Big Black - Wikipedia

6/19/2019 Big Black - Wikipedia
Big Black
Big Black was an American punk rock band from Evanston,
Big Black
Illinois, active from 1981 to 1987. Founded by singer and guitarist
Steve Albini, the band's initial lineup also included guitarist
Santiago Durango and bassist Jeff Pezzati, both of Naked Raygun.
In 1985, Pezzati was replaced by Dave Riley, who played on Big
Black's two full-length studio albums, Atomizer (1986) and Songs
About Fucking (1987).
Big Black's aggressive and abrasive music was characterized by

distinctively clanky guitars and the use of a drum machine rather
than a drum kit, elements that foreshadowed industrial rock. The
band's lyrics flouted commonly held taboos and dealt frankly—and
Big Black at Chicago's Union Station in
often explicitly—with politically and culturally loaded topics
1986; left to right: Riley, Albini, and
including murder, rape, child sexual abuse, arson, racism, and
Durango
misogyny. Though the band's lyrics contained controversial
material, the lyrics were meant to serve as a commentary or a Background information
display of distaste for the subject matter. They were staunchly Origin Evanston, Illinois, U.S.
critical of the commercial nature of rock, shunning the mainstream
Genres Punk rock · noise rock ·
music industry and insisting on complete control over all aspects of
hardcore punk ·
their career. At the height of their success, they booked their own
industrial rock
tours, paid for their own recordings, refused to sign contracts, and
Years active 1981–1987, 2006
eschewed many of the traditional corporate trappings of rock
(reunion)
bands. In doing so, they had a significant impact on the aesthetic
and political development of independent and underground rock Labels Ruthless · Fever ·
music. Homestead · Blast First ·
Touch and Go
In addition to two studio albums, Big Black released two live
Associated acts Naked Raygun ·
albums, two compilation albums, four EPs, and five singles, all
Rapeman · Shellac
through independent record labels. Most of the band's catalog was
kept in print through Touch and Go Records for years following Past members Steve Albini
their breakup. Jeff Pezzati
Santiago Durango
Dave Riley
Contents
History
1981–82: Formation and Lungs
1983: Full lineup and Bulldozer
1984: Touring and label signing
1985–86: Racer-X and Atomizer
1987: Headache, Songs About Fucking, and breakup
Post-Big Black
Style
Music
Lyrics
Live performances
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Black 1/16
Influence
Members
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
Compilation albums
Extended plays
Singles
Video albums
Other appearances
References
External links
History
1981–82: Formation and Lungs

Big Black was founded by Steve Albini in 1981 during his second year of college at Northwestern University.[1][2][3]
Albini had become a fan of punk rock during his high school years in Missoula, Montana, and taught himself to play
bass guitar in the fall of 1979, his senior year, while recuperating from a badly broken leg resulting from being struck
by a car while riding his motorcycle.[2][4] Moving to Evanston, Illinois the following year to pursue a journalism degree
and fine art minor at Northwestern, Albini immersed himself in the fledgling Chicago punk scene and became a
devoted fan of the post-punk band Naked Raygun.[1][2] He also DJ'd for the campus radio station, from which he was
repeatedly fired for playing loud and abrasive music during the morning time slot as well as not filling out the
necessary logs.[5] He also wrote a controversial column titled "Tired of Ugly Fat?" for the Chicago zine Matter,
publishing confrontational rants about the local music scene which polarized readers into either respecting or hating
him.[2][6]
Albini began playing in college bands, including a short-lived "arty new

wave" act called Stations that featured a drum machine. Seeing the
advantage in a machine that could play incredibly fast without tiring,
always kept a steady beat, and would follow commands exactly, he
purchased a Roland TR-606 drum machine and began writing what would
become the first Big Black songs.[2][7] However, he was unable to find
other musicians who could play the songs to his satisfaction, later stating
in Forced Exposure that "I couldn't find anybody who didn't blow out of a
pig's asshole."[8] Instead, in the spring of 1981, he bought a guitar,
A Roland TR-606 drum machine,
borrowed a four-track multitrack recorder from a friend in exchange for a
the model Albini used to create Big
case of beer, and spent his spring break week recording the Lungs EP in his Black's drum sound.
living room, handling the guitar, bass, and vocals by himself and
programming the Roland TR-606 to provide the drum sound.[2][3][9]
Influenced by bands like Cabaret Voltaire, Killing Joke, and the Cure, the EP is described by Our Band Could Be Your
Life author Michael Azerrad as "cold, dark, and resolutely unlistenable", with the lyrics describing crack addicts and
child abusers, and Albini later regarded the effort as one of his few artistic regrets.[9]
Albini named his new musical project Big Black, calling the moniker "just sort of a reduction of the concept of a large,
scary, ominous figure. All the historical images of fear and all the things that kids are afraid of are all big and black,
basically."[9] He used the Lungs tape to try to enlist other musicians to the project, briefly recruiting Minor Threat
guitarist Lyle Preslar who was attending Northwestern, but the two proved incompatible as musicians.[9] Albini passed
Lungs on to John Babbin of the small local label Ruthless Records, who released 1,500 copies of the EP in December
1982 with random objects such as dollar bills, used condoms, photographs of Bruce Lee, and bloody pieces of paper
thrown into the insert.[2][10]
1983: Full lineup and Bulldozer

