Concetta Kirschner, better known as Princess Superstar, is an American rapper and DJ. She has had two chart hits in the UK, "Bad Babysitter", which reached number 11 on the UK Singles Chart in 2002, and "Perfect (Exceeder)", which reached number three in 2007. She has recorded with Moby, The Prodigy, Arthur Baker, Prince Paul, and Grandmaster Flash, amongst others. During the peak of her career, she was acclaimed as Pennsylvania's top female Jewish rapper.
Big Star was an American rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1971 by Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Jody Stephens (drums), and Andy Hummel (bass). The group broke up in early 1975, and reorganized with a new lineup 18 years later following a reunion concert at the University of Missouri. In its first era, the band's musical style drew on the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Byrds. Big Star produced a style that foreshadowed the alternative rock of the 1980s and 1990s. Before they broke up, Big Star created a "seminal body of work that never stopped inspiring succeeding generations", in the words of Rolling Stone, as the "quintessential American power pop band", and "one of the most mythic and influential cult acts in all of rock & roll". Three of Big Star's studio albums are included in the Rolling Stone's list of the Top 500 Albums of All-Time.
Radio City is the second album by the American rock group Big Star. Released in 1974, Radio City was recorded during 1973 at Memphis' Ardent Studios. Though not a commercial success at the time, it is now recognized as a milestone album in the history of power pop music. Critically acclaimed upon its release, the record sold poorly, partly due to a lack of promotion and the distribution problems of the band's struggling record label, Ardent Records. The album included "September Gurls" and "Back of a Car", which remain among the most famous Big Star songs; both the Searchers and the Bangles have covered "September Gurls".
Frank Secich is an American rock musician, songwriter, author and record producer. He was the bass player and founding member of the group Blue Ash from 1969 to 1979 and guitarist and bassist for the Stiv Bators band from 1979 until 1981. He played in the Cleveland-based group Club Wow with Jimmy Zero of the Dead Boys from 1982 to 1985 and produced the Ohio band the Infidels from 1985 to 1990. He is currently the rhythm guitarist for the Deadbeat Poets who were formed in 2006 in Youngstown, Ohio. Frank Secich's autobiography "Circumstantial Evidence" was published by High Voltage Publishing of Australia in 2015. His current band, The Deadbeat Poets are on Pop Detective Records, which is owned by Mark Hershberger.
Gigolo Aunts are an American power pop band, who formed in 1981.
Christopher Branford Bell was an American musician, guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Along with Alex Chilton, he led the power pop band Big Star through its first album #1 Record (1972). He also pursued a solo career throughout the mid-1970s, resulting in the posthumous I Am the Cosmos LP.
International DeeJay Gigolo Records is a German electronic music record label run by techno artist DJ Hell. The label was founded in Munich in 1996 by DJ Hell and DJ Upstart as an affiliate of label Disko B. It is Germany's most successful electronic music record label, specialising in electro, house and techno with 80's pop and disco influences. "Gigolo" has released records by Dave Clarke, Jeff Mills, DJ Hell, David Carretta, Miss Kittin & The Hacker, Kiko & Gino S., DJ Naughty, The Penelopes, The Advent, Dopplereffekt, Terrence Fixmer, Japanese Telecom, Fischerspooner, Tiga, Belgian Dj Valium, Princess Superstar and Vitalic. In particular, the label is widely credited as being the germ cell of the electroclash music genre in the late 1990s.
"Just a Gigolo" is a popular song, adapted by Irving Caesar into English in 1929 from the Austrian tango "Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo", composed in 1928 in Vienna by Leonello Casucci to lyrics written in 1924 by Julius Brammer.
"Self Control" is a song by Italian singer Raf, released in 1984. It was written by Giancarlo Bigazzi, Steve Piccolo and Raf, and arranged by Celso Valli. The track topped the charts in Italy and Switzerland, and started the explosion and dominance of Italo disco-style recordings in continental European charts during the 1980s.
