HAMMER HEADACHE

PATRICK MOXEY in Chicago meets the brute lip-force of BIG BLACK, three hotheads with a drum machine who're banned from the clubs.

Big Black remain the enigma of the Chicago music scene. Its most internationally successful independent band, they continue a feud with the city's music venues that's led to a hometown gig being a rare occurrence. Much of this stems from the outspoken attitudes of Steve Albini, their band's self-professed leader, who is quick to attack what he sees as the ills of the music industry.

Sticking to his principles has meant being forcibly thrown out of Chicago clubs, running his own new-bands label (Ruthless), never signing a recording contract and volunteering to be pelted with garbage.

With a single and EP out simultaneously in England (on Sonic Youth's Blast First) and in America (on Touch And Go), the band are ready to 'fess. As they file into Chicago's Campeche Restaurant in various states of disarray, I realize that the afternoon has to be the best possible time to avoid being their victim. Alcohol, combined with a time change, has taken its toll on the newly-risen Blackies, and after some grumbling from Steve--"what? You're not taking us out dinner?"--Albini, and some coffee, they try to explain why they never play their Chicago home town.

"We hate this f**king city," says Santiago Durango. "In the last year or two we've played all over the world. Nowhere have we been treated as shittily as here in Chicago."

Steve concurs. "It's consistent. The overriding attitude of the clubs here in Chicago is f**k the bands, f**k the audience, keep the police off our back, and let's make as much money as possible."

"The coolest people in the city are banned from the Metro," adds Santiago. "No one who plays there ever wants to play again. All the clubs in the city are f**ked. When I first got my start, I was in the first punk band here, Silver Abuse in '78, '79. The first times we played there were riots. Afterward I joined Naked Raygun, which was one of three bands that came up together in Chicago, the others being Strike Under and the Effigies. At first there was no place to play, so we threw loft parties until we got into the clubs. Now all the clubs suck."

But that isn't going to stop them playing around Chicago. At the end of May they played Livestock, a parody of Woodstock.

Steve explains: "The group Pile Of Cows have some land 30 miles west of here and there was a film crew, bonfires, generators, PAs and whatnot out in this field..."

This summer, in fact, the band plans to play several cities under unusual conditions. Steve claims to be holding out for a sap-rising party in a Maine maple grove, while others mention a gig in a cave...

Such excess expands to all areas of band life. Take, for example, the limited edition of their new Go releases, the 'Headache' EP and the 'Heartbeat' single.

"I got this stupid idea to do a special package," admits Albini, "the EP and 12" together, 1,000 copies here on Touch and Go and 1,000 in England on Blast First. Then came the special labels and the poster and a book in a vinyl pouch. All this stuff, and it just kept getting weirder and weirder. The final touch is the metal stamping on the cover. This is what caused the delay. It's a shame, as we've had this material since before 'Atomizer'."

Big Black had originally planned to put out the new releases on Homestead but that went the way of the rest of their relationships. The usual money, promotion and distribution wrangles appear to be behind the change to Touch And Go, but the last straw was editorial.

"We've never signed a contract with any record label. We only agree to do one record at a time. But of all labels in America, Touch And Go is the only one I'd be willing to put our records on," says Steve.

"I sent the cover photo to Homestead and they didn't go for it. The inspiration for the 'Headache' record is a morgue ID photo of a guy whose head has been mushed open. It's actually two shots, one with these rubber gloves holding the head together and one where the head's just flopped open like a banana split. We decided we'd make a theme EP, like the most violent depraved EP we could think of, so we sent the photo to Homestead and said we wanted to use it for the next record, and they said there was no way they'd let us do it. Then I sent it, as a Valentine, to Cory of Touch And Go and we got talking about it. That's the picture on the limited edition.

"For the UK issue, we've got a drawing by this English guy Savage Pencil (the NME's very own Edwin Pouncey--Ed.). He used to do the Punk Rock Zoo and Mr. Inferno. Anyway, he's done this drawing for us of a fist punching out the middle of a face, like the monster in Alien coming out of the guy's stomach. The fist has these really cool biker rings with skulls on them and lots of fur on the arm."

Albini remains cool on revealing the politics of all this depravity, or of songs like 'Steelworker'.

"I'm like Dorothy Hamill, I'm skating. It's all stuff that I think about all the time, and I hate examining it because I feel self-conscious. I stopped putting lyrics on the records because I didn't want to be confronted with them. Look at Billy Bragg. I just saw this video tape and he was smarmy, really full of himself. He's like the populist who wants to ruffle a few feathers but ruffle them so that nobody gets hurt."

The EP and single are to be followed with the LP 'Songs Abount F**king'. Although half of 'Headache' and one song on the 'Heartbeat' single was done with their longtime producer, Iain Burgess, 'Songs About F**king', as Steve explains, is produced by Big Black themselves, and John Loder.

"When we were in England we saw this really cool studio, the headquarters of Crass Records, On-U-Sound. It's a great studio, in a garage. John Loder engineered it, and he's really got his shit together. That was the high tech side, the A-side. We've been through all that now, both with him and before, when we worked in the teak-panelled, knob-filled Chicago Recording Company with Iain.

"So many bands spend all this time and effort to get into a situation where they can blow a lot of money in the studio. We have arrived. Now we can suck if we want to. Our records can sell 15 to 20,000 copies, so we thought, why don't we make this sound as shitty as possible? So the B-side is the no-tech side. I just bought a house and we'll be recording it in the basement on an eight-track."

At this point Dave Riley, one hour late with the time change, appears with girlfriend Lisa in tow. This is the unfortunate woman of Dave's impromtu stage prose: "This is a poem about my girl-friend Lisa, She's a nice piece ah ass!" Dave is quick to display his underwear for me and the rest of the restaurant's clientele.

"She made it for me!" he says with a grin.

"He's our head of security," says Steve.

"Our bodyguard," adds Santiago.

Besides managing the band, Steve has kept busy with other projects, most recently producing parts of the new Pussy Galore LP, 'Pussy Galore Right Now'.

"Most of it we did here," says Steve. "One song we recorded the backing track, put it on a cassette, then we put mikes in their van and recorded the sound of them slamming the door, starting the van, throwing on the cassette, jacking the volume and driving down the highway with the horn blaring. That's the backing track of the whole song."

His independent label, Ruthless Records also takes up time. "The way I see Ruthless is as an outlet for bands who don't have any other. All the bands on Ruthless have been trying in the traditional way to get a record out. Either they're total f**k-ups, like Urge Overkill or End Result, on acid all the time, in another world, or they won't suck dick. They don't network. They don't meet people, don't make connections."

Albini resents what he sees as the evils of the networking system, which enslave bands to a lifetime of ass-kissing and being ripped off. He is plagued with his own personal swarm of networkers.

"There is a category of fan that's developed in the last couple of years, the phone pests. They call you up and say 'I'm putting out a fanzine' or, 'I work at a radio station'. Anything you say goes out on the phone pest network as they talk to their phone pest pals, 'Albini says this, Albini says that'. They all live at home and their largest expense is their phone bill."

Such is the price of celebrity.

I got this from an unattributed clipping.