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Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. Fists Of Love |
| 2. L Dopa |
| 3. Passing Complexion |
| 4. Dead Billy |
| 5. Cables |
| 6. Bad Penny |
| 7. Pavement Saw |
| 8. Kerosene |
| 9. Steelworker |
| 10. Pigeon Kill |
| 11. Fish Fry |
| 12. Jordan, Minnesota |
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
To this day I can't believe I passed up the chance to be at this gig in favour of catching some pseudy art flick with a girl I was desperate to bump uglies with. Dumb, dumb and dumb, in that order. Had I known Albini was fixing to pull the plug on Big Black almost immediately afterwards I'd have been cracking heads to be at notorious West London stink-dive, the Hammersmith Clarendon. Hormones, eh?
Still, at least this live recording of BB's last UK show (24/7/87) gives an impression of what was missed. It was doing the rounds as a bootleg for ages and this CD is basically the soundtrack album to the 'Pigpile' video release that can't be had for love nor money these days and which ought to be re-released on DVD - if only to stop me going mental trying to track down a copy. Mixing numbers from 'Atomizer' and 'Songs About Fucking' plus a couple from the earlier EPs, this show must have been a blitzkreig of sonic intensity for those lucky enough to be there. Well risky in the pit, too, if other Clarendon gigs I attended in the late 80s are any guide. Albini and his cohorts do nothing whatsoever to alleviate any tension and/or menace in the room - happily trading venomous insults with the London scum in between carving out crank-fuelled guitar-shredding slabs of aural bombardment and lyrical spleen that made Big Black the most vital, dangerous and corruscating outfit in rock history. Most fan faves are here - 'Passing Complexion' with its swirling maelstrom of harmonics and bass rumble; the chainsaw picking intro of 'Kerosene'; 'Fish Fry' with its atonal thrash and homicidal humour and culminating in a dragged-out and gangbanged version of 'Jordan, Minnesota'. Some stuff on the bootleg isn't here, notably a version of Wire's 'Heartbeat' with a guest appearance by Bruce Gilbert, but 'Pigpile' conveys the full brutality of a band at its peak - the ideal moment to split up, as Albini correctly noted.
Big Black were, and still are, about the most punk band to ever emerge from the US - in terms of sound, impact, vision and total lack of compromise. Get this CD - well, get everything and anything they ever did 'cause it's all good. Of course, should some lovely person decide to re-issue the video of this show, then get that instead - looks fun, from the clips up on YouTube, with Albini's 'rocket guitar', irresponsible use of fireworks and sweat-soaked thuggery a-go-go. Because this OUGHT to be the video is why it's just 4-star not 5, but for anyone that's discovered the two studio albums and craves a taste of the live experience this is a decent enough document. Just wish I'd been there in person...(and she turned out to be a crap shag, BTW...)
Still, at least this live recording of BB's last UK show (24/7/87) gives an impression of what was missed. It was doing the rounds as a bootleg for ages and this CD is basically the soundtrack album to the 'Pigpile' video release that can't be had for love nor money these days and which ought to be re-released on DVD - if only to stop me going mental trying to track down a copy. Mixing numbers from 'Atomizer' and 'Songs About Fucking' plus a couple from the earlier EPs, this show must have been a blitzkreig of sonic intensity for those lucky enough to be there. Well risky in the pit, too, if other Clarendon gigs I attended in the late 80s are any guide. Albini and his cohorts do nothing whatsoever to alleviate any tension and/or menace in the room - happily trading venomous insults with the London scum in between carving out crank-fuelled guitar-shredding slabs of aural bombardment and lyrical spleen that made Big Black the most vital, dangerous and corruscating outfit in rock history. Most fan faves are here - 'Passing Complexion' with its swirling maelstrom of harmonics and bass rumble; the chainsaw picking intro of 'Kerosene'; 'Fish Fry' with its atonal thrash and homicidal humour and culminating in a dragged-out and gangbanged version of 'Jordan, Minnesota'. Some stuff on the bootleg isn't here, notably a version of Wire's 'Heartbeat' with a guest appearance by Bruce Gilbert, but 'Pigpile' conveys the full brutality of a band at its peak - the ideal moment to split up, as Albini correctly noted.
