Big deal

Little Big Wheel deserve a spin

by John O'Neill

Although the idea of a great rock band coming out of the Clinton woods may sound improbable at best, that's exactly what happened with Little Big Wheel. Not only that, but they brought along a debut CD, Home, that should go a long way toward putting them on the map. And though Little Big Wheel may seem to have appeared out of nowhere, as bands often do, this is a project that has been waiting in the wings for nearly 12 years.

"Jim and I have been playing together on and off since we were kids," says guitarist Wes Burton between drags on his cigarette. It's a chilly evening, and we're all hunkered down over a table in Moynahan's Pub, where the conversation is flowing as freely as the draughts. "We were on bills together. His band would play, and we'd laugh at them, and then my band would play, and they'd laugh at us."

"We were best friends one year and worst enemies the next," vocalist Jim Weeks adds. "We were in three bands together that never made it out of the basement! We finally put all that stuff behind us. We've always written together. Wes knows what's inside me and . . ."

Burton finishes the statement, "And Jim knows what's in me."

After years of not realizing a good thing together, Burton and Weeks finally began playing their songs at acoustic venues like the Cocoa Bean to flesh them out in front of a crowd. Then in January of '96, they recruited scene veteran Dave Szczepaniak to play bass, and Little Big Wheel began operation in earnest, though things really didn't come together till late autumn when Ed Scholz joined on as the drummer.

"Ed came along two weeks before we were headed into the studio," Weeks says. "We were having bad luck with drummers, so we invited Ed, on Dave's recommendation, and it clicked immediately."

In December, the band went into Boston's Fort Apache, one of the most respected studios in the country, to work with Dan McLoughlin, who'd twisted the knobs for Buffalo Tom, J. Mascis, and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. "We knew we wanted to do a CD; and I was listening to Against the Grain [hosted by WICN's Dave Ritchie] when I heard this song by the Push Stars," relates Burton. "It was similar to the sound we were working on. Jim ended up hangin' out with [McLoughlin, a member of the Push Stars]."

By the time the final mix-down was finished, an entire year had elapsed. But the results are well worth the time invested; Little Big Wheel deliver a CD that stands shoulder to shoulder with many of the band's influences. Full of overt country and folk references, as well as some of the sparse but tuneful music produced by outfits like Soul Asylum, Neil Young, and later-era Replacements, Home taps into the spirit of country while remaining firmly on rock's ragged edges. It's also very reminiscent of the current "No Depression" trend that bands like Wilco and Sun Volt are riding, a comparison that makes Little Big Wheel bristle ever so slightly.

"Some of these songs are 10 or 12 years old," says Burton after rolling his eyes at likening his band's work to others'. "We like that stuff, and some may think we're jumping on the bandwagon, but these songs are old. We're big fans of music, so this is our sound."

After a year together in relatively close quarters, the direction of the band began to change. "Originally, we weren't gonna be a touring band," says Weeks. "We didn't want to go through playing Tuesday nights. Now it looks like we'll get a van and do it."

"We're headed down to Florida for as many as three shows," adds Szczepaniak. "Then New Orleans and Texas. We're hoping to get invited to South by Southwest [Austin's giant industry showcase], but we're going down either way."

"We're gonna do it right," adds Weeks. "We've gotten a lot of good advice."

Much of the advice has come from Boston's Julie Duffy, who's worked with some of the bigger names in the business, including Aerosmith. She managed to get Little Big Wheel on a compilation from Westwood One Entertainment. They are the only band without label representation on the project, which also includes Sevendust, Powerman 5000, the Crystal Method, and ex-Replacement Tommy Simpson and his new outfit, Perfect.

Little Big Wheel will debut their CD on January 30 at the Last Strand Theatre in Clinton. A little hometown payback, perhaps? "Actually, a lot of bands do their CD release in clubs, so we wanted to do something different. It's like seeing a concert," offers Weeks. "[The Strand] is built for sound. Plus they serve beer."