BIG BLACK- RICH MAN'S EIGHT TRACK TAPE

If you are like me and came of age in the late 90's or early 2000's then you no doubt bought CD's when shopping for music. Why wouldn't you? They were fairly cheap (depending on how dedicated you were to buying music and looking for good deals) and basically the only way to obtain the majority of releases. I never gave much thought about why CD's had replaced vinyl or cassettes and my naive little brain was quick to assume that it must be because CD's sounded better than vinyl!

So fast forward to about 2005: I was finding that a lot of music I wanted to buy was either not available unless I got it specially ordered and if it was available, it was really expensive. Black Sabbath CD's were only $7.99 but other bands' albums (like Big Black's) were as much as $20... I bought the Rich Man's Eight Track Tape on CD for $22.99 because I had only heard Jordan Minnesota and knew this was a band I needed to know inside-out. Keep in mind, this was before I could just go online and find a download of any album in about two minutes. When I got home and removed the shrink wrap and the annoying-as-fuck security stickers Touch-and-Go loved to put on their jewel cases I popped it into my stereo and was instantly pleased. I began reading the love-letter to CD's Steve Albini had penned inside the insert:

"THIS COMPACT DISC, COMPILED TO EXPLOIT THOSE OF YOU GULLIBLE ENOUGH TO OWN THE BASTARDLY FIRST-GENERATION DIGITAL HOME MUSIC SYSTEM, CONTAINS ALL-ANALOG MASTERS. COMPACT DISCS ARE QUITE DURABLE, THIS BEING THEIR ONLY ADVANTAGE OVER REAL MUSIC MEDIA, YOU SHOULD TAKE EVERY OPPORTUNITY TO SCRATCH THEM, FINGERPRINT THEM AND EAT EGG AND BACON SANDWICHES OFF THEM. DON'T WORRY ABOUT THEIR LONGEVITY AS PHILLIPS WILL PRONOUNCE THEM OBSOLETE WHEN THE NEXT PHASE OF THE MARKET-SQUEEZING TECHNOLOGY BONANZA BEGINS."

All analog? Real music media? By now I was not only interested in the mind behind this writing but what he was getting at. I was introduced to the mind and music of Steve Albini from there on. Needless to say, it changed the way I viewed the music industry, music production and obviously, music media. And oh yeah, the music was punishing, fucked up and really catchy.

HERE

PAILHEAD- TRAIT

Cold saturday, sitting at home watching playoff football after walking to the gym with my dad only to realize it closes at four on saturday. Somehow along the way, the intro to Pailhead's "I Will Refuse" got stuck in my head, probably because I've watched Misled Youth about a million times... and musically speaking, the coldness of that song matched how my body felt while wearing shorts in three-degree weather

For those who don't know, Pailhead was a one-off collaboration between Ian Mackaye and Al Jourgensen... but do not fear, this isn't any of that "Jesus Built My Hotrod" bullshit Jourgensen is known for. This sounds more like Ministry's "Stigmata" with Ian Mackaye and a lot of reverb. Six songs and it's done so even if you hate it (which is likely) you won't feel like you could have spent your precious minutes listening to some Japanese hardcore or some shitty garage-rock.

HERE