I’m just not sure if I say it enough. Actually, I’ll take that back–I’m totally sure that I DO NOT say it enough–Steve Albini, I love you, I love Rapeman, I love Big Black, and I love Shellac. Seriously this man writes like the most bitter, petty, cathartic, and universally comprehensible lyrics I can think of. He thinks the same psychotic, homicidal thoughts that you do when you find out that your girlfriend has been sleeping with your sister, but he has the guts to say it–LOUD. Really fucking loud. Steve Albini writes like, the best, meanest, craziest, heaviest, TOUGHEST, bitter, angry, break-up music I can think of.
Shellac - Terraform - 08. Copper - (click song title to download MP3) Once when I got totally deserted by a boyfriend and had literally not a clue as to why (I’m not getting into it right now, trust me you are NOT interested) I played this song on loop for like 5 hours. It’s barely 3 minutes long. I even managed to make a 7-minute-long video of me destroying heroin that I found in his jacket, that he left at my house, that I had never seen before. So aside from the repetitive jack-hammering of Shellac, I was willfully destroying what they my roommates were fiending for: I KNOW I pissed off all 11 of them, but it wasn’t my fault. I blame said behavior entirely on one line from this song. and I blame my speedy emotional recovery on the same line, “Copper, you will never be gold.” (read more lyrics)
Big Black - Songs About Fucking - 03. Bad Penny–(what’s with the copper motif?)–I remember this record from when I was like 16–I think it came out in like 1987 or something, but I was only 3 then and my parents weren’t that cool; I was left to my own devices and had to fight off Barbara Streisand and Supertramp. Not to difficult to resist. The point is that I didn’t hear Songs About Fucking for another 13 years, and it is by far one of my Top 20 Records of all time. The first time I heard ‘Bad Penny’ I was awe stricken by the lyrics but that’s what made me love it instantly. It was wrong, which just seemed right. Watch Big Black performing ‘Bad Penny’ live, and if after that you don’t agree with me, I don’t give a shit. Go read the lyrics or something.
- Shellac - 1000 Hurts - 01. Prayer to God–The only thing I really need to say about this song is that it’s scared the shit out of my ex boyfriend when I played it at full volume while he was at my house picking up his things. The video will do the rest of the talking.
Oh hey wait a sec, let me bum you out for a second. Shellac have announced a “Rare World Tour” to take place in 2008.STOKED. I know. But wait, here’s the punchline: check out WHERE they’re touring. TOTALLY NOT STOKED. I’m gonna go throw something now.
*special thanks to pitchfork for the lolbini pic featured at the top of this post.
If you were lucky enough to be at The Echo last year to see Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, then you were not only lucky enough to see The Haunted Graffiti made up of members of Swans, Bubonic Plague, and Friends in the Mountains, but also to bear witness to the majesty that is Beach House. Their self-titled debut was probably one of the best records that came out of 2006, and February 2008 saw a follow up, Devotion, that was certainly equal to the task of living upto its precursor. The duo is back in Los Angeles and will perform tonight, March 13th, at the Echo with Gnomonsong artist Papercuts.
Papercuts is Humboldt County’s own Jason Quever, and is described on the Gnomonsong site as his “cathedral of sound, a place for the desperate worship of all things analog and devotion to the musicianship of the old world.” This does not sound like a bad thing. Catch Beach House and Papercuts tonight at the Echo, or you will probably rue the day.
