Big Black: Bulldozer
1983
Touch & Go Records
Format I Own it On: Vinyl
Track Listing: 1. Cables 2. Pigeon Kill 3. I'm a Mess 4. Texas 5. Seth 6. Jump the Climb
Big Black was one of those bands I used to play day and night but suddenly stopped listening to for some reason..."Songs About Fucking" and "Pigpile" were staples of my teenage years and were there for me when I really needed them...
Y'know, when you're a young kid, you're somewhat oblivious to the constant barrage of atrocities that go on in the world...You'd sit on the living room floor and color with crayons, totally oblivious, while the 6 O' Clock news provides a grisly breakdown of the day's murders...But then suddenly as a young teenager, the cruelty of the world sinks in and its too much to take...In order to cope with the horrors you have to assimilate them...That's where things like Faces of Death videos and Big Black EP's come into play...You get to watch the carnage from a safe distance...Then one day, you've had
enough, you know you can cope with the horrors of everyday life (and death) and turn your attention to the more beautiful things...Is that simply a nicer way of saying you've become jaded and can now turn a blind eye to the endless suffering? Maybe, I don't know...But that's why you never see 50 year-old couples chuckling at Faces of Death every night and that's why Big Black were never labelled adult contemporary...
About a year ago, I was at the record store and saw the striking cover of the "Bulldozer" EP....I'm always a sucker for that particular combination of bright blue and red...I associate it with Gang of Four's "Solid Gold"...Or maybe it was the rekindled memory of the electrifying smell of recently exploded firecrackers...Anyway, a sudden wave of nostalgia came over me and I realized I hadn't listened to Big Black in over a decade, so I snagged the record...
One of the joys of buying a physical copy of a Big Black record is the always entertaining insert...You get in-depth info on the making of the album that includes calling the first set of mixes "useless" and this explanation of the studio: "The gear Sucked., the house engineer was a bozo and the monitors sounded like megaphones." Then there's the usual song by song commentary that provides the seedy back-story and additional insight into the unsavory characters that populate the lyrics:
"This guy trained his dog seth to attack black people. he was an
asshole beyond that, but that's the sort of thing he'd do. he has a
cornflakes box with his photo on the front. he's big in the democratic
machine. he tried to beat up a girl tenant in an apartment building he
had equipped with illegally-tapped gas and electricity. he bets on
sports. the introductory message is from the america first committee
telephone hotline."
My personal favorite is the liner notes for "Texas" that simply states:
"i hate texas"
If you haven't heard Big Black before, here's what you've been missing...A pounding drum machine (although this is one of the rare Big Black albums that does have some real drums mixed in), stringy, sinewy bass, and a scrape-y, papery, guitar played with a metal pick...The vocals are delivered in a detached, colorless shout that just lists the soul-crushing scenarios in a matter-of-fact sneer/shout...If it were a little less ugly it could almost be classified as "industrial" but whereas industrial usually prides itself on its bloodless, clinical precision, Big Black has a little too much human pulp in the gears...Just some ugly, ugly music that's probably still as offensive and abrasive now as it was when it was released...If not a little more...
I've always considered this the easiest to listen to Big Black release...The slaughterhouse-themed "Cables" is a surprisingly catchy, fist-pumping anthem...And "Seth" (about the aforementioned racist dog and its owner) has the power to get lodged in my head when I'm in the right frame of mind...But really, if you can get into one of these songs you'll enjoy them all...If one of them gives you a headache, they'll all give you a headache...The EP is really the best format for this band, I believe...I imagine it can be a little intense to sit through an hour of Big Black for some folks...
To sum things up, if you're looking for a little depravity and ugliness to get you through the day , then some Big Black might be what you're looking for...Sounds great whenever you're pissed off and thoroughly disgusted with the world...
Here's "Pigeon Kill"..Enjoy...
