Pigpile

Last updated
Pigpile
Big Black - Pigpile cover.jpg
Live album by
Big Black
ReleasedOctober 5, 1992 (1992-10-05)
RecordedJuly 24, 1987
Venue Clarendon Hotel Ballroom, Hammersmith, London
Genre Punk rock
Length46:02
Label Touch and Go
Big Black chronology
Songs About Fucking
(1987)		Pigpile
(1992)

Pigpile is a live album by the American musical group Big Black. It is a recording from July 24, 1987 during the post-hardcore band's final European tour, released in 1992 originally as a VHS tape (it was their second video release, following the 'Live' tape on Atavistic Records). It was later issued as an audio-only LP/cassette/CD. The recordings were made at the Hammersmith Clarendon ballroom, London. A 5" transparent heavy-duty vinyl record was included away free with all copies of the VHS tape and some copies of the soundtrack album, featuring a cover version of the Mary Jane Girls song "In My House". Lower-quality recordings from the Hammersmith concert had previously appeared in a different configuration on the bootleg LP Tonight We Walked With Giants.

Contents

Pigpile coincided with the re-release of Big Black's entire catalog on Touch and Go Records A limited edition of Pigpile was issued as a box set that included the LP and its insert, a VHS tape of the Hammersmith concert, the "In My House" one-sided 5" single, a poster and a Big Black T-shirt. [1]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [2]
Alternative Rock 6/10 [3]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [4]
The Great Alternative & Indie Discography 7/10 [5]
MusicHound 2.5/5 [6]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [7]
Select U+25A0.svgU+25A0.svgU+25A0.svgU+25A0.svgU+25A1.svg [8]

Released five years after Big Black chose to disband at the peak of their artistic and commercial success, Pigpile received concurrent and retrospective reviews ranging from lukewarm to gushing. Writing shortly after the album's release, Spin magazine remarked that Pigpile was "a live album with sound quality unworthy of an audio nut like Albini." [9] Looking back at Albini's career through Big Black and his subsequent band, Rapeman a decade on, Rolling Stone called Pigpile a "fun-but-not-revelatory live album," ranking it a notch below any of the group's studio albums.

Track listing

  1. "Fists of Love" – 4:14
  2. "L Dopa" – 1:49
  3. "Passing Complexion" – 3:06
  4. "Dead Billy" – 5:12
  5. "Cables" – 3:18
  6. "Bad Penny" – 3:03
  7. "Pavement Saw" – 2:56
  8. "Kerosene" – 6:38
  9. "Steelworker" – 4:52
  10. "Pigeon Kill" – 2:24
  11. "Fish Fry" – 1:55
  12. "Jordan, Minnesota" – 7:05

Album credits

Related Research Articles

<i>Live 84</i> 1984 live album by Black Flag

Live '84 is an album released by Black Flag in 1984 on SST Records. It is a live recording of a show played in 1984 and features mostly tracks from My War and Slip It In. A video was shot simultaneously and was briefly available through SST; the now-out-of-print video has been widely bootlegged.

<i>Whos Got the 10½?</i> 1986 live album by Black Flag

Who's Got the 10½? is a live album by the American hardcore punk rock band Black Flag. It was released on March 19, 1986 through SST Records. The album was recorded live at Starry Night in Portland, Oregon on August 23, 1985.

<i>1000 Hurts</i> 2000 album by Shellac

1000 Hurts is the third studio album by American indie rock band Shellac, released on August 8, 2000. In its official promotional materials Shellac jokingly described this album as follows: "There are no 12-minute songs on this one. This record is more mean-spirited. Todd sings."

<i>Surfer Rosa</i> 1988 studio album by Pixies

Surfer Rosa is the debut studio album by the American alternative rock band Pixies, released in March 1988 on the British label 4AD. It was produced by Steve Albini. Surfer Rosa contains many of the elements of Pixies' earlier output, including Spanish lyrics and references to Puerto Rico. It includes references to mutilation and voyeurism alongside experimental recording techniques and a distinctive drum sound.

<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).

<i>Streetlife Serenade</i> 1974 studio album by Billy Joel

Streetlife Serenade is the third studio album by American recording artist Billy Joel, released on October 11, 1974 by Columbia Records.

<i>Substance 1987</i> 1987 compilation album by New Order

Substance is a compilation album by English alternative dance band New Order. It was released in August 1987 by Factory Records. The album compiles all of the band's singles at that point in their 12-inch versions, along with their respective B-side tracks. The then-newly released non-album single "True Faith" is also featured, along with its B-side "1963" and new versions of "Temptation" and "Confusion".