In early 1983 Albini met Naked Raygun singer Jeff Pezzati through mutual friends and convinced him to play bass
guitar with Big Black. Pezzati recalled that Albini "knew a heck of a lot about, right from the start, how to release a
record and get the word out that you have a record", and that "He jumped at the chance to have a band play his
stuff."[11] The two practiced in Pezzati's basement, and one day Naked Raygun guitarist Santiago Durango came
downstairs and asked to play along.[2][12] The trio clicked as a unit, Durango's ability to rework arrangements and
tweak sounds helping to refine Albini's song ideas. According to Albini, "He ended up being absolutely crucial to Big
Black."[12]
Albini "sorta conned" small local label Fever Records into financing the next Big Black EP, bringing in drummer Pat
Byrne of Urge Overkill to play on the sessions as accompaniment to the drum machine, which they dubbed "Roland"
for album credits.[3][13] Albini achieved a signature "clanky" sound with his guitar by using metal guitar picks notched
with sheet metal clips, creating the effect of two guitar picks at once.[14] The Bulldozer EP was recorded with engineer
Iain Burgess and released in December 1983, with the first two hundred copies packaged in a galvanized sheet metal
sleeve in homage to Public Image Ltd.'s Metal Box.[2][3][15] Many of the EP's lyrics depicted scenarios drawn from
Albini's midwest upbringing, such as "Cables", which described the slaughtering of cows at a Montana abattoir, and
"Pigeon Kill", about a rural Indiana town that dealt with an overpopulation of pigeons by feeding them poisoned
corn.[16]
1984: Touring and label signing

Even with Bulldozer released, Big Black drew very small crowds in their native Chicago.[17] They began venturing
outside of Illinois to play shows in Madison, Minneapolis, Detroit, and Muncie, transporting themselves and their
equipment in a cramped car and sleeping on people's floors.[18] Albini handled much of the band's logistics himself,
setting up rehearsals, booking studio time, and arranging tours.[17] With their reputation growing through small tours,
he was able to set up a run of East Coast dates including performances in Washington, D.C. and Boston and at New
York City's Danceteria, followed by a European tour on which they won acclaim in the United Kingdom's music
press.[17] Big Black simultaneously found themselves gaining popularity in their hometown, but felt embittered that
the same locals who had snubbed them just months before were suddenly interested now that they had built a
reputation outside the city, and the band actually refused to play in Chicago for some time.[17]
Part of Big Black's local unpopularity stemmed from Albini and the vitriol he regularly directed at Chicago's rock
scene: by 1985, the Metro Chicago was the only club in the city that was booking punk rock shows and was also large
enough to accommodate Big Black, but after performing there Albini badmouthed the club in an interview and found
himself banned from it permanently.[17] Compounding the problem were the band's aggressive, noise-driven sound
and Albini's confrontational lyrics, which tested the tolerance of his white liberal audience by mercilessly satirizing
racism, sexism, chauvinism, and stereotypes of homosexuality, sometimes using pejoratives like "darkie" and "fag" to
drive home the point; this led some listeners to consider him a bigot.[19]
Looking for better distribution of their records, Big Black negotiated a deal with
Homestead Records.[3][22] Gerard Cosloy, who had befriended Albini through It meant nothing to us if we
were popular or not, or if we
writing for Matter and gone on to work at Homestead, negotiated an sold either a million or no
unorthodox deal for the band: Big Black merely licensed their recordings to records, so we were
Homestead for specific lengths of time, rather than the label retaining the invulnerable to ploys by
music scene weasels to get us
rights to the recordings as was typical.[22] Further, the band took no advance
to make mistakes in the name
payments, paid for their own recordings, and signed no contracts.[22] Durango of success. To us, every
later remarked that "We came from a punk perspective — we did not want to moment we remained
get sucked into a corporate culture where basically you're signing a contract
unfettered and in control was
a success. We never had a
because you don't trust the other person to live up to their word. We had ideals, manager. We never had a
and that was one of our ideals."[23] The band members figured that if a record booking agent. We never had
company were going to cheat them, they would be able to do so with or without a lawyer. We never took an
advance from a record
a contract because the band couldn't afford to defend themselves.[23] company. We booked our
own tours, paid our own bills,
Albini believed that Big Black had nothing to gain by adopting the usual made our own mistakes and
corporate trappings of rock bands: "If you don't use contracts, you don't have never had anybody shield us
any contracts to worry about. If you don't have a tour rider, you don't have a
from either the truth or the
consequences. The results of
tour rider to argue about. If you don't have a booking agent, you don't have a that methodology speak for
booking agent to argue with."[23] Handling the tour booking, equipment themselves: Nobody ever told
hauling, setup, and breakdown of shows themselves also meant that the band us what to do, and nobody
took any of our money.[20][21]
did not have to hire a booking agent or road crew with whom they would have
–Steve Albini
to share profits.[24] The lack of a drummer also meant one less member to split
profits with, and since there was no drum kit the band did not have to rent a
tour van to fit all of their equipment.[24] Thus Big Black was able to profit from
most of their tours.[24] They embarked on a 1984 national tour of the United States in preparation for their
forthcoming Homestead EP, utilizing the close-knit network of independent rock bands to learn of cities and venues to
play.[24]
1985–86: Racer-X and Atomizer

