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Hi Sorry State fam! Hope everyone had a good weekend, and that all mothers and mother figures felt the love from their families. Well, maybe not all mothers. Some moms straight up suck. But I’m a mom and I think I’m pretty good, and my family made sure I had a really nice day with cards and gifts and dinner. Anyway, let’s get on with it.
So my staff pick this week relates to an artist who is I respect very much, who has been a big part of my music life for well over half my life, and who unfortunately passed away last week: Steve Albini. I gotta say I’m not that affected when many “famous people” die. But this one hurt. The last one was probably Robin Williams.
I’m gonna cut straight to the music because otherwise we would be here for a while. So this past week I have been listening to several albums produced by Steve Albini. I never realized how many I had in my collection. He had such a distinct style and produced so many incredible sounding albums. The ones that really stand out from a production perspective include the Pixies’ Surfer Rosa, Breeders’ Pod, PJ Harvey’s Rid of Me, and Nirvana’s In Utero. Holy drums. No one recorded drums like Albini. That damn PJ Harvey record may just be the finest in the bunch. So raw and powerful. Like the band is right there in the room with you.
I’ve also been listening to a lot of Shellac. Which brings me to my staff pick this week! At Action Park by Shellac. Self-described as a minimalist trio, and described by others as noise rock or math rock. I still don’t know what the hell math rock means. But to me they are quite possibly the best and most interesting noise rock band ever. Dark, punishing, arty, noisy, experimental, yet minimalist. Minimalist yet with great storytelling and dark humor. Minimalist yet still very colorful. Especially in the way the lead guitar is utilized. As if they threw away the directions to the instrument before ever seeing a guitar before. It wasn’t about the riffs but about the texture the lead guitar added to the music.
Something interesting about Shellac is how melody takes a backseat to the rhythm section’s more brutal, cyclical, grooves. Kind of repetitive but never boring. The tempo shifts are extreme and sudden. And the vocals are distant but abrasive and magnetic. Even a little creepy. Song of the Minerals embodies these adjectives the best. Definitely my favorite song on the album. Albini had a fascination with the darker parts of humanity, which you hear in his prior works as well as Shellac. But the way these themes are expressed and how they substantiate the music is more creatively mature and interesting than Big Black (in my opinion). While Big Black is hard to top in the Abini discography, I think Shellac does it with this album. And they definitely do it with 1000 Hurts (2000). Shellac’s sound is not as much a departure as it is a progression or expansion of Big Black. Their sound is more unhinged and less domesticated than other post-hardcore/post-rock bands like the Jesus Lizard, but if you like the Jesus Lizard or Slint and you missed out on Shellac, definitely give them a listen. Personally, the Jesus Lizard and I never really clicked, and not for lack of trying.
At Action Park is just what 1994 needed, and it was met with high praise. It feels like it could be the soundtrack to doomsday when only a handful of people are left and they are all really cool. Picture it. The song Pull the Cup feels like a perfect doomsday track. It’s the type of song where you kind of wait in anticipation. Will it brighten up? Stay the course? Go darker? No. But there is a curious intensity to it. The first few times I heard it, it made me feel a little anxious. I think that’s a good thing.
I’ve always loved the packaging of this record. It’s a folded hand pressed sleeve and what’s known as a uni-pak style album jacket. On one side of the sleeve is a fictional map of Action Park and on the other side the medical text, Resuscitation from apparent death by electric shock. I guess the text came from one of their old electronics textbooks. “Smoking is as natural as breathing. They’ve been doing it since before I was born... ... which is a shame, because I could have invented it. - Todd Stanford Trainer 1994” is etched on both sides of the vinyl. Perfectly fucking weird. Just like Shellac.
I don’t think Shellac is recognized and credited as much as they should be. I’m so glad they recorded a new album before Albini passed. Their first album in ten years, To All Trains, comes out Friday. And I cannot wait to hear it! Thanks as always for reading. Until next time..
-Angela