Headache (EP)

Last updated
Headache
Big Black - Headache cover.jpg
EP by
ReleasedMay 22, 1987
Genre
Length11:43
Label Flag of the United States.svg Touch and Go
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Blast First
Big Black chronology
Sound of Impact
(1987)
Headache
(1987)
The Rich Man's Eight Track Tape
(1987)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [1]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [2]

Headache is the fourth EP by American post-hardcore band Big Black. The record generated some controversy due to a cover photograph of a shotgun suicide victim whose head was split in half; it only appeared on a very limited edition of the record and was later replaced with a drawing by Savage Pencil. [3] The identity of the dead man in the original album cover remains unknown.

Contents

Original pressings bore a sticker reading, "Warning! Not as good as Atomizer , so don't get your hopes up, cheese!" as a frank communication from the members of Big Black to their fans that they did not regard the Headache EP to be as strong as the band's previous release. This also came at a time when major labels were first starting to warn parents that albums contained "explicit lyrics", and while all of Big Black's records contained such lyrics, Headache's sticker was an ironic dig at mainstream music. Copies of the sticker also appeared on the vinyl release of Sonic Youth's Master=Dik EP as an independent music in-joke.

Track listing

  1. "My Disco" – 2:51
  2. "Grinder" – 2:22
  3. "Ready Men" – 3:50
  4. "Pete, King of all Detectives" – 2:40

Notes

  1. Kellman, Andy. "allmusic ((( Headache > Review )))". Allmusic . Retrieved March 17, 2010.
  2. Brackett, Nathan. "Big Black". The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. November 2004. pg. 69, cited March 17, 2010
  3. (in English) Selected Savage Pencil Bibliography, Exhibitions, Discography, Record Covers


Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Francis</span> American singer, songwriter and guitarist

Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known as the frontman of the alternative rock band Pixies, with whom he performs under the stage name Black Francis. Following the band's breakup in 1993, he embarked on a solo career under the name Frank Black. After releasing two albums with record label 4AD and one with American Recordings, he left the label and formed a new band, Frank Black and the Catholics. He re-adopted the name Black Francis in 2007.

<i>Sweet Children</i> (EP) 1990 EP by Green Day

Sweet Children is the third EP by American rock band Green Day. It was released in August 1990 through Skene! Records. The name of the EP is a reference to the original name of the band.

<i>The Rich Mans Eight Track Tape</i> 1987 compilation album by Big Black

The Rich Man's Eight Track Tape is an album by American punk rock band Big Black. It was released in 1987 by Touch and Go Records. The album is a CD compilation of Big Black's Atomizer album, "Heartbeat" single and Headache EP. Atomizer is pictured on the cover artwork as an eight-track tape playing in a Panasonic TNT portable player.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big Black</span> American punk rock band

Big Black was an American punk rock band from Evanston, Illinois, active from 1981 to 1987. Founded by singer and guitarist Steve Albini, the band's initial lineup also included guitarist Santiago Durango and bassist Jeff Pezzati, both of Naked Raygun. In 1985, Pezzati was replaced by Dave Riley, who played on Big Black's two full-length studio albums, Atomizer (1986) and Songs About Fucking (1987).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howard Devoto</span> Musical artist

Howard Devoto is an English singer and songwriter, who began his career as the frontman for punk rock band Buzzcocks, but then left to form Magazine, an early post-punk band. After Magazine, he went solo and later formed indie band Luxuria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Lanegan</span> American singer (1964–2022)

Mark William Lanegan was an American singer, songwriter, and poet. First becoming prominent as the lead singer for the early grunge band Screaming Trees, he was also known as a member of Queens of the Stone Age and The Gutter Twins. He released 12 solo studio albums, as well as three collaboration albums with Isobel Campbell and two with Duke Garwood. He was known for his baritone voice, which was described as being "as scratchy as a three-day beard yet as supple and pliable as moccasin leather" and has been compared to Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, and Nick Cave.

<i>Louder Than Love</i> 1989 studio album by Soundgarden

Louder Than Love is the second studio album and major-label debut by American rock band Soundgarden. It was released on September 5, 1989, by A&M Records. After touring in support of their debut album, Ultramega OK (1988), Soundgarden left SST, signed with A&M and began work on its first album for a major label. The songs on the album featured a metal-leaning grunge sound with some songs featuring unusual or unorthodox time signatures.