In late 1984, following the recording of the Racer-X EP, Pezzati amicably left the band due to his increasingly
demanding job, the need to devote time to his fiancée, and the increasing popularity and busy schedule of Naked
Raygun, of which he was still a member.[2][25] Durango, meanwhile, opted to leave Naked Raygun to commit full-time
to Big Black.[2] Pezzati was replaced by Dave Riley, who joined Big Black the week of Racer-X's release in April
1985.[2][25] Albini claimed to be aiming for a "big, massive, slick rock sound" with Racer-X, which was less frantic than
Bulldozer, but ultimately felt that the EP was "too samey and monolithic."[26] The band had already begun writing
songs for their first full-length album by the time Racer-X was released, stating in the last sentence of the EP's liner
notes that "The next one's gonna make you shit your pants."[27]
Big Black's first LP, 1986's Atomizer, found the band at their most musically developed and aggressive level yet.[27]
Riley's funk background brought a slightly greater sense of melody and danceability to the band, while Albini and
Durango's guitar work was more violent than ever before.[27] Michael Azerrad comments that "by this time Big Black
had both refined the ideas first suggested on Lungs and exploded them into something much huger than anyone but
Albini had ever imagined", while Mark Deming of Allmusic states that the album "upped the ante on the musical and
lyrical ferocity of Big Black's previous body of work, an unrelenting assault of guitar sounds and imagined violence of
all sorts."[2][27] Albini later remarked that "we just had a higher-than-average percentage of really good songs."[27] The
lyrics on Atomizer presented sociopaths committing evil acts that most people only sometimes contemplate: "Big
Money" deals with a corrupt police officer, "Bazooka Joe" profiles a shell-shocked veteran who becomes a contract
killer, "Stinking Drunk" describes a violent alcoholic, and "Fists of Love" presents a sadist.[28] One of the album's most
controversial songs was "Jordan, Minnesota", about the 1983 scandal in Jordan, Minnesota that saw a large number of
the rural town's adults indicted on charges of involvement in a huge child sex ring.[28]
"Kerosene", one of Atomizer's standout tracks, is viewed by both Azerrad and Allmusic's Andy Kellman as the band's
peak performance. Azerrad remarks on its "powerful rhythm ripped straight from Gang of Four and guitars that sound
like shattering glass", while Kellman calls it "undeniably Big Black's brightest/bleakest moment, an epically roaming
track that features an instantly memorable guitar intro, completely incapable of being accurately described by vocal
imitation or physical gesture [...] It's Big Black's 'Light My Fire,' literally."[28][29] Riley explained that the song was
about the effects of boredom in rural America: "There's only two things to do: Go blow up a whole load of stuff for fun,
or have a lot of sex with the one girl in town who'll have sex with anyone. 'Kerosene' is about a guy who tries to
combine the two pleasures."[28]
Atomizer was a polarizing record that was praised in the national press and became an underground success,
surpassing the band's expectations by selling three thousand copies soon after its release.[2][30] Big Black secured a
European distribution deal for their records through Blast First, a label recommended to Albini by Sonic Youth, and
met enthusiastic responses to their shows on a 1986 European tour.[31]
The compilation album The Hammer Party, combining Lungs and Bulldozer, was also released through Homestead
Records in 1986, but later that year Big Black had a falling out with the label and its distributor, Dutch East India
Trading.[3][32][33] According to Albini, Dutch East India's accounting practices were "always fucked. They would do
every sleazy, cheap trick to avoid paying you, like send you a check that wasn't signed or send you a check that had a
different numeral and literal amount."[33] Homestead then asked to make five hundred copies of a 12-inch single of "Il
Duce" for free distribution to radio stations. The band agreed on the condition that the single was not to be offered for
sale, since the song had already been released as a 7-inch single in 1985 and, according to Albini, "We didn't want our
audience milked for extra money to buy an alternate format."[33] A few weeks after the single's release, Albini began
seeing copies for sale in record stores outside of Chicago. He soon found out that the 12-inch single was being sold
both in the United States and abroad as a high-priced "collector's item". Though Homestead claimed not to be selling
copies, Albini telephoned one of the label's salespeople posing as a record buyer and was told that they would sell him
copies, but not in Chicago.[33] As a result of the deception, Albini and Big Black severed ties with Homestead and
Dutch East India.[2][33] Though the band was receiving lucrative offers from major labels, they chose to remain
independent and signed to Touch and Go Records, Albini being good friends with label head Corey Rusk.[2][34]
1987: Headache, Songs About Fucking, and breakup