<i>The Sun Sessions</i> 1976 compilation album by Elvis Presley

The Sun Sessions is a compilation album by American singer Elvis Presley, containing songs he recorded at Sun Studios in 1954 and 1955. It was issued by RCA Records in 1976, and had been issued and charted as The Sun Collection in the UK the previous year. It features liner notes by Roy Carr of the New Musical Express. The Sun Sessions features most of the tracks Elvis recorded at Sun studio and were produced by Sam Phillips, the head of Sun Studios. Elvis began his singing career with Sun Records label in Memphis. The album reached number two on the Billboard Country Albums and number 1 on the Cashbox Country Albums charts.

<i>Terraform</i> (Shellac album) 1998 album by Shellac

Terraform is the second full-length record by American band Shellac, released in 1998.

<i>The Hammer Party</i> 1986 compilation album by Big Black

The Hammer Party is a 1986 release of Big Black's early EPs made between 1982 and 1984. Originally released by Homestead Records, and later rereleased by Touch and Go, the LP came out at the same time as Big Black's Atomizer album, and featured the six songs from Lungs one side and the six songs from Bulldozer. The CD version was expanded to include Big Black's third record, Racer-X.

<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>Songs About Fucking</i> 1987 album by Big Black

Songs About Fucking is the second and final full-length studio album by the punk rock band Big Black, released in 1987 by Touch and Go records, and reissued in 2018. The album includes a rendition of Kraftwerk's "The Model" in a remixed version from that which appeared on Big Black's then-recent single. The compact disc of Songs About Fucking added the other side of that single, a cover of Cheap Trick's "He's a Whore".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Albini</span> American record engineer and rock musician

Steve Albini is an American musician, record producer, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman and Flour, and is a member of Shellac. He is the founder, owner and principal engineer of Electrical Audio, a recording studio complex in Chicago. In 2018, Albini estimated that he had worked on several thousand albums over his career. He has worked with acts such as Nirvana, Pixies, the Breeders, PJ Harvey, and former Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.

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>Song of the Bailing Man</i> 1982 studio album by Pere Ubu

Song of the Bailing Man is the fifth Pere Ubu album, released in 1982. It was the final Pere Ubu album until 1988's The Tenement Year.

<i>Up in It</i> 1990 studio album by The Afghan Whigs

Up in It is the second album by the Afghan Whigs, released in 1990 via Sub Pop. It marked the first time Sub Pop had released an album by a band hailing from outside the northwestern United States.

<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>The Real Macaw</i> 1983 studio album by Graham Parker

The Real Macaw is an album by Graham Parker, released in 1983.

<i>A Reverse Willie Horton</i> 1992 studio album by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

A Reverse Willie Horton is either the debut album, or an early bootleg album, by the New York City-based Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Few copies of the album were produced; many songs appear on the group's next album, 1992's The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, albeit in a different mix or recording altogether. All three albums are made up of tracks recorded in 1991 by producer Kramer and engineer Steve Albini.

The Blow-Up is a live album by the American band Television, released as The Blow Up on cassette in 1982. It was reissued in 1990 and again in 1999. The songs first appeared on a bootleg titled Arrow.

References

  1. ↑ Bashe, Patricia Romanowski; Pareles, Jon; George-Warren, Holly, eds. (2001). Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll: Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll. Touchstone. p. 72. ISBN   978-0-7432-0120-9.
  2. ↑ Raggett, Ned. "allmusic ((( Pigpile > Review )))". Allmusic . Retrieved March 17, 2010.
  3. ↑ Thompson, Dave (April 12, 2000). "Alternative rock". San Francisco : Miller Freeman Books ; Berkeley, CA : Distributed to the book trade in the U.S. and Canada by Publishers Group West ; Milwaukee, WI : Distributed to the music trade in the U.S. and Canada by Hal Leonard Publishing – via Internet Archive.
  4. ↑ Larkin, Colin (May 27, 2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Omnibus Press. ISBN   9780857125958 – via Google Books.
  5. ↑ Strong, M. C. (Martin Charles) (April 12, 1999). "The great alternative & indie discography". Edinburgh : Canongate – via Internet Archive.
  6. ↑ Gary Graff, ed. (1999). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide (2nd ed.). London: Visible Ink Press. ISBN   978-1-5785-9061-2.
  7. ↑ Brackett, Nathan. "Big Black". The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. November 2004. pg. 69, cited March 17, 2010
  8. ↑ Perry, Andrew (December 1992). "Big Black: The Hammer Party / Atomizer / Songs About Fucking / Pigpile". Select (31): 86.
  9. ↑ Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (1995). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. ISBN   978-0-679-75574-6.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.