Songs About Fucking - Dark Publications

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Customer Reviews: Read 29 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

The ONLY way to experience this record for the first time October 2, 2005
51 out of 68 found this review helpful

I went to the dentist to get some fillings and they put me under the gas at least forty-five minutes before even starting the operation. When I left the office I stumbled to my car and got inside. Although most of my face was numb I lit a cigarette. I put this album in for the first time and turned it up really loud. I sat there in the parking lot of the dentist, face numb, still coming down off the gas, listening to Big Black and smoking for a minute or two before deciding to drive to Barnes and Noble to buy birthday presents for my friend's son. It was amazing.

5 out of 5 stars

You must own. NOW. August 5, 2005
41 out of 50 found this review helpful

If forced to pick one band that best exemplified the indie-rock aesthetic, one would be hard-pressed to find a better choice than Big Black. Many of the acts typically credited with bringing alternative music to the mainstream have, for better or worse, been little more than angry pop acts (Nirvana and Nine Inch Nails being prominent examples), and even many more underground acts such as Pixies, Sonic Youth, and the Jesus Lizard released some material that was palatable to the mainstream, as their major-label runs attest. Big Black, on the other hand, was the real deal, a band that lived out the indie philosophy in both their music and in their resolutely do-it-yourself business practices, and paid the commercial price for it. Songs About F***ing was the perfect distillation of leader Steve Albini's philosophy: an abrasive, confrontational album that contained no concessions to the mainstream and no pretensions to socially redeeming value. This is music at its most twisted and evil, acknowledging no taboos as it challenged listeners to take or leave its assaultive sound and unpleasant lyrical content.

The key to the lasting appeal of this release lies largely in its simplicity. Like fellow pioneering noise-merchants Godflesh, Big Black distilled rock music to its most basic elements: guitar, bass, and drum machine. In spite of this minimal approach, however, Songs About F***ing is hardly palatable or unchallenging. What emerges from this combination of rock's traditional elements is a barrage of scathing, disembowling noise that pummels eardrums with a mix of astringent guitar squalls and pulsating industrial beasts. And of course, it's all topped off with the demented vocal stylings of Albini himself, making Kurt Cobain sound like Mel Torme as he howled and screamed his tales of depravity.

Mixing metal, punk, and the then-burgeoning genre of industrial with reckless abandon, Songs About F***ing constitutes a musical roller coaster of frightening proportions, and wraps things up in barely half an hour. The basslines and drum programming of Bad Penny and Colombian Necktie are enough to crack skulls, while Albini's vocals legitimately bring to mind a man in the midst of a nervous breakdown. L-Dopa is all punkish speed and aggression but infinitely more frightening, and the proto-industrial rage of Precious Thing and Kasimir N. Pulaski Day would send Trent Reznor up a tree. Even when the band slows down, as on Kitty Empire, the results are clenched, sinister, and intense. Tiny, King of the Jews (love that title) actually manages to be somewhat atmospheric, but it still relies heavily on that mix of disconcerting guitar noise and pulsating beats.

I've listened to pretty much every noted act in the extreme-music world, from Slayer to Godflesh to Meshuggah, and Big Black may have been the scariest of all. And Songs about F***ing in an unqualified triumph, one that oozes menace and integrity at the same time. Own it, or pose.

5 out of 5 stars

sounds like a suicide caught on tape January 22, 2000
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

Big Black is one of the key creators of industrial music. over the years, i have read enough stories about them to go out and buy this album (as a import copy) at a record store. when i got home, i found out that it was only 30 minutes long. furious that i spent so much on a imported CD that was barely longer that a sitcom, i went and played it anyway. I WAS FLOORED. this was one of the most darkest, sickest albums i have ever heard. starting off with "The Power Of Independent Trucking", Albini takes off into songs that are truly sick and twisted, with him screaming lyrics over punishing guitar riffs and equaling damaging drum machine loops. and all this with a (as we record engineers call) "incorrect" mix of the songs, sounding like they're coming out of a transistor radio that you would hear over machine gunfire. the whole album sounds like what you would have if you could capture the moment of suicide across the length of a record. i can see where Trent Reznor got his ideals from, but this album makes Nine Inch Nails sound like Disney records. this album is a must-buy, but it is not for the weak. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.

4 out of 5 stars

The primal scream, courtesy of Steve Albini. June 13, 2005
12 out of 15 found this review helpful

First off, consider the packaging. The title SONGS ABOUT F--KING rendered in loving bold, and cover art that puts all "shock rockers" (that means you, Marilyn Manson) in their place. That alone makes it worth adding to your collection. Too bad this was the band's last release. Leave it to Steve to break a band up just as they were attracting an audience.

Big Black is pure nihilism in audio form. A young Steve Albini (pre-Shellac and before he was reduced to producing Bush albums) backed by a constantly pulsing drum machine named Roland and furiously feedback-driven guitar noise while ranting his stories of Midwest depravity and illness with an almost infectious glee. This is what happens when Kraftwerk goes to hell (they even cover that German duo's The Model here), or when a bunch of angry, drunk, baseball bat-wielding nerds start playing New Wave while setting a trailer park on fire. Though there have been faster bands, heavier bands, nobody has ever sounded so gritty and hateful as these guys do.

Ah.. enough hyperbole. So, why only four stars (actually 4.5)? Well, there's nothing as great as previous albums' Steelworker, Bad Houses, Kerosene, or Jordan, Minnesota--songs that are so definitive of Big Black's style. However, there are plenty of songs that come awful close: The poppy yet deliciously evil Bad Penny ("I think I f--ked your girlfriend once, maybe twice, I don't remember"), the demented almost-surf rock of Columbian Necktie, the eerie proto-industrial grind of Kitty Empire, the vicious Fish Fry, and the lovely free-floating hostility of Tiny, King Of The Jews. Also notable is a cover of Cheap Trick's He's A Whore that strips away the innuendo and leaves just the grimy sleaze.

Essential music for the misanthrope in all of us. Also recommended highly are fellow Touch & Go outfits The Jesus Lizard and Albini's later "supergroup" Rapeman.

5 out of 5 stars

This album stole my music viginity! October 9, 2001
10 out of 12 found this review helpful

Back in 1991 I was getting ready to graduate from high school. All I had ever listened to was Janes Addiction and I assumed that they were as good as music gets. Then one day a friend of mine got a job at a local record store and brought back an album and said "You have to check out this band." I then half heartedly removed my "Ritual De Lo Habitual" CD out of my car's stereo and inserted "Big Black's - Songs About Fu...". My taste in music and my entire life changed from the moment that CD played. I found a whole new world of music that rarely, if never, touched the corporate radio waves.

I'll admit, I don't play this album as much as I used to but that doesn't mean that I still don't consider it one of my all time favorites. When you hear an album, any album, a few thousand times you need to take a break every now and again. Still though, when I play it around a bunch of friends or others who may have never listened to Big Black, I still get that fuzzy feeling inside. They have a sound which I consider well ahead of it's time.

If you're new to Big Black and you don't own this record, BUY IT! If you own this record, PLAY IT.... LOUD!! If you like it then go out and buy Albini's other fine projects such as Rapeman and Shellac. You will not be disappointed...

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