Big Black's first release for Touch and Go was the Headache EP in spring 1987.[3] The cover artwork for the limited
original edition of the EP was a pair of forensic photos of an accident victim whose head had been split down the
middle, and the record was packaged in a black plastic "body bag" to conceal the artwork from sensitive
consumers.[2][35] A sticker on the EP's cover read "Not as good as Atomizer, so don't get your hopes up, cheese!"[2][35]
According to Durango, "We didn't want to sit there and screw people. If we felt it wasn't as good, then we should just
be honest about it."[35] Indeed, Headache recycled many of the same sounds and themes found on Atomizer, showing
signs that the band was lagging creatively.[36] Durango later remarked that "I was feeling tapped out ideawise. At that
point I think we had tried everything that we wanted to try, musically and in the studio."[37]
Tensions were also mounting within the band. Albini did not drink alcohol, so
Riley and Durango became drinking buddies on the road while Albini was The members of Big Black
have often been asked why we
doing interviews and handling the band's logistics.[38] Riley, however, was chose to break up (the end of
drinking to excess, and his behavior ruined several of the band's the band having been
performances.[38] Albini accused Riley of a number of other shortcomings announced well in advance)
just when we were becoming
including lateness to rehearsals, always needing rides, and "flashes of brilliance
quite popular. The best
offset by flashes of belligerence."[38] However, though he made a number of answer then and now is: To
threats, Albini never fired Riley.[38] Another problem facing the band was that prevent us from overstaying
Riley was now in college and both Albini and Durango had to keep day jobs,
our welcome.[20][37]
which limited Big Black's ability to tour.[38] When Durango announced that he –Steve Albini
intended to enter law school beginning in the fall semester of 1987, the band
decided to keep going until he began school and then call it quits.[2][37] Despite
enjoying increased press, radio airplay, record sales, and concert fees, the band did not regret their decision and
eschewed the idea of commercial success.[39] According to Riley, "Big Black was never about that. For Big Black to
make any money, it wouldn't have been Big Black anymore."[39] Being a lame duck band was also liberating, as the
members no longer had to be concerned with the group's future.[39] Albini wrote that he was happy to be breaking up
the band before it grew too big:
I am now quite happy to be breaking up. Things getting much too big and uncontrollable. All along we've
wanted to keep our hands on everything, so nothing happened that we didn't want to. With international
and multi-format/multi-territorial shit, that's proving elusive. I prefer to cut it off rather than have it
turn into another Gross Rock Spectacle.[40]
With their breakup announced well in advance, Big Black recorded their final album, Songs About Fucking, half in
London and half at Albini's home studio.[2] Their final tours began in June 1987, taking them to Europe, the United
Kingdom, Australia, and across the United States.[40] They performed at the Pukkelpop festival in Belgium with Sonic
Youth on July 22, Albini's 25th birthday.[40] At a sold-out show in London for 1,300 people, Bruce Gilbert and Graham
Lewis of Wire joined Big Black onstage to play an encore of Wire's "Heartbeat" (Big Black had released a cover version
of the song as a single in conjunction with Headache).[40] Albini wrote of the experience that "If I die right now it will
all have been worth it."[40] In the United States the band played in San Francisco, Providence, Boston, and New York
City, concluding with their final performance on August 11, 1987 at the Georgetown Steam Plant in Seattle.[40] At the
end of this show the band smashed their instruments onstage.[2][40]
Songs About Fucking was released shortly after the band's breakup and went on to become their most successful
record, with an initial pressing of eight thousand copies.[2][40] Mark Deming of Allmusic calls it "a scabrous
masterpiece", while his colleague Andy Kellman states that "each [song] is incisive enough to render a razor as
effective as a butter knife. In sum: yowl, ching, thump-thump-screech. Ugly characters line up in the songs like early
arrivals at a monster truck rally."[2][41] Critic Robert Christgau commented that "Anybody who thinks rock and roll is
alive and well in the infinite variety of its garage-boy permutations had better figure out how these Hitler Youth rejects
could crush the competition and quit simultaneously. No matter what well-meaning rockers think of Steve Albini's
supremacist lies, they lie themselves if they dismiss what he does with electric guitars—that Killdozer sound
culminates if not finishes off whole generations of punk and metal."[42] Albini himself later considered the album's
first side as Big Black's best output.[43]
Post-Big Black
Following Big Black's breakup, Albini formed and fronted Rapeman from 1987 to
1989 and Shellac from 1992 onward.[2][3] He also began work as a recording
engineer, working with artists such as Slint, the Pixies, the Breeders, Pegboy, Urge
Overkill, the Jesus Lizard, the Wedding Present, Superchunk, PJ Harvey, Nirvana,
Bush, and Page and Plant.[2][44] Some of his most well-known recordings include
the Pixies' Surfer Rosa (1988), Nirvana's In Utero (1993), Bush's Razorblade
Suitcase (1996), and Page and Plant's Walking into Clarksdale (1998). In 1997 he
opened his own recording studio, Electrical Audio, in Chicago.[2][3][44] Albini's
recording style is characterized by the use of vintage microphones placed
strategically around the performance room, keeping vocals very low in the mix, and
using few special effects.[45] He is also known for recording almost any artist who
requests his services (usually at very low rates but deliberately charging high
amounts to artists on major record labels), disliking being credited on the albums
Steve Albini performing with
he works on (insisting on being credited as a recording engineer rather than a
Shellac in 2007.
producer, if at all), and refusing to take royalties for his work (calling them "an
insult to the band").[45][46]
Durango, meanwhile, continued to play music during his law school years, releasing two EPs on Touch and Go as
Arsenal and recording with Boss Hog.[2][3] He then became a practicing lawyer, with clients including Touch and Go
Records and Cynthia Plaster Caster.[2] Riley was briefly a member of Bull but was incapacitated by a stroke in 1995,
which was initially erroneously reported as a suicide attempt.[2] Having lost the ability to walk, he maintains a blog
about his experiences titled "Worthless Goddamn Cripple".[47] In 2004 he participated in a musical project called
Miasma of Funk, releasing the album Groove on the Mania![48] He has also published a book titled Blurry and
Disconnected: Tales of Sink-or-Swim Nihilism.[49]
In 1992 Big Black's catalog reverted to Touch and Go Records, who re-released their entire discography and kept their
records in print long after the band's breakup.[2] That October the label released the live album and video Pigpile,
recorded in London during the band's final tours, as well as the compilation album The Rich Man's Eight Track Tape,
which combined tracks from Atomizer, Headache, and the "Heartbeat" single in compact disc format.[50][51] The re-
released version of The Hammer Party was expanded to include the tracks from Racer-X.[32]
On September 9, 2006, Albini and Durango reunited with original bassist Jeff Pezzati for a Big Black reunion
performance at Touch and Go's 25th Anniversary festival.[52][53] Albini's touring schedule with Shellac did not allow
time for the band to rehearse a full set, so they instead played a short set of four songs: "Cables", "Dead Billy", "Pigeon
Kill", and "Racer-X".[53][54] Albini explained that the performance was "not about Big Black wanting to get back
together or even an audience wanting to see Big Black, it's that ... to not honor Touch and Go would be an insult by
way of damning with faint praise", describing the label as "[not] just a benchmark for how a record label should
behave, but how people should behave."[55] During the performance he stated that "You can tell [this is] not something
we had a burning desire to do, but we did it because we love Touch and Go [and] we love Corey Rusk [...] When history
talks about rock music it has a tendency to skip from the Sex Pistols to Nirvana, [but] something started in the 1980s
and you're seeing the evidence of it all around you", remarking that the label was "the best thing to happen to music in
my lifetime, and we did this to say thanks".[54][56][57] Though the band has been approached by promoters about doing
other reunion shows, Albini has stated flatly "that is definitely not going to happen."[53]
Style
Music
Big Black's music challenged convention, pursuing an abrasive sound that was more aggressive than contemporary
punk rock. Albini explained that the band strove for intensity, stating that their goal was to make "something that felt
intense when we went through it, rather than something that had little coded indicators of intensity. Heavy metal and
stuff like that didn't really seem intense to me, it seemed comical to me. Hardcore punk didn't really seem intense
most of the time — most of the time it just seemed childish. I guess that's how I would differentiate what we were
doing from what other people were doing."[58] Both Albini and Riley described Big Black as a punk rock
band.[20][59][60] AllMusic has associated their sound with both hardcore and post-punk and described them as
influential to indie rock[2] as well as pioneers of noise rock[61] and post-hardcore.[62]