Big Black were, and still are, about the most punk band to ever emerge from the US - in terms of sound, impact, vision and total lack of compromise. Get this CD - well, get everything and anything they ever did 'cause it's all good. Of course, should some lovely person decide to re-issue the video of this show, then get that instead - looks fun, from the clips up on YouTube, with Albini's 'rocket guitar', irresponsible use of fireworks and sweat-soaked thuggery a-go-go. Because this OUGHT to be the video is why it's just 4-star not 5, but for anyone that's discovered the two studio albums and craves a taste of the live experience this is a decent enough document. Just wish I'd been there in person...(and she turned out to be a crap shag, BTW...)
Format:Audio CD
I love Big Black and in my humble opinion this live recording is the best album of the uncompromising, innovating punk/noise band who always did what they wanted to do. The sound is much dirtier, chaotic, visceral and excoriating than the same studio recorded tracks and I have not heard anything remotely similar - their sound is pioneering and unique. Steve Albini's voice is spiteful and challenging, angry and powerful and is a perfect nihilistic fit for the rampaging noise.
The reworking of Steelworker is majestic malevolence, both intricate and brutal at the same time it is a grim juggernaut of crashing guitars that sweeps you up in its momentum. The same can be said for Dead Billy with its relentless pounding and dark brooding and slicing guitars overlaying each other - its what a violent perturbed mind would sound like as it implodes and manages to be melodic and discordant at the same time. Jordan Minnesota is different and disturbing with its staccato machine gun like drum beats and strung out feedback and perfectly conveys the subject matter. Fish Fry is simply a short demented song full of vitriol with insane driving guitars about a small town murder. I could go on but suffice to say there isn't a weak song on the whole album and I have been continuously playing it in my car on the way to work for the last six months. Superb.
The reworking of Steelworker is majestic malevolence, both intricate and brutal at the same time it is a grim juggernaut of crashing guitars that sweeps you up in its momentum. The same can be said for Dead Billy with its relentless pounding and dark brooding and slicing guitars overlaying each other - its what a violent perturbed mind would sound like as it implodes and manages to be melodic and discordant at the same time. Jordan Minnesota is different and disturbing with its staccato machine gun like drum beats and strung out feedback and perfectly conveys the subject matter. Fish Fry is simply a short demented song full of vitriol with insane driving guitars about a small town murder. I could go on but suffice to say there isn't a weak song on the whole album and I have been continuously playing it in my car on the way to work for the last six months. Superb.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
7 reviews
A plea from the great unwashed
27 April 2000
I endorse the comments of the previous reviewer and support his plea for a re-release of Big Black's Pig Pile. When Pig Pile (the CD) was released in Australia you could buy the video for an extra amount. Since my grandmother had died some years earlier, I had nothing to sell to raise the boodle, so I had to make do with just the CD. Since I've never been able to find the video again, I've regretted it ever since. If the company responsible won't re-release the Pig Pile video, is there anyone out there who can find me a copy? For the purposes of a review, the CD at least is frighteningly awesome. I have no doubt the video was anything less.
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Crashing Trainful O' Joy
16 Feb 2000
Okay, if you guys don't re-release this live masterpiece, I'm going to have to duplicate my copy a thousand times and rain it upon the nation as a public service! (No Collector Scum, I!) This is the ultimate live Big Black show, performed as a swan song in the UK in 1987 and full of the jarring, driving, hammering guitar torture modern bands try so hard to ape but can never come close to. But not only that: Albini's distinctly creepy stand-up comedy, an unbelievable gymnastic version of "Dead Billy," lots of audience violence (including a constant stream of fake blood aimed at little Stevie), and the finest performance ever of "Jordan, Minnesota."
Over the ball-crushing vigor of the sound and the confrontational fury of the songs hangs an edgy haze of insecurity--the halo of an age when punk was made by real misfits, and outrage wasn't met with the smug audience comfort of the 90's and 00's. This is a slice of underground rage from the days when this rage was a real and dangerous force. And it still looks and sounds crystal clear.
So please give this sleeping giant a reawakening, and maybe the puny bands of today will get some spirit scared into them. A pummeling, one-of-a-kind testament.
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful
You Must Be Kidding.
11 Jan 1999
Format:Audio CD
If you've never listened to this you must. To get where this band was then, it is incumbent upon you to listen to this now. Allow your predetermined ideas of how a rock band should sound and operate to be pummelled by this truly great meeting of sound structuralists.
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