This write-up is lifted (and slightly adapted) from the 4th edition of The Trouser Press, a compendium of record reviews and discographies for alternative music.

"The only good policeman is a dead one/The only good laws aren't enforced/I've never hung a darkie but I've fed one/I've never seen an Indian on a horse." With these gentle words, acerbic Chicago fanzine writer Steve Albini began his extremely serious adventures in the rock'n'roll skin trade. For a while, Albini assembled makeshift lineups from other bands (Big Black subsequently stabilized a lineup of its own) regardless of who, they made music that's grating, angular, humorless and very intelligent -- sort of a cross between Gang of Four, PiL and the Great Crusades (not a band). Albini's self-righteousness sometimes causes him to be as much unaccommodating as uncompromising, but his bile is generally well-directed, and he's immune to corruption, except from within. All these records are challenging and rewarding.

LUNGS is at once the most homegrown and overwrought Big Black release. Over a skeletal art-funk background, Albini creates bleak, tough images of recessioned industrial America. While "I Can Be Killed" is almost laughable for its delusionary self-importance, "Steelworker" is intensely muscular.

BULLDOZER goes for a chunkier sound and more violent imagery. The recording quality and playing are more sophisticated, making it less alluring than the spartan LUNGS. "Cables" is about voyeurs at a slaughterhouse "The Pigeon Kill" is about poisoning birds. "Seth" is about a dog trained to attack black people. Overambitious, but sincere and scary. (A limited number of copies of BULLDOZER were packaged in a sheet metal sleeve, with the band's name etched in acid.) The CD of THE HAMMER PARTY, which on vinyl is simply a combined reissue of the first two EPs, adds the third, RACER-X.

RACER-X is less obsessively cranky than the first two records (a positive development). The basic elements remain: one-riff industrial funk grooves, coarse vocals, jagged guitar. But this EP fills out the sound without sacrificing any of its amateur appeal. The musicians, while skilled technicians all, keep the sound raw. And if Albini is still something of a cartoon curmudgeon in his boasts about being "The Ugly American," he at least includes a James Brown cover and a tribute to Speed Racer's cooler brother. Not as idiosyncratically brilliant as LUNGS, but fine stuff nonetheless.

ATOMIZER comes thundering out of the starting gate like a wounded rhino, charging around madly with awesome, claustrophobic rock power. Albini leads his troupe through such angry slices of niho-philosophy, depravity and arson as "Big Money," "Stinking Drunk," "Fists of Love," "Jordan, Minnesota," "Kerosene" and "Bazooka Joe" (for which the liner notes note "part of the drum track is an M1 carbine being fired in a field exercise by a guy named Joe"). A magnificently rugged record and a major sourcebook for countless bands to come.

As a sticker prudently warns, HEADACHE is nowhere near as good as ATOMIZER. With the exception of the slow-to-fast chugger "Ready Men," nothing approaches the same level of excellence. Although HEADACHE is the weakest Big Black LP or EP, it will forever be remembered for its original (fortunately?) limited edition sleeve: the most gruesome, disgusting photo imaginable, an accident victim's head so grotesque the record had to be sold with a covering black jacket.

SOUND OF IMPACT is a rather mysterious, extraordinarily limited edition live LP. Big Black's name appears nowhere on the sleeve or spine; consequently, many are unaware of the record's existence. Recorded live in Muncie, Indiana and Minneapolis, it includes early versions with different lyrics of later material, and is as jarring and unrelenting as their concerts were.

The CD-only RICH MAN'S EIGHT-TRACK TAPE (ha-ha) is a sixteen-track compilation containing all of ATOMIZER [except the instrumental "Strange Things"] and HEADACHE plus both sides of the "Heartbeat"/"Things to Do Today" single.

As Big Black was splitting up, they released their finest work: a second actual LP, SONGS ABOUT FUCKING. As if to go out kicking, screaming, howling and biting, it's their most raging, abrasive, pulverizing record, with only an excellent and ironic guitar take of Kraftwerk's "The Model" providing any relief. Albini's screeched vocals are so low in the mix they're just another instrument. Obsessing as usual on the excessive and bizarre side of human life, his stories remain mini horror movies set to the punishing, scathing guitar attack. Lyrically and aurally like ATOMIZER, it's liable to alter your perceptions. (The CD and cassette add Big Black's cover of Cheap Trick's "He's a Whore," originally released as a 45, complete with parodic sleeve photo.)

Following Big Black's windup, Albini got busy producing records (usually without taking sleeve credit) for The Pixies and zillions of other bands. [For instance: Bastro, Bitch Magnet, Boss Hog, The Breeders, Crain, Craw, The Didjits, Dirt, Drunk Tank, The Gits, Gore, Head of David, Helmet, The Jesus Lizard, The Membranes, Murder, Inc., Nirvana, Pigface, PJ Harvey, Poster Children, Sandy Duncan's Eye, Silkworm, Silverfish, Slint, Superchunk, Tad, Tar, Urge Overkill, The Volcano Suns, The Wedding Present and Whitehouse.]

However, between the dissolution of Big Black and his career as a noise- loving record producer, Albini led Rapeman, a steel-edged thrash trio, whose crudely provocative name (borrowed from a Japanese manga character) contributed to the brevity of its existence. Three of the four songs on the Budd 12-inch were recorded live and loose, an unfocused batch of impressive shards that doesn't make a convincing introduction to the group.

Two Nuns and a Pack Mule (which, like Budd, has a nifty die-cut cover) fits Albini's distinctive meltdown guitar and shriek vocals into rough song forms outlined by the ex-Scratch Acid rhythm section of David Wm. Sims (bass) and Rey Washam (drums). Whether paraphrasing Sonic Youth ("Kim Gordon's Panties"), dismantling '70s rock ("Radar Love Lizard"), slowly discussing sex scenarios ("Trouser Minnow") or revving up ambiguously intended furiosities ("Hated Chinee"), Rapeman spits out sparks with the conviction of Albini's acerbic intelligence. (Both records are on a single CD.)

Although the main reason Big Black split was because guitarist Santiago Durango enrolled in law school, he's since found the time to record two EPs as Arsenal, assisted on the second by Naked Raygun's Pierre Kezdy. (Durango was in Raygun's original lineup, prior to Kezdy's arrival.)

Arsenal's first EP, Manipulator, is too experimental -- as if Durango hadn't decided what sort of music he wanted to make. "Little Hitlers" could be a Big Black outtake, but the rest sounds like an afternoon of self- indulgent knob twisting. The vocals, delivered in a barely discernible Darth Vader growl and deliberately hidden behind the instruments, make Albini's anti-singer mixes sound like a U2 album.

Factory Smog is much better. Including songs originally done by the legendary Strike Under and Trial by Fire (Kezdy's two old bands), this EP carries on Big Black's harsh wallop, with big-fuzzed instrumental passages that are still nowhere near the front of the mix, the harrowing riffs make for real drama. (One CD contains both EPs.)

Click here to return to my home page.