A major component of Big Black's music was the drum machine. Rather than attempt to make it emulate the sound of
a normal drum kit, the band chose to exploit the idiosyncrasies of its synthetic sounds.[14] On many songs Albini
programmed it to accent the first and third beats of the bar, rather than the second and fourth beats typically accented
in rock music.[14] "The effect was a monolithic pummeling, an attack", says Michael Azerrad, "their groove, normally
the most human aspect of a rock band, became its most inhuman; it only made them sound more insidious, its
relentlessness downright tyrannical."[14] On tour, the sound engineers at many rock clubs were befuddled by the drum
machine, afraid that it wouldn't work with their sound system or would blow out their speakers, and the band would
have to coerce the club owner or threaten to cancel the show in order to get them to put the drum machine through the
monitors.[30]
The band's guitar sound was also unconventional. Albini was determined to avoid the "standard rock stud guitar
sound", and achieved a 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.[9][14] Durango remarked:
"I always thought that our guitar playing was not so much playing guitars, but assembling noises created by
guitars."[14] He and Albini respectively billed their guitars as "vroom" and "skinng" in the liner notes for Atomizer.[27]
Mark Deming of Allmusic remarks that "The group's guitars alternately sliced like a machete and ground like a
dentist's drill, creating a groundbreaking and monolithic dissonance in the process."[2]
Big Black's music was influenced by a number of genres and artists. Albini was a fan of punk rock bands including
Suicide, the Ramones, the Stooges, and Naked Raygun.[2][4] When Riley joined the band in 1985 he brought with him
a funk background, having worked at a Detroit studio where George Clinton and Sly Stone had recorded.[63] During
their career Big Black recorded cover versions of songs from a number of styles including post-punk, new wave, funk,
hard rock, synthpop, and R&B; these included Rema-Rema's "Rema-Rema", James Brown's "The Payback",[64] Wire's
"Heartbeat",[65] Cheap Trick's "He's a Whore",[41] Kraftwerk's "The Model",[41] and the Mary Jane Girls' "In My
House".[64][66] The sound that Big Black forged for themselves, however, was wholly original: Azerrad remarks that
"the band's music — jagged, brutal, loud, and nasty — was original to a downright confrontational degree. Big Black
distilled years of post-punk and hardcore down to a sound resembling a singing saw blade mercillesly tearing through
sheet metal. No one had made records that sounded so harsh."[67]
Lyrics
Big Black's songs explored the dark side of American culture in unforgiving detail, acknowledging no taboos.[2][68]
Albini's lyrics openly dealt with such topics as mutilation, murder, rape, child abuse, arson, immolation, racism, and
misogyny.[2] "That's just what was interesting to me as a postcollegiate bohemian", he later remarked. "We didn't have
a manifesto. Nothing was off-limits; it's just that that's what came up most of the time."[69] Many of his songs told
miniature short stories of sociopaths doing evil things that the average person might merely contemplate.[28][58]
Some, such as "Cables", "Pigeon Kill", and "Jordan, Minnesota", were based on real events, or things that Albini had
witnessed during his midwest upbringing.[16][28] He compared the stories to Ripley's Believe It or Not!, saying that "If
you stumble across something like this, you think 'This can't be!' But it turns out to be true, and that makes it even
wilder."[58]
Albini's lyrics drew criticism for apparent racism and homophobia. Racism was
a frequent theme in Big Black songs, influenced partly by the sharp racial It seems preposterous now,
but at the time, people
divisions present in Chicago at the time.[70] The word "darkie" appeared in the seemed overly concerned
first line of the Lungs EP, but Albini defended its use as a comical term, saying about the literal meaning of
"in a way that's a play on the concept of a hateful word. Can a word that's so our lyrics. I know we never
discussed it amongst
inherently hilarious be hateful? I don't know."[70] He similarly defended his use
ourselves. Lyrics seemed a
of gay jokes and the word "fag": "Given how intermingled the gay and punk necessity, so we had them,
subcultures were, it was assumed by anyone involved that open-mindedness, if but the subject matter was an
extension of our interests —
not free-form experimentation, was the norm. With that assumption under
not part of a political or
your belt, joke all you like. The word 'fag' isn't just a gay term, it's funny on its aesthetic battle plan. The
own — phonetically — like the words 'hockey puck,' 'mukluks,' 'gefilte fish,' and lyrics were subject to change
'Canada.' "[71] Some critics viewed these defenses as mere justifications for
at whim once the subject had
been decided on anyway.
actual deep-seated racism, homophobia, and misogyny on Albini's part, given Anybody who thinks we
his level of familiarity with the subject matter, but he insisted that he was not a overstepped the playground
prejudiced person and was merely satirizing those impulses that rational, perimeter of lyrical decency
(or that the public has any
civilized persons normally suppress in the course of social interaction:[2][19] "So right to demand "social
once that's given, once you know what you think, there's no reason to be ginger responsibility" from a
about what you say. A lot of people, they're very careful not to say things that goddamn punk rock band) is
a pure mental dolt, and
should step forward and put
might offend certain people or do anything that might be misinterpreted. But his tongue up my ass. What
what they don't realize is that the point of all this is to change the way you live
we sing about is none of your
business anyway.[20][59]
your life, not the way you speak."[72]
–Steve Albini
Albini also emphasized that the songs' lyrics were not the focal point of Big
Black, and that the vocals were only there out of necessity: "It seemed like, as
instrumental music, it didn't have enough emotional intensity at times, so there would be vocals. But the vocals were
not intended to be the center of attention — the interaction within the band and the chaotic nature of the music, that
was the important part."[69] However, he did enjoy testing the tolerance of the white liberal hipsters in his audience
and provoking reactions out of listeners, stating that one of the band's goals was "to have pointedly offensive
records".[59][60][70] Terri Sutton of Puncture magazine wrote that the band's stark presentation of evil, deep-seated
human impulses bolstered their work against criticism: "The topics are so deliberately loaded that you can't criticize
their 'art' without looking like some fucking puritan."[28]
Live performances
Onstage, Big Black presented an intense spectacle to match their music. Albini would set off a brick of firecrackers
onstage before the band played, a tradition he carried on from their earliest performances through their dissolution
and revived for their 2006 reunion set, and would count in most songs by yelling "One, two, fuck you!"[56][73] While
playing, the band members would slam their hands against their steel guitar strings so hard that they would draw
blood, often needing to put adhesive bandages on their fingers.[30] Albini used a specially-made hip-slung guitar strap
worn around his waist like a belt, and would "prowl the stage like a spindly gunslinger", according to Azerrad.[74]
Gerard Cosloy recalls that "It looked like someone had plugged Steve into the amp [...] he was pretty scary to watch
onstage."[74]
During performances of "Jordan, Minnesota", the band would reach a point where they would prolong a discordant,
creepy noise while Albini would perform an intense pantomime as though he were one of the children from the song's
lyrics being raped.[74] "It was actually very disturbing to watch", says Durango, "It would really get people
unsettled."[74] The band would respond to hecklers with acidic comebacks or deliberately offensive jokes.[74]
Describing the intensity of a January 1987 Big Black performance in Forced Exposure, Lydia Lunch remarked that "I
was pulverized into near oblivion as wall after wall of frustration, heartache, hatred, death, disease, dis-use, disgust,
mistrust, & maelstrom stormed the stage waging war with military precision insistently invading every open orifice
with the strength of ten thousand bulls".[39]
Influence
Through their aggressive guitar playing and use of a drum machine, Big Black's
music served as a precursor to industrial rock.[2][75] Aesthetically, the band's Musically, Big Black's
insistent drum machine
firmly-held ideals, staunch independence, insistence on creative control, and rhythms, abrasive textures,
stark lyrical topics had a significant impact on the developing independent rock and obsessively repeated riffs
community.[2] "Big Black was a band that went where few bands dared to go provided a major part of the
blueprint for so-called
(and where many felt bands shouldn't go)," writes Mark Deming, "and for good
industrial rock. Their
or ill their pervasive influence had a seismic impact on indie rock."[2] Albini bracingly intense music aside,
summed up several of the band's core ideals in his notes to the Pigpile album: the saving grace of the band's
often obnoxious approach
was that it was thought-
Organizationally, we were committed to a few basic principles: provoking. Big Black set a
Treat everyone with as much respect as he deserves (and standard for freedom of
no more), Avoid people who appeal to our vanity or
expression and forthrightness
that has been emulated to
ambition (they always have an angle), Operate as much as varying degrees ever since.[75]
–Michael Azerrad
possible apart from the "music scene" (which was never

