these guys in montana would go to the slaughterhouse after school and watch
the cattle die for entertainment. they used to describe the prods, hammers,
cables and hooks with a kind of hobbyist's fascination. sometimes they
helped out.
in huntington, indiana, there is an annual event, the pigeon kill, during
which the townspeople feed strychnine-faced corn to the town's pigeons.
sometimes the children are given the responsibility of feeding the pigeons.
they think of it as play.
people who live in trailer parks, mostly rednecks and truckers, get drunk
and ramble, semi-coherently about their problems, moaning, "i'm a mess" and
such self-pitying bullshit. sometimes they erupt in fits of violent aggression.
side two
i hate texas.
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.
this song is called jump the climb, which is a title it got before it had
any words, so the title doesn't really mean much. this is the first recording
made as big black, and the first song written with that intent.
the bulk of this record was recorded in september 1983 at an enormously-expensive
24-track studio in the doglands west of chicago. hedden west studio doesn't
deserve a plug here, so don't consider this one. the gear sucked, the house
engineer was a bozo and the monitors sounded like tin megaphones.
five hundred dollars please, thank you very much.
some ridiculous engineering by iain burgess (who does deserve a plug here)
saved the tapes from steely dan.
thank you iain.
the first set of mixes was done at an even more enormously-expensive, hi-rise
chrome and galss, hacienda villa-decor bathroom-equipped, cocaine-snuffer
sort of studio, which proved absolutley useless. chicago recording company,
doesn't deserve a plug here either, so don't consider this one, we took revenge
for the suede-couches-at-the-expense-of-sound-quality mentality by breaking
into the candy machine for a party-size helping of planter's peanuts. if we're
gonna pay a dollar-and-change a minute for some silk-shirt, mustache, jass-fusion,
gin and tonic, racquetball at the health club studio, we want free peanuts.
five hundred fifty dollars please, thank you very much.
the last set of mixes was done at a slightly less-than-enormous-expensive
studio whose employees were very polite and stayed completely out of the way
while we overloaded their equipment.
six hundred seventy five dollars please, thank you very much.
sample production quotes: "iain, can you fuck up the snare a bit more?"
"turn on the bass-ruining equipment" "this song needs more gear with lights."
"more tape hiss, please"
anyway, it cost too much and took too long. nobody in the whole world could
ever possibly need twenty four tracks to record on. even eight seems a little
excessive.
the last song on this record, jump the cilmb, was written and recorded in
april, 1981 in an apartment in chicago on sam fishkin's four-track. it didn't
cost a sent.
a considerable chunk of the money for this record has been supplied by fever
records, a chicago label which is doing plenty of noteworthy things in its
own right.
excuse me, do you have three grand you're not using? thank you fever records.
big black on this record consists of:
pat byrne: drums
jeff (on loan from naked raygun): bass, stairwell snare
santiago durago (on loan from the interceptors): smash guitar
steve albini: klang guitar, vocals
roland: roland
tank (on loan from the construction site): tank
iain burgess (on loan from her highness): ridiculous engineering
bobbie reichert took the badass photos for the last record, lungs, for which
she never got proper recognition. the photo used on the poster in this record
was taken by shawn spence for the marion, indiana, chronicle-tribune.
these bands also have records on the ruthless label: effigies, naked raygun,
circle seven and the allied. these bands also have releases on the fever
label: bonemen of barumba and book of lies.
big black's address is:
post office box 442
evanston, illinois 60204