson, Nancy Polstein, Greg Beshers and Eddy Zweibeck
Please come and see us!

JUNE 18TH, 2005 10:30
162 AVENUE B (10TH & 11TH)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
212.529.8463

Stars After Stars After Stars
Spike Priggen
by John D. Luerssen
From The All Music Guide

"Unlike most albums of covers, Spike Priggen's Stars After Stars After Stars succeeds from start to finish. Priggen -- who's done time in almost-famous bands like Dumptruck, The Liquor Giants and The Caroline Know -- knows a thing about arranging an alt-pop song, and it shows on this diverse song cycle. "In The Inside" is a scorching, superb take on the Hot Bodies' original, and The Zombies' "How We Were Before" comes off as a winsome, warm tribute. A pair of ballads (The Pontiac Brothers' twangy, spooky "Be Married Song" and Jenifer Jackson's shimmering, guitar weeper "When You Looked At Me") are done right, while Priggen's lilting, gorgeous rendition of Big Star's "Nighttime" may be the best thing going for Stars After Stars After Stars. The man even scores by resuscitating Alice Cooper's rebellious hard rock classic "I'm Eighteen", turning it into a likable countrified bastardization of the original. Well done, Spike, well done."

Me And Bun E

Here's me and Bun E Carlos in the front seat of my (since deceased) 1977 Volare Station Wagon. We're on our way to Brooklyn's "Fireproof Recording"  where Bun E played on 8 Spike Priggen tracks in one day (nice going Bun E!). 6 songs are on my new all-covers CD "Stars After Stars After Stars" and there'll be 2 more on my next all originals CD (working title "There's No Sound In Flutes").

Only Children Sleeping

The 6th song on my new CD "Stars After Stars After Stars" is "Only Children Sleeping" - originally recorded by The Jacobites (Dave Kusworth/Nikki Sudden).
 
I've been a big Jacobites fan since I first became aware of them in the mid-80's. I've always loved The Only Ones, and Johnny Thunders, and these guys crossed that kinda Junkie Rock vibe, with this incredibly sweet, romantic side (especially Kusworth). In the summer of 1994 I bicycled from Battersea to Islington and back in the rain to see the Jacobites after Sudden and Kusworth re-united (Nikki's Brother, the Late Epic Soundtracks, was the DJ that night). They were brilliant. An autographed setlist from that night is part of the cover art on my new CD.

If there are any reviewers or audiobloggers out there who would like a copy or download, email me. Both of my CD's can be listened to in their entirety here and here.

Spike Priggen-Only Children Sleeping.mp3
Spike Priggen-Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Optigan
Danny Weinkauf-Bass
Mark Spencer-6 and 12 String Guitars,Hammond Organ
Jon Graboff-Pedal Steel, Mandolin
Bun E Carlos-Drums
Eddy Zweiback-Percussion

The Jacobites-Only Children Sleeping.mp3