Band of the Week: Big Black

When someone shouted out requests for Steve Albini's old act Big Black when he played with Shellac at The Echo last year, he told the crowd that someone needed to let go of the 80s.

That guy certainly wasn’t me – there aren't many things I hate more than 80s music – but I find that there are few bands from that era that hold up as well as Albini’s Big Black…

Even with the act's ancient Roland drum machine beats, you could listen to any of their albums today and find that they retain a razor sharpness. Albini was in prime satirical form with the band, with tongue-in-cheek songs about slaughtering livestock, the power of independent trucking, being so bored where you live that you set yourself on fire, and more.

It was quick, witty, loud, offended all the right people, and I credit it with influencing fellow Chicagoan Al Jourgensen to stop singing with a fake English accent with his band Ministry and start playing extremely loud. I used to play their album Songs About Fucking incessantly while driving back in my high school, though I was too young to see them perform live before they broke up.

Albini went on to engineer/produce albums by The Pixies, Nirvana, and PJ Harvey, create new bands like Shellac, and poke fun at concert-goers who wanted to hear his older material. But last week, Touch & Go Records announced that the band would re-unite to “play a few songs” at the label’s 25th anniversary celebration on September 8 – 10 in Chicago.

So, I guess the dates for my next trip home just got decided...