BIG BLACK - PIG PILE

Recorded live in London in 1987, during the last Big Black tour, Pig Pile opens in the band's typically charming manner with bassist Dave Riley announcing "this song is called 'dingy little back alley of a country'," before the band launches into a punishing 46-minute set. The concert includes material from the band's first ep, Lungs, all the way up through 1987s Songs About Fucking. The band's confrontational live sound emphasizes crackling, extremely harsh guitar and very brittle drums. In true punk rock style, the treble has been turned up as far as possible. Cables - about slaughterhouses and Jordan, Minnesota - about a pedophilia scandal-both appear in radically sped-up versions. Kerosene is introduced as "a song Jerry Lee Lewis wrote before he killed one of his wives," and Steve Albini's vocals are nearly buried beneath heaped shards of guitar shrapnel in Steelworker. While there is no substitute for actually living through the Big Black live experience, Pig Pile - both on record and in its video form-documents one of the relatively few instances in history when music was actually dangerous.

Tracklist

Side A
1. Fists Of Love
2. L Dopa
3. Passing Complexion
4. Dead Billy
5. Cables
6. Bad Penny

Side B
1. Pavement Saw
2. Kerosene
3. Steelworker
4. Pigeon Kill
5. Fish Fry
6. Jordan, Minnesota