Michael Graham "Mickey" Jupp is an English musician and songwriter, mainly associated with the Southend music scene.
Dave Gibbs is an American singer-songwriter, best known for his work in the Boston-based power-pop band, Gigolo Aunts. Born and raised in Potsdam, New York, Gibbs co-founded the Gigolo Aunts with brothers Steve and Phil Hurley, and drummer Paul Brower in 1986. Relocating to Boston, the group gained a following after a string of self-released tapes and singles, finally catching the attention of English label, Fire Records, which released their 1993 album, Flippin' Out. The band was signed in the US to RCA Records, who re-released the album in 1994. Gibbs also contributed backing vocals to albums by Providence, Rhode Island pop-rockers Velvet Crush, with whom he toured as lead guitarist on and off through the early 1990s.
Quadrophenia is the soundtrack album to the 1979 film Quadrophenia which refers to the 1973 rock opera Quadrophenia. It was initially released on Polydor Records in 1979 as a cassette and LP and was re-released as a compact disc in 1993 and 2001. The album was dedicated to Peter Meaden, a prominent Mod and first manager of The Who, who had died a year prior to the album's release.
Cherry Twister was a power pop band consisting of musicians Steve Ward, Ross Sackler and Michael Giblin. The band began early 1993 from the ashes of Harrisburg-based band 23 Skidoo which included Steve Ward, Ross Sackler, Dave Sheaffer and Joe Pisapia. Pisapia went on to form Nashville-based Joe, Marc's Brother. Ward and Sackler recorded their lo-fi bedroom-recording and was released on Planet Earthy in 1993; guitarist Michael Giblin signed on for the follow-up, 1999's At Home With Cherry Twister. At Home With Cherry Twister gained an entry in the Top 200 powerpop lists of 1999.
Full-On Bloom is an EP released in July 1993 by Gigolo Aunts. The EP includes a cover of "Serious Drugs", a 1992 single by BMX Bandits later included on their 1993 album, Life Goes On. The album cover features Chloë Sevigny. The photo appears to be from the same session as the photo on the cover of the "Mrs. Washington" single.
Columbia: Live at Missouri University 4/25/93 is a reunion live album by the American power pop group Big Star, recorded and released in 1993 by the original Big Star members Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens together with The Posies' members Jonathan Auer and Ken Stringfellow. It was recorded at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri.
Keep an Eye on the Sky is a 4-CD, 98-song career retrospective box set from American rock group Big Star, released in 2009. It features 52 unreleased tracks: demos, alternate takes, and live performances. As well as material from founder member Chris Bell's earlier bands Rock City and Icewater, it includes all titles from Big Star's first three studio albums, #1 Record, Radio City, and Third/Sister Lovers, and a recording of a 1973 Big Star concert. Staged in January at Lafayette's Music Room, the Memphis venue used again in May for the Rock Writers' Convention, the concert took place after Bell's departure and before the remainder of the group began work on Radio City. The box set's liner notes won a 2011 Grammy Award for author Robert Gordon.
I Am the Cosmos is the only solo album by the American pop-rock musician Chris Bell, posthumously released in 1992 by Rykodisc, having been recorded over a period of two to three years during the mid-1970s. Bell had previously been a member of Big Star.
The One Before the Last is a 2000 album by Gigolo Aunts. It is a collection of rare and unreleased material on the Spanish Bittersweet Recordings label. The album includes the single, "The Girl from Yesterday", a cover of Nacha Pop's "Chica de Ayer" from their 1980 album, Nacha Pop.
"You and Your Sister" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Chris Bell, that appears on his only solo album I Am the Cosmos. It was released as a B-side to Bell's only single "I Am the Cosmos." Comparisons have been made to Big Star's "Thirteen," which Bell co-wrote with bandmate Alex Chilton, and is also an acoustic love ballad. Chilton sings backing vocals on the song.