our stomping ground), and Take no shit from anyone in the
process.[20][75]
Members
Steve Albini – vocals, guitar, drum machine programming[I] (1981–87, 2006), bass guitar (1981–82)
Jeff Pezzati – bass guitar, backing vocals (1983–84, 2006)
Santiago Durango – guitar, backing vocals (1983–87, 2006)
Dave Riley – bass guitar, backing vocals (1985–87)
^ I The band's drum machine is credited as "Roland" on their releases.[13]
Timeline
Discography
The discography of Big Black consists of two studio albums, two live
Big Black discography
albums, two compilation albums, four EPs, five singles, and one video
album. Studio albums 2
Live albums 2
Compilation albums 2
Studio albums
Video albums 1
Year Album details EPs 4
Atomizer[76] Singles 5
1986 Released: 1986 Other appearances 3

Label: Homestead
Format: LP
Songs About Fucking[77]
1987 Released: 1987

Label: Touch and Go
Format: LP, CD
Live albums
Year Album details
Sound of Impact[I]
1987 Released: 1987

Label: Walls Have Ears
Format: LP
Pigpile[50]
Released: October 5,
1992 1992
Label: Touch and Go
Format: LP, CD
^ I Sound of Impact is an authorized bootleg released through a subsidiary imprint of Blast First.[78]
Compilation albums
Year Album details
The Hammer Party[79]
1986 Released: 1986

Label: Homestead
Format: LP, CD
The Rich Man's Eight Track Tape[51]
1987 Released: October 12, 1992

