Ron Klaus Wrecked His House

I just got a copy of Big Dipper's "Craps" album in the mail after ordering it off Half.com

I haven't heard this album in over a decade and it's more genius than I remember. It's alternately punchy and weird and never boring. And unlike more than half of the music I hear now, Big Dipper doesn't sound like anybody --- well maybe a little like The Volcano Suns, Dumptruck and The Embarrasment, who all contributed members that made up Big Dipper.

Rob used to put "Hey! Mr. Lincoln" on just about every mix tape he'd make. I've heard this song about 200 times, and I'm still not sure what it's about --- maybe it's about trying to cheer up our most famous president just before he gets shot --- you know the one before Kennedy.

"Ron Klaus Wrecked His House" is about one of the band's drummers who tore up his rent house so he could get out of the lease.

Then there's "Bonnie" which is about some chick's back yard.

No wonder I loved this album when it came out in 1988 --- my life in Austin was all about screwed up friends in bad rent houses, assasinated presidents and girl's back yards when I was 21 years old.

I saw Big Dipper play at Liberty Lunch in Austin around 1990 during their tour in support of the maligned "Slam" album. Slam was good, according to me. Genius reduced is still genius. I told Big Dipper bass player Steve Michener that after the show. Or maybe I didn't. That's probably why they broke up from discouragement and Steve Michener is now a male nurse in California.