Unofficially released by the “import label” Kiss The Stone, Death Wish was released in 1993. The quality of the recording is really good, almost equal to that of the band’s official live releases, Pig Pile and Sound Of Impact. Decent banter, great versions of “L Dopa” and “Bad Penny,” but then again there aren’t really any bad Big Black songs, so how “great” the live rendition is really just depends what your favorite tune is.
The CD’s liner notes read:
“It takes a lot to successfully transfer the American nightmare onto vinyl and then sell it to unsuspecting record buyers worldwide. For five years in the mid-eighties, Chicago’s noise terrorists Big Black held a mirror to the face of the low-life scumbags who plague America. Powered by an out-of-control drum machine, the three piece turned feedbacking guitars played through a million distortion boxes into a new art form. It was loud, it was ugly, noisy, brutal, unnerving, (experience them live in a confined and overcrowded space and you wouldn’t sleep for a week), but on the whole, it was the truth. The subject matter matched the corrosive sounds wrenched from their guitars, nobody was meant to be singing about child abuse, illness, bad people with bad lives, the horror of America as the sickness spread. This was music for the apocalypse, the soundtrack to Armageddon. Steve Albini, Dave Riley and Santiago Durango also committed the greatest crime in the eyes of the lowlifes from the music industry by splitting up just as the band was reaching its peak. The biggest “Fuck You” in the face of the music scene ever made and a good lesson for any idiots who are thinking of making a “career” out of playing in a punk rock group. No limits, no laws, no heroes, no idols, cos someday a real rain’s gonna come down and wash all the scum back off the streets. Who learnt the lesson given by Big Black?”
Big Black
Death Wish
MegaUpload DL Link
Tracklist:
01. The Model
02. Fists Of Love
03. L Dopa
04. Passing Complexion
05. Cables
06. Bad Penny
07. Pavement Saw
08. Kerosene
09. Steelworker
10. Pigeon Kill
11. Fish Fry
12. Jordan, Minnesota
13. Big Money
14. I’m A Mess
15. R.I.P.