Steriogram were a New Zealand punk rock band that formed in Auckland in 1999. The band consisted of frontman Tyson Kennedy, Brad Carter, Tim Youngson, Jake Adams and Jared Wrennall. The band released three studio albums Schmack! (2004), This Is Not the Target Market (2007) and Taping the Radio (2010). The band's 2004 international hit single "Walkie Talkie Man" was used in an advertisement for the iPod and a number of films and video games.

<i>Atomizer</i> (album) 1986 album by Big Black

Atomizer is the debut full-length album by American punk rock group Big Black released in 1986.

<i>Screaming Life</i> 1987 EP by Soundgarden

Screaming Life is the debut EP by American rock band Soundgarden, released in October 1987 by Sub Pop. Screaming Life was later combined with the band's next EP, Fopp (1988), and released as the Screaming Life/Fopp compilation album in 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hands All Over (Soundgarden song)</span> 1990 single by Soundgarden

"Hands All Over" is a song by the American rock band Soundgarden. Featuring lyrics written by frontman Chris Cornell and music written by guitarist Kim Thayil, "Hands All Over" was released in 1990 as the second single from the band's second full-length studio album, Louder Than Love (1989). It also appeared on the band's EP Loudest Love, released in 1990. The song was included on Soundgarden's 1997 greatest hits album, A-Sides and appeared on the band's compilation album Telephantasm.

"Sixteen Tons" is a song written by Merle Travis about a coal miner, based on life in the mines of Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. Travis first recorded the song at the Radio Recorders Studio B in Hollywood, California, on August 8, 1946. Cliffie Stone played bass on the recording. It was first released in July 1947 by Capitol on Travis's album Folk Songs of the Hills. The song became a gold record.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan Black</span> British singer-songwriter

Daniel Emmett Black is an English singer-songwriter and vocalist. He was a member of alternative rock band the Servant, before their split in 2007. He is also a vocalist for the Italian British group Planet Funk. After releasing his breakthrough song "HYPNTZ", he signed to The:Hours, releasing his first two singles – "Alone" and "Yours" – in 2008. The following year, he released his most commercially successful single to date, "Symphonies".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Kember</span> Musical artist

Peter Kember, also known by his stage name Sonic Boom, is an English singer-songwriter, composer and record producer. He was a founding member, vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist of alternative rock band Spacemen 3, lasting from 1982 until the band's dissolution in 1991. He is now based in Sintra, Portugal.

David Michael Riley was an American musician who was the bassist in the punk rock band Big Black from 1985 until the band's dissolution in 1987. Riley moved to Chicago in 1982 from Detroit, where he had worked as a recording engineer. He played on Big Black's two studio albums, Atomizer (1986) and Songs About Fucking (1987), as well as their Headache EP (1987), several singles, and two live albums. After Big Black, Riley recorded tracks with several other artists before being incapacitated by a stroke in 1993, losing the ability to walk. He became a blogger, and published a book in 2006 titled Blurry and Disconnected: Tales of Sink-or-Swim Nihilism. He died in late 2019 from squamous cell carcinoma.

<i>Racer-X</i> 1984 EP by Big Black

Racer-X is the third EP by American post-hardcore band Big Black. It was released by Homestead Records in 1985 and reissued by Touch and Go Records in 1992.

<i>Master-Dik</i> 1987 EP by Sonic Youth

Master-Dik is the third EP by American alternative rock band Sonic Youth. It was released on November 4, 1987, in the United States by record label SST, and on January 22, 1988, in the United Kingdom by label Blast First.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Fratellis discography</span>

This is the discography of Scottish band The Fratellis. They have released 6 studio albums, 4 EPs, and 17 singles since their breakthrough in 2006. They won in the category Best British Breakthrough Act at the 2007 BRIT Awards.

Tombs is an American heavy metal band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2007. Thus far, the group has released five full-length records: Winter Hours, Path of Totality, Savage Gold, The Grand Annihilation, and Under Sullen Skies.