Wampum
Big Buildings
Cat No. 007666-5

Stars/No Stars first release on wax! A new era for the label, as a vinyl and download only affair. And what better way to mark the occasion than with the multi-city traveling carnival that is Wampum. Recorded in the studios, sunporches and attics of a half-dozen cities, Wampum is 12 tracks of the signature shamble that Big Buildings does best.

Wampum’s musty melodicism and muted psychedelia channels
bits of Big Star, Buffalo Springfield, and early Yo La Tengo; the
band’s songwriting instincts are so thoroughly realized that I
doubt thousands of dollars and a full modern studio treatment
could’ve made the record any better.
J. Niimi, Chicago Reader

Water Everywhere
Big Buildings
Cat No. 007666-4

Don't these boys clean up nicely. Rowing across the imaginary landscape of Water Everywhere, we find the Buildings changing it up a bit to work with engineer Jason Ward. The chime and charm of Jason's production lend an openness to the sound that brings the "tape's rolling - so what" process at the heart of previous Big Buildings releases to a brand new place.

Water Everywhere is my favorite local rock record of a young 2006. I've compared their studied sloppiness to Exile on Main Street in the past, but I'm going to have to add some other markers: a wired-up Grateful Dead, a hippified Loaded-era Velvets (say, if Lou Reed had left and Sterling Morrison had taken the reins), and a puppyish R.E.M. around the time of their 1981 Athens bootlegs. (Maybe some of those Peter Buck-Keith Streng collaborations too.) They have an absolutely joyous infatuation with their own grainy lo-fi ululations throughout Water Everywhere.
Monica Kendrick, Chicago Reader

Hang Together for All Time
Big Buildings
Cat No. 007666-2

Sprawling. Epic. Totally Confused. All are appropriate to describe the 20-song pandora's box of Hang Together for All Time. This one's a little more challenging, we won't lie, but well worth the effort. Unpack this one and you'll find equal parts art-damaged experiments, early british punk, country blues and straight up rock and roll. All handsomely collected in our very first digipak release.

They wail and bash, channeling Bo Diddley and the Rolling Stones ("We Are Steamships," "Streetlights"). They unplug and go near-country ("Big Dave," "Peaceful Man at Odds"). They split the difference, like the Kinks meeting Uncle Tupelo ("Skinny Women Shaking"). One track is a distorted, short rant followed by a song of relative sonic polish. Someone coughed during the intro to "Quiet Landmine"? So what! Leave it in!
Barry Gilbert, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

There's a lot of stuff going on here that reminds me why I fell in love with music in the first place.
Vitas Zebratis, Glorious Noise

This is the Bricks EP
Big Buildings
Cat No. 007666-1

Birth of a band, birth of a label. The six tracks of beer-soaked rock capture the early days of Big Buildings getting their sea legs and finding a middle ground between modern Americana and buzzy punk from across the pond. This debut EP is almost out of print.

Rough, but right.
Bob Mehr, Chicago Reader

You can almost smell the beer and stale cigarette smoke.
Jim DeRogatis, Chicago Sun-Times

Judging by the photos on its Web site, there are two things the members of Big Buildings aren’t worried about: being taken too seriously - and their hair.
Reckless Abandon Column
Columbia Daily Review