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

Review #174: Big Black - Lungs (EP) (1982)

LUNGS (EP)

Year: 1982
Genre: Post-Punk
Label: Ruthless Records
Tracks: 6
Length: 20 Minutes
Style: Angry
My Rating: 5/8

Big Black was a band that formed in 1981 in Evanston, Illinois. Steve Albini, the frontman and main member of the band joined the Chicago punk scene in his college years, and the first incarnation of Big Black featured Steve singing and playing guitar with a Roland drum machine supplying the beats, due to being unable to find a drummer. Big Black was somewhat apart of the hardcore scene, but the music of Big Black progressed further beyond the conventions of hardcore and aside from the already unique-sounding electronic drumbeats, the music was very much influenced by '70s and early '80s post-punk, new wave, and no-wave, and very noisy and avant-garde sounding as well. Steve recorded his first Big Black EP all by himself during a spring break and this wuz the result.

1. Steelworker
The lyrics are really really good. The beat is slow, and the guitar melody reminds me of a creepy spiderweb being spun. The song also uses imagery alluded to a hunter chasing down his food and killing it. GREAT BIG THING, CRAWLIN' ALL OVER ME.

2. Live in a Hole
This one's a bit faster. The beat sounds like a gunshot! The guitar sound is fizzly and freaktastic. The song describes a man who digs in a hole for a living to be able to live and works so much that his hole is practically his home. I think, at least. The melody is pretty interesting. There's some saxophone, also.

3. Dead Billy
Weird synth melody on this song. Slow like "Steelworker". I'm not entirely sure what this one's about... my mind's a little cloudy today, but there's a lot of reference to war and vietnam and pedophilia; perhaps 'Dead Billy' is a soldier in Vietnam who sexually abuses a girl and then kills her. Pretty fucked-up, in that regard. End of Side 1.

4. I Can Be Killed
The lyrics here are almost as psycho as the last song! The beat is a lot faster and there's a neat electric-sounding New Wave melody with a little noise interspliced as well. That seriously is a really cool melody. Maybe it's a guitar with a weird effect. Could be both, man! Steve's voice sounds a little creepy, here.

5. Crack
Reminds me a lot of "I Can Be Killed", musically. The lyrics are more spoken here, and it describes somebody whose life is finally working out well, only for everything to fall apart into shambles. Maybe the sadness of being rejected, or something like that. DUN-NUH!

6. RIP
This song sounds a lot like the type of songs that would be heard on the next two EPs, "Bulldozer" and "Racer-X". It kinda sounds like it's about the government wanting to kill the poor to clear out overpopulation, and how they view the poor as "dirty" and "not looking quite right". I might be wrong, that's my guess. It's the shortest song, though.

Well, that's "Lungs" by Big Black. I've only started listening to Big Black recently, but this is a pretty good EP. I don't like it as much as "Bulldozer" or "Racer-X", but it iz still good, especially inspiring to know it was recorded by just one person! I guess early editions of this album came with all sorts of random goodies included, like razor blades, blood, hair, Public Image Limited concert tickets, squirt-guns, condoms, and other great things like that! It's like an angrier, more sick version of New Wave music, and they say it preceded the whole industrial rock thing as well, which sounded a bit similar to this sort of music. Steve Albini has gone on to be a figurehead in the underground music scene, so yes, I guess this makes this EP somewhat of an important release. The end.

Top 3 Favorites:
1. I Can Be Killed
2. Live in a Hole
3. Dead Billy