Americana UK Review of "Stars After Stars After Stars"

 Great collection of obscure covers.  A veteran of American new wave/post punk/power pop bands including Dumptruck and the Hello Strangers, this is Priggen’s second album.  A collection of covers , he states that “a lot of the artists I admire were known as great songwriters and equally as great interpreters of other peoples songs.” Cover albums can be fairly awful vanity projects (the equivalent of inviting someone over to see your very tasteful collection) or a chance to bring a particular vision to bear on influences allowing a degree of insight into an artist’s roots (Bowie’s Pin Ups?, any other takers?). Priggen falls firmly into the latter camp although there is a  degree here of having impeccable taste (but then, don’t we all?). The only songs that listeners might immediately jump on are Alex Chilton’s “Nightime” and (gulp) Alice Cooper’s “I’m Eighteen.” Otherwise Priggen’s tastes seem to be biased towards mid eighties British indies , Nikki sudden and the Jacobites, Everything But the Girl and Orange Juice with a nod to earlier years with the Zombies “How We Were Before” and a smattering of American indies. Gathering together a collection of worthy musicians including Bun E. Carlos(Cheap Trick) and (the) Mark Spencer (of Blood Oranges and Jay Farrar fame), the sounds here are redolent of vintage power pop, approaching the delights that were to be heard from Dwight Twilley and his ilk. Opener, “In the Inside” (originally by The Hot Bodies) churns along with  Priggen’s voice sounding a little like Alejandro Escovido. On “Big Store” (written by Stephen “Tin Tin” Duffy, originally by the Jacobites) the band conjure up a colossal wall of noise with the guitars riffing away until unleashed at the end. The guitarists throughout (Mark Spencer and Ivan Julian of the Voidoids and Matthew Sweet) are superb. There are some hidden tracks after the main fare, one, a musicians’ in-joke apparently, is a recording of some guy pitching to record labels execs to put on a huge show of some sort. This tape provides the album’s title as he states that Warner Brothers have on their roster “stars after stars after stars.” The humour escapes me but after this there are two other songs, the final one a rousing cover of Orange Juice’s “Felicity”.  Priggen has a healthy attitude to the internet and his website has information on several of the covers on the album. There’s also an opportunity to listen to it as a stream, so if this review whets your appetite head on over there and tell him we sent you. Link.