Where bought? Crocodile Records, that used to be in the Student Union at the University of Manchester. Disappeared in the 00s.
On the day I bought this I needed to own a Big Black record, I had decided. All the places near where I lived didn't have Atomizer or Songs About Fucking so I just grabbed the nearest thing from the nearest place. I had no idea Pigpile was a live record, or really what the band sounded like. The internet existed but not in my student house at the time, so this was very much a hit and hope purchase. Maybe I even forced myself to like it at the time.
None of my housemates (two gentle stoners and two techno-obsessed pricks) really dug the heavy franticness that Big Black worked up live, but I think I'm now of the opinion that their thing works even better when it meets a wall of carbon dioxide emitted from rows of people in front of them. In normal English - they're better and more interesting live. Partly because of the tactile nature of what they do is more apparent, and partly because the rhythm section transfers perfectly across to the live format.
The show was recorded on their final tour in 1987 as Songs About Fucking had yet to be released. They even refer to this at the start of 'Bad Penny' - "this song will be on our album that is coming out this summer after we break up, it's called 'Bad Penny'". Ominous bass lick and then all leap into a megazord trash compactor of a riff. There was an accompanying VHS to this record, actually, and it is incredible to see how fucking into playing these songs the band all were. The liner notes (above) show some detachment, but the music doesn't.
Aside from the cheering and moments where the voices strain or miss the mic altogether, Pigpile served for me as a defacto overview into the band's whole ouevre. If you like this, try the albums, as I did. The CDs were mastered very quietly at the time so I thought the run through of 'Pavement Saw' here came across better even though Albini seems to sing it from 4 yards from the mic.
Again, I thought I might be over this kind of fare, but it is so well done and against the grain of what is happening in rock music now that I don't see myself getting rid of this one. The rhythms on some of the song are worthy of study, and the soundworld they work up in some of the instrumental passages give me new life.
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