Jody Stephens looks back on 50 years of Big Star and forward with Those Pretty Wrongs
Back in 1972, Jody Stephens began his musical career as the drummer for Memphis pop band Big Star, with the release of their debut album, "#1 Record."
Fifty years later, the group remains a cult legend, and something of a musical memory, with Stephens the only surviving member of the band (with co-founders Chris Bell, Alex Chilton and Andy Hummel having died — Bell in 1978 and Chilton and Hummel in 2010).
In recent years Stephens — who’s helped manage Midtown’s Ardent Studios since the late 1980s — has assumed a new role, moving from behind the kit to the front of the stage, as the singer and songwriter for Those Pretty Wrongs, his pop project with Los Angeles-based guitarist/vocalist Luther Russell.
Last week Stephens and Russell marked the reissue of the first two albums from Those Pretty Wrongs, as part of double LP set, with a performance in Los Angles. The show also saw them previewing songs from a new as-yet untitled LP set for release this fall.
“I had no idea and no plans for Those Pretty Wrongs,” marvels Stephens of the seven-year-old project. “I didn’t think we’d get past a few songs together. But here we are three albums into this. It’s been a very unexpected but wonderful development for me.”
How Those Pretty Wrongs came together
In 2015, Stephens was busy on the promotional trail, helping shine a light on “Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me,” the film documentary on his former band. As part of those efforts, Stephens often performed Big Star songs with Russell. A founder of The Freewheelers, Russell has also served as sideman, songwriter and producer for everyone from Love’s Arthur Lee to Weezer.
The Stephens/Russell collaboration eventually morphed into a new musical project. Those Pretty Wrongs' debut single, released in late 2015, captured the beauty of Big Star’s quieter moments, with chiming acoustic guitars, tight harmonies and a beguiling chemistry between Stephens and Russell.
“Once I figured out I was going to be writing with someone," says Stephens, "especially someone I trusted and had a lot of respect for like Luther, then all of a sudden you become sensitive to different situations, lines people say, things you read in the paper, and it all becomes fodder for songs. You start looking out for things in life, and that’s how all our songs really came about.”
The duo’s collaboration flourished with a self-titled full-length that came out in 2016, and a second album, “Zed for Zulu,” released in fall 2019. The group was set to promote the latter record internationally in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. “We had plans to go to Australia and England, but then everything shut down,” says Stephens.
Around the same time the band’s label — hip West Coast indie Burger Records — also shut down, leaving Those Pretty Wrongs without a record company. Fellow musician Brent Rademaker (of LA bands The Tyde and Beachwood Sparks) and owner of Curation Records approached Stephens and Russell about joining his label.
“Brent had been coming to our shows when we played in LA, and was a big fan,” says Stephens. “He asked about working together and reissuing our first two albums.” The double LP set, featuring “Those Pretty Wrongs” and “Zed For Zulu,” came out on vinyl last week.
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Bulk of new album recorded at Ardent Studios
While looking back on their first two records, Stephens and Russell are also looking forward to a third album. In fall 2020, as the pandemic raged on, they slowly began writing new songs, sending ideas back and forth long distance.
“I’m such an incrementalist anyway,” chuckles Stephens. “I do things here and there. That’s my way of working. We got a start on it, got a bit of inspiration and then suddenly you’re off and running on a new album.”
Those Pretty Wrongs recorded the bulk of the album at Ardent in late 2020 and 2021, with additional overdubs and mixing completed by Russell in Los Angeles. While Stephens drums and sings and Russell handles most of the rest of the instruments, the album does boast guest appearances by Let’s Active’s Mitch Easter and Wilco’s Pat Sansone, with The dB's Chris Stamey handling string arrangements.
Stephens is hoping to launch the project with a single in September, and possibly the full length to follow in the fall on Curation.
Marking Big Star's 50th anniversary
Over the past few months, Stephens has also made his belated post-pandemic return to the stage, playing a couple shows on drums with the roots-rock supergroup Golden Smog in Minneapolis.
Stephens also confirms he will be doing several more concert performances later this year, celebrating Big Star’s golden anniversary. In addition to being part of a Chris Bell tribute at the Memphis Power Pop Festival at the Overton Park Shell on Sept. 24, Stephens expects to do a handful of Big Star 50th anniversary shows in Los Angles, Memphis and other cities in November and December.
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As Stephens notes, Big Star continues to find new fans, with popular TV shows like "DC's Stargirl” and the limited series “Pam & Tommy” recently licensing the group’s songs.
"The amazing thing is no one is working our catalog, it’s just Big Star fans inserting those things in movies or TV when they think it’s appropriate,” he says. “Big Star is really lucky that way and always has been. We’ve had great champions of our music, who still love those songs. And so the legacy of the band just continues on.”
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Big Star's Jody Stephens looks forward with Those Pretty Wrongs
