Big Black - Songs About Fucking

Big Black – Songs About Fucking

Touch and Go, 1987

Acquired: End of an Ear, Austin, Used, 2008

Price: $10

How do you even classify this record? I do know that it has one of the greatest album covers of all time and that when I saw it at End of an Ear in Austin (never mind Waterloo, if you want vinyl End of an Ear is where to go. Funny aside, when Nick and I were checking out we were talking about how the store was similar to “our record store in Lawrence,” in reference to Love Garden, and the guy thought that we owned the store and gave me a tote bag. It’s an awesome tote bag). Anyway, the cover rules, the album title rules, and the music…well, the music rules. Is this post-hardcore or noisy indie-rock? I haven’t listened to this record in a long time, but am clearly remembering that “Precious Thing” was my jam and it still is. And then it’s followed by “Columbian Necktie,” another fucking monster jam which appeals to me because, as you may know, a Columbian Necktie is when you slit someone’s throat and pull their tongue out so it hangs like a necktie. Listening to this I’m realizing that I really need to return to it more often whenever I feel like beating my head against a wall or something. It reminds me of the sludgy punk stuff Black Flag did from about My War on which I was super into for like, a couple of weeks in high school. But then, this is better than that (except maybe My War, that record is the jam). I like that under “Moods” on All Music, you have “Unsettling,” “Cold,” “Suffocating,” “Fierce,” and “Uncompromising” as the first five. All of those make complete sense. Oh, and someone from Property Management just came over to fix the drain in our bathtub and he gave me a really weird look when he heard this record. That was kind of awesome. Now it's playing as he's fixing the tub, and I don't know why this makes sense. Big Black: Music to Fix Bathtubs To.