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Big Black “Racer-X”

sfilzen — Wed, 08 May 2024 17:40:32 +0000

Big Black “Racer-X” 1985. Homestead Records. Just found out that Steve Albini died of a heart attack yesterday, May 7th, at age 61. I’ve had a fondness for Albini for a long time – not only do we share a birthday (July 22nd though he is/was 9 years older than me), but as he was from Chicago there were a lot of Wisconsin (Milwaukee/Madison) connections – like some of my friends were on call-him-directly levels of connection. And of course he produced/engineered a ton of some of my favorite albums/artists. We last saw Albini perform (as Shellac) literally as the world was shutting down in March 2020 at Turner Hall in Milwaukee where he gave a special shout-out to Milwaukee’s Couch Flambeau (CF’s Jay Tiller was in the audience) crediting the band for helping shape Albini’s sound.

Steve Albini (Shellac) Turner Hall March 2020

Racer-X was Big Black’s third EP, a tight collection of industrial noise-core tracks. Appearing on the EP with Albini were two members of Naked Raygun: Santiago Durango (guitar) and Jeff Pezzati (bass) – it would be Pezzati’s last time playing on a Big Black recording. Albini has both guitar and vocal credits. Drums performed by “Roland” (a Roland TR-606 drum machine). My top tracks are “The Ugly American” (featuring John Bonhen on saxophone) and the snarled funk of both “Deep Six” and the cover of James Brown’s “The Big Payback” but really all six tracks are killer.

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Big Black “The Model”

sfilzen — Thu, 07 May 2020 16:28:33 +0000

Big Black “The Model” 1987. I’m spinning this cover of Kraftwerk’s “Das Model” (from their 1978 LP Die Mensch-Maschine) in honor of Kraftwerk co-founder Florian Schneider, who died April 30th (that news released yesterday). “Das Model” is an infectiously boppy synthpop track that hit #1 in the UK and #7 in Germany (in ‘82) and went to #39 on the US dance charts (in ‘78). Big Black’s version of “The Model” is just as infectious but super-harsh, noisy industrial and awesome. It appeared on Big Black’s 1987 album Songs About Fucking. The flip side of this double A-side 7″ appeared on Songs About Fucking as a bonus track: a cover of Cheap Trick’s “He’s a Whore” from their 1977 debut Cheap Trick, a punky aggressive song (for Cheap Trick, anyway). Big Black’s version of “He’s a Whore” is of course way more aggressive and I like it a lot more than the original, especially the dark and growling vocals.

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Naked Raygun “Basement Screams”

sfilzen — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 20:10:09 +0000

Naked Raygun “Basement Screams” 1983, 7″ bootleg rerelease, label unknown. Writing about Big Black yesterday got me thinking about Naked Raygun (Naked Raygun’s guitarist Santiago Durango and vocalist Jeff Pezzati both joined Steve Albini in Big Black, recording concurrently with both bands in the mid-80′s). Basement Screams was Naked Raygun’s first release, eight minutes of blistering and sophisticated post-punk. Not all of the six tracks evolve the punk genre straight out of knucklehead swagger. “I Lie” opens with the lyrics “I lie right to your face/Not because i want to, or have to/Cause you make me/Lie to your face/I hate your guts, you stupid schnut!” (or possibly he is shouting “slut” – it’s hard to tell) and tracks like “Potential Rapist” and “Bombshelter” address the fear and violent reality of American life like many other punk bands (“Bombshelter’s” lyrics simply consist of the repetitive shouting of the word “bombshelter”). But musically Naked Raygun blends complicated rhythms (“Mofo” takes a Bo Diddley beat into a militaristic hyperdrive), saxophone (on “Swingo”) and melodic basslines making the label “punk” or even “post-punk” relevant more for Naked Raygun’s attitude and delivery than the simple 3-chord, one-two-fuckyou that characterized most 80′s hardcore releases.

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Big Black “Songs About F–king”

sfilzen — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 16:39:22 +0000

Big Black “Songs About F–king” Touch and Go Records. Yesterday, September 10th, marked the 30th anniversary of Big Black’s final LP release in 1987. Steve Albini began Big Black in ‘81 as a one-man sound machine and was soon joined by members of Naked Raygun, releasing several EP’s and singles and one other LP (Atomizer). Big Black knew Songs would be their last recording and intended it to be – as the title more than subtly implies – a big middle finger to everyone and everything, the songs all teeth-rattling industrial noise rock filled with lyrics about the monstrous tendencies of the human condition. The title was also a direct response to the censorship impulse of the 80′s; Ablini stated in a recent Rolling Stone interview “the Parents’ Music Resource Center was trying to rein in the subject matter of popular music and art at the time. We wanted to explicitly decline to participate in that reining in. We wanted to make filthy music. We wanted to make our records. We wanted to be explicit about our willingness to offend people.“

Songs is not an easy record to listen to – it’s rage on vinyl, darker than midnight, violent and anxiety-producing (my heart rate has noticeably increased just listening to it). “Fish Fry,” seems innocuous enough at the start, the title Midwest-adorable, the beat a bit bouncy, but then atonal guitar dissonance screams through with a tale about a murder after a fish fry. Another song, “Columbian Necktie,” details a particularly brutal form of killing and “Kasimir S. Pulaski Day” a mobster shooting. “Bad Penny” is about the scenester asshole that sleeps with all the girlfriends. Conclusion: people suck. Thank goodness for the cover of Kraftwerk’s “The Model” which provides some lyrical relief – just a model, being beautiful, drinking champagne, no blood or violence.

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Big Black “Il Duce”

sfilzen — Fri, 20 Jan 2017 17:31:35 +0000

Big Black “Il Duce” b/w “Big Money” 1985. Homestead Records. Some loud, dark protest industrial music with perfectly paired titles for this moment, around noon on January 20th, 2017. “Il Duce” means “the chief” in Italian and Mussolini notoriously used the phrase as his dictatorial title during WWII. The song begins with an ominous drone that quickly increases into a beat that drills into your head with the speed and grace of a chainsaw.

I am Benito
I am Benito
I am Benito
And I like my job
They gave me this house
And gave me this car
They gave me the cities and streets
When they gave me this job
I am Benito
And I like my job
I am Benito
And I like my job
I am Benito
I am Benito
I am Benito
I like my job

“Big Money,” a track that appears on their full-length Atomizer release, is equally brutal in sonic intensity and furious rage at an inegalitarian and flawed capitalist system.

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Big Black “The Hammer Party”

sfilzen — Fri, 19 Jun 2015 13:51:55 +0000

Big Black “The Hammer Party” 1986. Homestead Records. A re-release of Big Black’s first two EP’s: Side 1 is from “Lungs” (1982) and Side 2 is from “Bulldozer” (1983).

Steve Albini’s (along with members of Naked Raygun) industrial/post-punk project is hard, heavy, dark and confrontational. Stark and relentless drum-machine beats, steel-y metal (the substance, not the musical style) guitar*, harsh vocals as if through a tin can with obvious influences of bands like Killing Joke, PiL and the Cure.

The run-off groove on Side A has a little, and rather adorable, Batman logo scribble.

*So after I wrote that, I started reading a bit about the sound of Big Black on-line and sure enough Albini created his “signature “clanky” sound by using metal guitar picks notched with sheet metal clips; the notch causing the pick to hit each string twice, creating the effect of two simultaneous guitar picks.”

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