Label: Touch and Go
Format: CD
Extended plays
Year Release details
Lungs[80]
Released: December
1982 1982
Label: Ruthless
Format: EP
Bulldozer[81]
Released: December
1983 1983
Label: Fever
Format: EP
Racer-X[82]
1984 Released: 1984

Label: Homestead
Format: EP
Headache[83]
1987 Released: Spring 1987

Label: Touch and Go
Format: EP
Singles
Year Release details
"Rema-Rema"[I]
Released: 1985
Label: Forced Exposure
Format: 7"
1985
"Il Duce"[84][85]
Released: 1985
Label: Homestead
Format: 7", 12"
"Heartbeat"[86]
Released: July 13, 1987

Label: Touch and Go
Format: 7"
1987
"He's a Whore" / "The Model"[87]
Released: July 13, 1987

Label: Touch and Go
Format: 7"
"In My House"[II]
1992 Released: October 5, 1992

Label: Touch and Go
Format: 5"
^ I "Rema-Rema" is a Rema-Rema cover included as a one-sided single with issue No. 9 of Forced Exposure, and
limited to 500 copies.
^ II "In My House" is a Mary Jane Girls cover that was included with copies of the Pigpile video.[66]
Video albums
Year Album details
Pigpile[66]
Released: 1992
1992 Label: Touch and
Go
Format: VHS
Other appearances
The following Big Black songs were released on compilation albums. This is not an exhaustive list; songs that were first
released on the band's albums, EPs, and singles are not included.
Year Release details Track(s)

The Middle of America Compilation
Released: 1984 "Big Payback" (premix)

1984
Label: HID Productions "Hunter's Safety (Tommy Bartlett Dies in
Pain)"
Format: LP
God's Favorite Dog[88]
1986 Released: 1986 "Every Man for Himself"

Label: Touch and Go "Crack Up"
Format: LP
Happiness Is Dry Pants
1987 Released: 1986

"Burning Indian Wife"
Label: Chemical Imbalance
Format: 7"
References
1. Azerrad, Michael (2001). Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981–
1991. New York: Little, Brown and Company. p. 314. ISBN 0-316-78753-1.
2. Deming, Mark. "Big Black Biography" (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/p10143). Allmusic. Retrieved 2010-03-20.
3. "Big Black: Info" (http://www.touchandgorecords.com/bands/band.php?id=34). Touch and Go Records. Retrieved
2010-03-24.
4. Azerrad, pp. 313–314.
5. Albini, Steve. "Steve Albini Interview - 2/5/16 - For WUSB Stony Brook Likes In playlists In groups" (https://soundc
loud.com/peterjaskkoo/steve-albini-interview-2516-for-wusb-stony-brook). WUSB.
6. Azerrad, pp. 314–315.
7. Azerrad, p. 315.
8. Azerrad, pp. 315-316.
9. Azerrad, p. 316.
10. Azerrad, pp. 316–317.
11. Azerrad, p. 317.

