Big Black
 

Really? No Big Black thread? Wow.


Alright, so Steve Albini has a reputation for writing from the perspective of really terrible human beings and for favoring ultra trebly, noisy, angular guitar riffs not unlike some Gang of Four and other pretty dissonant post-punk acts. Pretty influential man... pretty influential bands. Not for the faint of heart. What does MB think? Has-been? Legend?

Never heard of him? For shame:



Essential. Buy this album.

Legend, absolutely. I'm a fan of Big Black and Shellac, I love that he taught himself to play bass, and he had some innovative bands as musical influences. On top of that the man is a fu*king incredible producer (Pixies, Low, The Jesus Lizard, Slint, and so on) and has ethics as strong as his opinions.

Here's an article with a copy of a letter he sent Nirvana outlining his plans for In Utero. It's seriously awesome.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/danmartin/th...ust-incredible


My favorite part:

“I do not want and will not take a royalty on any record I record. I think paying a royalty to a producer or engineer is ethically indefensible. The band write the songs. The band play the music. It’s the band’s fans who buy the records. The band is responsible for whether it’s a great record or a horrible record. Royalties belong to the band. I would like to be paid like a plumber. I do the job and you pay me what it’s worth.”

Awesome band.

Been one of my favorites for a while now. Songs About Fucking is a classic in my opinion. Really dig the entire Atomizer album too.


Really dig Rapeman and Shellac, too.

Dude, yes. Songs About F ucking is a really good album, I love the Kraftwerk cover.

the Cheap Trick cover is also spectacular

Big Black was certainly a life changing band for me in 1993 and in all honesty i don't think i've been further than arms reach from at least one of their albums since

specifically love the first two EPs (or The Hammer Party)....the rawness of those recordings is just unbelievable

i went to a Big Black cover show up in Seattle....all profits went to a local animal shelter and the opening act was this woman who did covers on a xylophone....her rendition of Cables was fucking incredible....by far best act of the night

what's not to like about Rapeman.....Big black mixed with Jesus Lizard is literally a match made in heaven

when the 20th anniversary of In Utero was about to come out Dave and Chris did a really good and long interview for NPR talking about what it was like to record the album....great stories about just how insane and ironically professional Albini is....lets just say a sock full of mashed potatoes kept being referenced :)

i also remember reading an interview with David Yow about the recording of Liar....saying that Albini kept re tracking the vocals until Yow sounded like "a kidnap victim trying to scream through a duct taped mouth"

This band introduced me to noise rock, I've never listened to another noise rock band yet..but they kind of made me want to. It's interesting. I might check out shellac sooner or later.

Yes big black is cool and great.

Songs About Fucking = one of the best album covers ever

Atomizer = one of the best punk albums ever

And well we can talk about how good Kerosene is and how it will never not be one of my fav songs

This thread has inspired me to have a Steve Albini appreciation party while I clean - Big Black, Shellac, Dirty Three, Nirvana, and Slint so far. It's official, I love you guys now.

The Atomizer album cover was originally meant to feature Marvin the Martian, but they couldn't use him due to licensing issues.

I didn't get very far but I once intended to review all of the Big Black albums right here.