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Chicago is a cold city. In winter it's cold enough to make your cry, but so fucking cold that if you do, your tears'll freeze before they've rolled off your face. That cold.
Big Black could only have been conceived in Chicago.
In 1980 Steve Albini escaped from Missoula, Montana with his life and a hefty check from his insurance company. Rather than blow it on booze and whores, he decided to enroll at Northwestern University and major in Journalism. His loss.
In 1980 Santiago Durango (and Jeff Pezatti) were making wonderful noise in Naked Raygun, Chicago's most beloved punk band.
In 1980 Dave Riley was basing coc--uhh, engineering records--with George Clinton and a host of other bad bands in Detroit.
In 1980 Roland was providing the rhythm tracks for hundreds of bands, often as an uncredited session musician.
When their paths crossed greatness would be born.
That didn't happen until 1983 of course, after Steve Albini had released the Lungs EP with the help of Roland, Sam Fishkin's 4 track and Jon Babbin. Free copies of the 12" were liberally distributed along with the message that band members were wanted. Steve briefly considered working with Lyle Preslar, who was going to college at Northwestern, but decided that Preslar's playing style didn't jive with the Big Black concept. One person whose style did fit with Steve's was Jeff Pezatti of Naked Raygun, who had heard Lungs and was impressed enough to join the band part time.
During a Big Black practice session with Pezatti and Roland at the Naked Raygun house Santiago Durango, sick of the racket that was interrupting his football game, decided that if he was going to have to put up with the noise, he might as well be a part of it. Big Black's first line-up had solidified.
After a whirlwind tour stretching from the Chicago to Evanston (and back!), they recorded their first EP together, but with Pat Byrne on drums, rather than the familiar Roland. The result? Bulldozer, a crunching, crackling, claustrophobic slab of vinyl that was the first real indication of what Big Black was capable of achieving.
That line up (minus Pat Byrne) recorded one more EP, the excellent Racer X before Pezatti bowed out in December of 1984 to continue his duties in Naked Raygun full time. Dave Riley (who recieved one of the free copies of Lungs...) was convinced to join up as their new bassist and make beautiful noise with the boys.
The first thing the new line up released was the Il Duce 7" which featured a leftover from the Racer X session on the A side and new tune on the flip. Their first LP, Atomizer was supposed to follow quickly, but was delayed until well into 1986, possibly due to the proposed artwork (Marvin the Martian pointing a raygun at the Earth). Hammer Party, an LP of their first two EPs was released by Homestead at the same time as Atomizer.
In 1986 the band also made their first trip to Europe, playing a handful of shows and getting interviewed by some wicked furners along the way. The Sound of Impact "bootleg" made its first appearance late in the year, selling well enough to hit the indie charts and stay there for five weeks. Pretty impressive for a record that's now impossible to find.
Some other shit happened in '86, like Big Black leaving Homestead due to their unauthorized sale of promotional material, but I don't feel like talking about that any more. Onward and upward, to 1987, and the merciful end...
They announced it well in advance, planning their tour and record releases around it, and making no excuses or noises about "maybe coming back", they were going to split and that was that.
Big Black did too, but not before the most hectic and prolific year of their existence. Their output was amazing (for band who'd averaged one 12" a year) the Headache 12", the Heartbeart and He's a Whore 7"s, the Rich Man's Eight Track Tape CD, a tour of the Europe and Australia, with half a dozen US dates thrown in for good measure, and last but not least, Songs About Fucking, released days after their final gig.
It was over, and in more ways than one. Big Black had split with Homestead, and then Blast First, leaving most their back catalog out of print and nigh impossible to find.
Luckily for us fanboys Touch and Go reissued everything in 1992, along with a new live album/video, called Pig Pile.
At their height (1985 to 1987) the line up was:
Since their breakup Steve Albini has gone on to become a successful recording engineer, and frontman for two other bands, Rapeman (RIP) and Shellac. Judge for yourself whether they deserve the hype. Santiago Durango briefly fronted Arsenal, and is now a lawyer (I don't get it, he left law school in 79 to play in Silver Abuse, then left Big Black in 87 to go to law school?!). Dave Riley played in a band called Bull, who released one 7", and had a debilitating stroke that put him in a coma for a while (thankfully he has recovered). Jeff Pezatti still fronts Naked Raygun when they reform every few years, and plays bass and sings in the Bomb when NR aren't playing. Roland played on the first Jesus Lizard EP, and is probably still doing session work. I don't know what's happened to Pat Byrne or John Bohnen, so don't ask.
Just in case you were dropped on your head as a child and need these things pointed out to you, this is a web page devoted to the band BIG BLACK, who played a particularly nasty brand of punk that would pave the way hundreds of bad "industrial" bands with not one iota of their talent or originality, bands like Ministry, NIN, Pigface and KMFDM, who are content in their uninspired mediocrity.
This page was originally just gonna be an electronic version of a Big Black press kit I had lying around, but it's grown considerably from that. The original front page is still up just 'cuz it looks cool.
This is not the only Big Black page on the net. If you found it interesting you should buy "Our Band Could be Your Life" by Michael Azzerad*, as well as visiting Reid Fleming's Big Black Sourcebook, and Pasha Nini's Big Black page. Mark Prindle also has a review page for Big Black , not to mention hundreds of other bands. Action Park is a resource for all three of Steve Albini's bands, but the Big Black section is pretty broken.
*The book is devoted to important indie bands of the 1980s, and one chapter is devoted to Big Black. My only complaint is that much of the material seemed to be paraphrased (or just taken verbatim) from fanzines (the Big Black section features a lot of material from Forced Exposure 9, 10 and 15, as well as Steve's columns in Matter). There's still alot of interesting stuff in there though, and I wholeheartedly recommend you buy, steal or borrow a copy.
If you're interested in the scene and circumstances that inspired Steve Albini and Big Black, check out Windy City Punk, the Illinois punk discography (only good through 1983 though), and Flex, as well as picking up records by the Effigies (Remains Nonviewable on Touch and Go), Naked Raygun (Basement Screams and Throb Throb on Quarterstick/Touch and Go), Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Black Flag, Suicide, the Stooges, Throbbing Gristle, the Birthday Party and the Minutemen. The Busted at Oz and Middle of America comps are inspiring as well, but good luck finding copies...and buy a fucking copy of "Our Band Could be Your Life."
If you want to link to me, please link to http://www.dementlieu.com/~obik/ rather than this page or the front page.
This page will work in any browser, at just about any resolution (except for the front page, which looks weird at less than 1024x768, but whatthefuck, it's just a self-indulgent splash page). With one exception the HTML is standard and simple, so it will render well in all browsers. I do use lots of tables, but since even lynx has table support now, I think I'm safe from the net cops... The background image and text color make the page easier to look at, so don't bitch about it.
All of this content (except where noted) is mine. I scanned in the images (all images are copyrighted by their respective owners), OCRed the text (except where noted), wrote the crappy intros, bios, history and discography and coded the HTML myself. Please do not steal this content. If you want to use bits and pieces on your own page, just email me, I'll probably let you take what you want. All images are watermarked, so I will know if you've swiped 'em, and all text is copyright 2002, Obik Anti (except where noted), so once again, DON'T STEAL IT. Just ask, I'm a pushover...
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