The Big Star Quintet

In March 2010, Alex Chilton—one of the greatest-ever architects of buoying rock songs with pop melodies, both in his foundational Big Star and in his solo work—died at home in New Orleans while mowing his lawn. He was due a day later in Austin, not only to play with a reformed Big Star but also to meet with Chris Stamey about a tribute project for the band’s all-but-lost third album, Third/Sister Lovers. A cofounder of the dB’s who had played with Chilton and released and championed his solo work, Stamey wanted to bring that odd orchestral wonder to the stage at last. He finally did in 2012, with the project earning such rave reviews and adoring audiences that his Big Star Third toured in bursts for a decade. Guests from Michael Stipe to Cat Power, from Van Dyke Parks to Ray Davies would sometimes join, a testament to the way Big Star’s music had shaped them, too.

But a few years ago, Jody Stephens—the original Big Star’s sole survivor and an anchor of Big Star Third—offered a new idea: What if they put together a rock band to revisit the songs of the first two Big Star records? Stamey and Stephens recruited R.E.M’s Mike Mills, Wilco’s Pat Sansone, and The Posies’ Jon Auer, who had actually been a member of the resurrected Big Star that made 2005’s In Space. In 2024, they first focused on the 50th anniversary of Radio City, the second Big Star album, whose wayward distribution sealed the band’s longtime fate as a brilliant cult favorite. This all-star band has now expanded the repertoire to reach across those first two records, continuing to spread incredible songs initially waylaid by music-industry machinations. They stay faithful to the source but let it rip a tad, too. “We’re injecting a bit of rock ‘n’ roll energy with this five-piece,” Auer once told Spin. “We’re making it more high-octane by virtue of our enthusiasm and our love for the songs.”