Review #210: Big Black - Bulldozer 12" (1983)

BULLDOZER (EP)

Year: 1983
Genre: Post-Punk/Hardcore Punk
Label: Touch & Go Records
Tracks: 6
Length: 15 Minutes
My Rating: 6/8

"Bulldozer" is the second release from Steve Albini's band, Big Black. By this point, he was now playing with a full band, so in this record, it's not just Mister Albini playing the instruments. The original couple hundred pressings of this album were actually released in a metal sheet with the name of the band acid-pressed into the sheet. I also like how the two different non-bass guitars played on this album are credited as being a "smash" and "klang" guitar. Anyways, let's listen to this now, shall we?

1. Cables
Wow, the guitar really does sound KLANGY here... and I'm guessing that the SMASH guitar is the more crunchy, fat-sounding one. The beat is cool and it's a very metallic sound... not "metallic" as in heavy metal, but more as in it sounds like a bunch of pieces of metal grinding and banging against eachother in the form of music. There's real drums this time, also. The bass is kind of choppy-sounding. The lyrics are about a guy who works in a slaughterhouse.

2. Pigeon Kill
Similar tempo to the previous song, but the beat is a little cooler. The guitar tones sound more frigid, here. The song describes a redneck mentality of being threatened by a massive amount of pigeons in the sky and going out and shooting them all out of existence to protect their kids. For some weird reason. I like the one part when all the instruments cut out and Steve moans "duuaoooohh, ohhhhh mama!". Pretty legitty.

3. I'm a Mess
Stinging bass riff and fast-ish beat. In the chorus, the guitars cut in and they sound pretty massive... almost ambient. It's a nice sound, there. By the third verse, there's some lead guitar in the mix as well. Once again, it seems to describe the life of a blue-collar redneck. Not as specific this time around, though. End of Side A.

4. Texas
Longest song on the record (four minutes long). This song has more of a regular hardcore feel to it, aside from the lead guitar. Fast beat. The lyrics portray Texas as a redneck, white-trash haven of arrogance and unwarranted self-importance. I AM TEXAS! I AM TEXAS! I AM TEXAS! I AM TEXAS! The lyrics don't really go out of the way to directly criticize Texas, but you can pretty much tell that these guys don't like Texas very much. But what about the Butthole Surfers or Beavis & Butt-Head, Mister Steven?? I just noticed that both of those have the word "butt" in them. Maybe Texas is good at things involving butts. Actually, for the second time in a row I just read that Texas is trying to outlaw "sodomy", which apparently refers to any non-pennis-vaggina sex or any sex with no intention to have babies. Sounds like a shitty place. But I do like this song.

5. Seth
The song starts out with a sampled rant from an unknown racist dude about how the other races, specifically black people and black communists don't deserve the same rights as white people. The song really starts after about a minute and a half. It's about a rat-like dog that bit the singer (?) because "he thought he was black". That's kinda funny, because dogs have races too. If this even happened, that is. Kind of a weird song.

6. Jump the Climb
This is a slow song. The drumming is extremely interesting on this one. It's about domestic abuse with a knife and how a person can express their self-hatred by harming another person because they see what they hate about themselves in their significant other. This is the only song on the record that uses a Roland drum machine rather an actual drummer.

And the drummer at this time was Pat Byrne! He must've felt pretty hurt when they told him that he wasn't good enough to be playing drums on the last song. Pat attempted murder of Roland shortly after this EP was recorded but didn't succeed. The songs on this record are more hardcore and less new wave, but still much more experimental and artistically proficient than must hardcore of '83, so it stands out for sure. After this record, the band released another EP called "Racer X", and then a couple years after that they put out their first full length album. The lyrics on this record mostly consist of a grim portrayal of the North American redneck, with imagery of bigotry, violence, stupidity, and the possible underlying motives for this. SO PUT YER DICK ON A STICK AND LET'S HYUK HYUK S'MORE WHEN I WRITE MY NEXT FUCKING REVIEW, KIDDZ!

Top 3 Favorites:
1. Texas
2. Pigeon Kill
3. Jump the Climb