Little Triggers was a quartet from the northern suburbs of Austin, Texas that joined forces at about the mid-point of the preceding decade. They were fronted by the fabulously talented (and still active) Meredith Perry. Perry, a prolific, wunderkind songwriter who has an ear for impressionable, instantly-memorable melodies, lists her major forming influences as Elvis Costello and David Byrne. The ceaseless activity of those great artists is mirrored in Meredith’s free-roaming artistic personality. Incidentally, it is the Costello song “Little Triggers,” off of 1978’s This Year’s Model, that inspired her band’s name.Meredith and her brother attended school with another lifelong Austinite, Jack Frink, who was well-known as a virtuosic guitar player even in those early days. After several of his musical projects floundered, Frink was recruited by Meredith after the dissolution of Ellipsis, Perry’s previous group. Having long admired Perry’s gifts, Frink immediately accepted the invite. Frink is still active in the Austin scene and credits his time with Meredith Perry as the major impetus to start his own songwriting career.Meredith’s then-boyfriend, Jack Still, had a different path into the group. Originally growing up in Phoenix, Arizona, Jack came to Austin pre-molded with an eclectic and discerning ear for music. Placed in the same school as Perry, the two quickly discovered a like-mindedness that extended to creative endeavors. The fact that Jack played guitar, bass and keys skillfully and balanced well with Perry creatively were all she needed to grab Mr. Still as Little Triggers’ third member.Ben Tyler had been a fellow member of the high school marching band with Jack Frink, but the two never developed a friendship during that time. It took Meredith’s spotting of Ben as her drummer for Frink and Tyler to find the natural affinity that is so prevalent in their interlocking musical arrangements. Ben is as skilled a drummer working in Austin right now. He is able to hear any riff or chord progression and find an expressive percussive counterbalance to it. Constantly in demand as soon as Little Triggers hit the scene, Ben manned the skins for upwards of 4 bands in the Triggers’ busiest time. There are stories of, on a night consisting of 6 bands, Tyler was the drummer for 5 of them.The four songs included on the band’s only major recording, the When The Planets Align EP, all represent a tantalizing glimpse into what this group was capable of. This is not the music of a group of young adults barely old enough to buy alcohol. This is a sound with a fresh outlook and a fervent energy that bursts out of the speakers in wide-eyed Technicolor. Perry once said she wanted the Triggers’ first album to be entitled “Happy Birthday,” and that same sense of celebration and color is present in every one of the tracks laid down for the EP.Originally, the whole affair was to just be a vehicle for “When The Planets Align,” a love-lorn power space-pop number written from the point of view of a fan hopelessly enamored with a musical performer. The song is driven by an instantly recognizable keyboard riff that simultaneously encompasses hope and melancholy. Perry’s lyric lays low like a sand shark before rushing to the surface for the ebullient chorus. “And when the planets do align/I’ll be yours maybe baby you can be mine/I barely know you I don’t give a damn/as long as I’m feeling loved/and I am.” The EP would’ve been fine with that masterpiece. When Little Triggers were regularly closing their concerts with the song, Perry would say that she believed “When The Planets Align” to be the best thing she ever wrote. But the surprise is that the three remaining tracks on the When The Planets Align EP are such strong, individual artistic statements of their own. “Homeless” winds around an Ouroboros chord progression, courtesy of Jack Still, and uses the “quiet-LOUD-quiet” approach of Pixies to craft one of Little Triggers darkest and most intense songs. “My Trip to January,” a Frink-penned future-shock death race, shows Little Triggers playing with punk and electronica at the same time. Perry also delivers her angriest, nastiest singing performance. “The Ozarks” is an ambitious, complex piece for any young rock band to undertake, especially one making its debut EP. Welding two different dual-guitar pieces and merging them with Perry’s trenchant and angular vocal phrasing, “The Ozarks” scuttles to life as a dirge and blossoms into a blistering climax. The Triggers’ sound careens off cliff chasms. It is the perfect ending to a visionary EP that packs an epic journey into its 16 minute runtime.Although the group was to be broken apart by the demands of employment of education – Perry traveled to Denton, Texas to attend school at The University of North Texas and Still moved to Chicago – Little Triggers was able to record this one fascinating, endlessly re-listenable EP that stands as some of the best music to come out of Austin during that time. Credit is due producer Daniel Sangree and engineer Michael Ricks, who coaxed Little Triggers’ at-times chaotic live sound into a seductive sonic form. It remains to be seen whether or not Little Triggers will re-form, but even if they don’t they at least have one unimpeachably great recording to their name. It’s been some years in the coming, but the When The Planets Align EP – once thought a lost classic by fans of Little Triggers – is available now from most major distributors. In the words of Phil Aulie, another Austin musical luminary who is a founding member of both Superhouse and Federal! State! Local!, upon listening to the EP for the first time, “now that it’s over, I just want to listen to it again.”