bands that changed my life: big black
- jt elder
- Jan 27, 2024
- 4 min read
8th grade was a fun period for me, really. that was 2020-2021, when students were going to school from their laptops and reluctantly showing their faces on zoom calls, people were working from home, and for someone who honestly was more productive at home and hated going outside, quarantine was the life. 8th grade also marked a big turning point for me regarding my music taste. at the time, i discovered a lot of bands who shaped my music taste, such as talking heads and xtc. the summer of 8th grade for me was spent shitting my pants in fear about starting high school, but also discovering numerous other music artists who would completely change me as a person. one of those bands was big black.
i don't exactly remember how i became a fan of big black, but i think it was the fact i knew a lot of people who were into the band that did it for me. i remember being weirded out by the songs about fucking album, and i thought the cover was especially strange and amusing, same with the album title. after actually listening to the album, i found it hilarious because the music has jack shit to do with fucking. no, there's a song about a fish fry, a song about steve albini's cat, and just songs that are not songs about fucking. when i listened to big black for the first time, i do remember being completely blown away. the music was nothing like i'd ever heard before, and it really took me by surprise. to say i was impressed was an understatement. i was floored. the way the guitar sounded was genuinely insane. i didn't think it was possible for a guitar to sound like some kind of machine at the time. and the lyrics...yeah, i was big into the velvet underground when i was twelve/thirteen years old, but jumping from "sister ray" to just any big black song gave me whiplash. when i listened to big black, i was desperate to find more music that sounded just like this, and if it wasn't for big black, then i would've never became a fan of transgressive literature. in all seriousness, i do not think i'd be reading chuck palahniuk and dennis cooper if i never discovered the music of big black. i developed an interest in what's considered controversial. if people are trying to get a certain book banned from libraries, then i'm going to read that book.
as someone who was in his first year of playing guitar, hearing the way the guitar sounded in any song by big black impressed the hell out of me. i wanted to play guitar like that! i didn't think i was someone who could enjoy music that was loud and abrasive that much. nowadays, i love chaotic music (not stuff like merzbow, though). it makes my brain go quiet. some people enjoy soothing music to bring peace to the mind, and in my case both soothing and insane music brings peace to my mind.
watching live footage of big black concerts makes me wish i was alive in the 80s so i could see them, because that's another thing that's struck me about the band — their concerts. steve's stage presence is genuinely insane. he comes across as threatening and intimidating, just like the music of big black. watching these guys perform "jordan, minnesota" is enough to make you feel nervous as hell. that song, besides "frankie teardrop" by suicide, is one of the most disturbing songs i've heard throughout my many years of listening to music. big black, during their musical career, did a great job at disturbing people, and i'd say they still succeed at that to this day. it's a pity they only lasted for a few years, though the reason they parted ways was understandable (it seems that fame was something they had zero interest in), and at least they gave us the gift that is their music. if you'd like to be truly unsettled, below is a link to a performance of "jordan, minnesota".
out of the many bands i consider my favorites, big black are certainly up there in my top 5, or top 10 list of bands that have had a serious impact on me. i don’t think i’d be the person who i am today if it wasn’t for discovering their music. they influenced me that much — they're one of the bands that "did it" for me. i owe a lot to them. my taste in music, my taste in literature, songwriting, guitar playing...i feel like i learned some things from these guys. i don't even think a singular blog post is enough to summarize my thoughts on them, they're just that important and great of a band to me.
if you've never listened to a singular big black song, then expand your mind and do it right now! well, it's impossible if you have spotify. you can blame joe rogan for that.
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