A Short History of the Band Big Black

Steve Albini released an EP called 'Lungs' at the start of 1983. He played almost all the instruments himself and it was nearly two years, and a couple more EP's, later that he managed to get together a settled line up for his band Big Black. During those two years Albini had managed to acquire a reputation for being a mean-spirited music critic who was partial to bands like Naked Raygun and Husker Du. He most definitely did not like the hardcore scene.

He started working with some of his heroes. Namely, Santiago Durango and Jeff Pezzati of Naked Raygun, and also Roland, a quiet yet effective drummer (drum machine). The idea of using a drum machine was similar to British bands like Sisters Of Mercy and the earliest incarnation of Echo And The Bunnymen. It managed to dehumanize the sound of the band, even though the big slabs of guitar noise already present in Big Black's music managed quite effectively to do a good job at that already. There was little beauty in the music, and hardly any melody. The lyrics didn't help to instill any shading of light to proceedings either. They were about things like child abuse, racism and sexism. Albini set out to shock and he was quite effective at that.

Pezzati was replaced before Big Black's debut album 'Atomizer' in 1984 by David Reilly. He had previously played bass with George Clinton, so he was very definitely a muso. On the album Albini and Durango operate the twin guitar assault. The album has two major themes: sex and violence. Kind of sad really that a band who set out to shock from the outset picked the two cliched shock criteria present in all forms of music since time began but maybe that was the point, or maybe they just weren't very imaginative. Their 1987 album, 'Songs About Fucking', was pretty straight forward in content. It has songs about killing techniques in South America, bread that gets you stoned, and how 'slowly, without trying, everyone becomes what he despises most'. The saying 'maybe you should lighten up a bit' springs to mind.

Big Black disbanded in 1987 when they were apparently at their peak. Albini had decided that his band was pretty dumb and ugly, which it was, and surely that was the point of it right from the beginning. It's a typical Albini thing to suggest. Things are either incredibly good or incredibly bad in the world of Albini, there is nothing in between. It's a bi-polar approach to life and music which sadly misses all the good stuff that strives to be neither. After the band finished Albini started producing other bands. He helped record the first Pixies songs, where typically, the drums are right up front and the overall sound is stark and real. Having, seemingly thought little of the band, he went on to produce some stuff by Jesus Lizard, one of his favorite bands, and he worked as house producer for Touch & Go Records. But it wasn't long before he went touring again, this time with a new band called, oh so controversially, Rapeman, which comprised of him and two members of Scratch Acid. He effectively sabotaged himself by choosing the band's name as he had gained a strong reputation with Big Black and his uncompromising production work, so any notion that his new band would achieve a major label deal was squashed even before they started work. So, Rapeman toured and recorded and provoked strong reactions and then five years later Albini returned again, this time with Shellac and the album 'At Action Park'. The album credits Albini as being responsible for velocity, while Bob Weston and Todd Turner were responsible for mass and time. You can almost hear the phrase 'pretentious-moi' somewhere on the record.

What is definite though is that Steve Albini has worked on many great records, from the early Pixies, PJ Harvey, Nirvana and others. There's no denying that his name on the album credits instills a degree of authenticity into proceedings and a kind of cache. Sure a lot of his own music is dark, ugly, silly and laughable but then he's also capable of coming up with something extra special, like Rapeman's cover of ZZ Top's 'Just Got Paid'. For Big Black, though, they were a big deal in terms of influence. How many times have you read or heard that they are the founders of US hardcore (which they aren't). They created a space in the musical spectrum where other band's could be mean, aggressive, on the edge, or just plain ugly. Maybe Albini wanted Big Black to have some kind of purity, its just that his idea of purity meant casting-out all the 'bad' that surrounded him. Still ugly music though.