12. Azerrad, pp. 317–318.
13. Azerrad, pp. 318–319.
15. Azerrad, pp. 318–321.
16. Azerrad, pp. 320–321.
18. Azerrad, pp. 321–322.
19. Azerrad, pp. 324–326.
20. Albini, Steve (1991). Pigpile (CD booklet). Big Black. Chicago: Touch and Go Records. TG81CD.
22. Azerrad, pp. 326–327.
25. Azerrad, pp. 328–330
26. Azerrad, pp. 328–329.
29. Kellman, Andy. "Review: Atomizer" (https://www.allmusic.com/album/r1833). Allmusic. Retrieved 2010-03-20.
32. Kellman, Andy. "Review: The Hammer Party" (https://www.allmusic.com/album/r1834). Allmusic. Retrieved
2010-03-23.
34. Azerrad, pp. 335–337.
36. Azerrad, pp. 337–339.
41. Kellman, Andy. "Review: Songs About Fucking" (https://www.allmusic.com/album/r1836). Allmusic. Retrieved
2010-03-21.
42. Christgau, Robert. "Review: Songs About Fucking" (http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?id=130).
Retrieved 2010-03-21.
43. Neoteric (2007-09-15). "Review: Songs About Fucking" (http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=109).
Sputnikmusic. Retrieved 2010-03-21.
44. "Azerrad, pp. 343–345.
46. Heylin, Clinton (1992). The Penguin Book of Rock & Roll Writing. New York: Viking Press. p. 410. ISBN 0-670-
84559-0.
47. Riley, Dave. "Worthless Goddamn Cripple" (https://web.archive.org/web/20100227034010/http://worthlesscripple.
com/). Archived from the original (http://worthlesscripple.com/) on 2010-02-27. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
48. "Miasma of Funk" (http://www.topscrap.com/starting_lineup/miasma/of_funk.html). Top Scrap Recordings.
49. Riley, Dave (2006). Blurry and Disconnected: Tales of Sink-or-Swim Nihilism (https://books.google.com/books?id=
VaEJw9GsYKYC&source=gbs_navlinks_s). Warsaw, Illinois: Contortmedia. ISBN 0-9777353-0-3.
50. "Pigpile" (http://www.touchandgorecords.com/bands/album.php?id=132). Touch and Go Records. Retrieved
2010-03-26.
51. "The Rich Man's Eight Track Tape" (http://www.touchandgorecords.com/bands/album.php?id=138). Touch and Go
Records. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
52. Paul, Aubin (2006-06-29). "Big Black added to Touch and Go 25th Anniversary" (http://www.punknews.org/article/
18388). Punknews.org. Retrieved 2010-03-27.
53. Carioli, Carly (2006-07-02). "Big Black, Scratch Acid, GVSB to reunite for Touch and Go fest" (https://web.archive.
org/web/20081110223045/http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/onthedownload/archive/2006/07/02/Big-Black-Scratch-A
cid-GVSB-to-reunite-for-Touch-and-Go-fest.aspx). The Boston Phoenix. Archived from the original (http://thephoe
nix.com/BLOGS/onthedownload/archive/2006/07/02/Big-Black-Scratch-Acid-GVSB-to-reunite-for-Touch-and-Go-f
est.aspx) on 2008-11-10. Retrieved 2010-03-27.
54. Lapatine, Scott (2006-09-11). "Big Black Live at Touch & Go's 25th Anniversary" (http://stereogum.com/3335/big_
black_live_at_touch_gos_25th_anniversary/video/). Stereogum. Retrieved 2010-03-27.
55. Orzeck, Kurt (2006-08-11). "Move Over, Fall Out Boy: Touch and Go Records Is Retaking Chicago" (http://www.mt
v.com/news/articles/1538352/20060810/man_or_astro_man_.jhtml). MTV News. Retrieved 2010-03-27.
56. "Performance and Interview Footage (Video) from Big Black" (http://www.touchandgorecords.com/songs_videos/
media.php?id=3891&type=video). Touch and Go Records. Retrieved 2010-03-27.
57. Sanneh, Kelefa (2006-09-14). "Critic's Notebook; 'Those Were the Days,' the Punk Remix" (https://www.nytimes.c
om/2006/09/14/arts/music/14sann.html?pagewanted=all). The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-03-27.
61. "Noise Rock" (http://www.allmusic.com/style/noise-rock-ma0000004455). AllMusic. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
62. Huey, Steve. "Effigies – Biography" (http://www.allmusic.com/artist/effigies-p23913/biography). AllMusic.
Retrieved May 12, 2011.
63. Azerrad, pp. 329–330.
64. Kellman, Andy. "Review: Racer-X" (https://www.allmusic.com/album/r164082). Allmusic. Retrieved 2010-03-28.
65. Kellman, Andy. "Review: 'Heartbeat' " (https://www.allmusic.com/album/r368799). Allmusic. Retrieved 2010-03-28.
66. Kellman, Andy. "Review: Pigpile (video)" (https://www.allmusic.com/album/r132076). Allmusic. Retrieved
2010-03-27.
68. Azerrad, pp. 312–313.
72. Azerrad, pp. 324–325
73. Azerrad, pp. 332–333.
76. "Atomizer" (http://www.touchandgorecords.com/bands/album.php?id=137). Touch and Go Records. Retrieved
2010-03-27.
77. "Songs About Fucking" (http://www.touchandgorecords.com/bands/album.php?id=131). Touch and Go Records.
78. Mason, Stewart. "Review: Sound of Impact" (https://www.allmusic.com/album/r213247). Allmusic. Retrieved
2010-03-27.
79. "The Hammer Party" (http://www.touchandgorecords.com/bands/album.php?id=136). Touch and Go Records.
80. "Lungs" (http://www.touchandgorecords.com/bands/album.php?id=133). Touch and Go Records. Retrieved
2010-03-27.
81. "Bulldozer" (http://www.touchandgorecords.com/bands/album.php?id=134). Touch and Go Records. Retrieved
2010-03-27.
82. "Racer-X" (http://www.touchandgorecords.com/bands/album.php?id=135). Touch and Go Records. Retrieved
2010-03-27.
83. "Headache" (http://www.touchandgorecords.com/bands/album.php?id=128). Touch and Go Records. Retrieved

2010-03-27.
84. "Il Duce" (http://www.touchandgorecords.com/bands/album.php?id=139). Touch and Go Records. Retrieved
2010-03-27.
85. "Il Duce" (https://www.allmusic.com/album/r368800). Allmusic. Retrieved 2010-03-27.
86. "Heartbeat" (http://www.touchandgorecords.com/bands/album.php?id=129id=128). Touch and Go Records.
87. "He's a Whore/The Model" (http://www.touchandgorecords.com/bands/album.php?id=130). Touch and Go
Records. Retrieved 2010-03-27.
88. "God's Favorite Dog" (http://www.touchandgorecords.com/bands/album.php?id=340). Touch and Go Records.
External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Big_Black&oldid=898297564"
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6/19/2019 Big Black - Wikipedia

Big Black's aggressive and abrasive music was characterized by

1981–82: Formation and Lungs

Albini began playing in college bands, including a short-lived "arty new

1983: Full lineup and Bulldozer

1984: Touring and label signing

1985–86: Racer-X and Atomizer

1987: Headache, Songs About Fucking, and breakup

possible apart from the "music scene" (which was never

1986 Released: 1986 Other appearances 3

Songs About Fucking[77]

1987 Released: 1987

Year Album details

1987 Released: 1987

Year Album details

The Hammer Party[79]

1986 Released: 1986

The Rich Man's Eight Track Tape[51]

1987 Released: October 12, 1992

Year Release details

1984 Released: 1984

1987 Released: Spring 1987

Year Release details

Released: July 13, 1987

Released: July 13, 1987

1992 Released: October 5, 1992

Year Album details

Year Release details Track(s)

Released: 1984 "Big Payback" (premix)

God's Favorite Dog[88]

1986 Released: 1986 "Every Man for Himself"

Happiness Is Dry Pants

1987 Released: 1986

11. Azerrad, p. 317.

83. "Headache" (http://www.touchandgorecords.com/bands/album.php?id=128). Touch and Go Records. Retrieved

This page was last edited on 22 May 2019, at 17:54 (UTC).

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