Big Black- "Headache" EP

Original cover of "Headache." Not popular with the ladies, especially Mothers Against Drunk Driving (cause they're always MADD).


Better know version of the "Headace" EP. Well liked by children.

Big Black
"Headache" EP
Touch and Go Records
1987

"Not as good as 'Atomizer,' so don't get your hopes up, cheese!" was how the infamous sticker on the front of "Headache" read. And, yes, it's four songs, so one may surmise that it's not a good. Such is not the case. Less can be more, really! It's happened in the world of the EP. But as for "Headache," it's Big Black first take it or leave it of the post "Lungs" era.

The EP opens up with "My Disco," a slow, enraged number where Albini just kind of shouts in reverb over repetitively slower-than-norm Roland blasts. The static, shrapnel guitar is still there but the song is honestly a phone-in number, certainly nothing to open up a Big Black release. "Grinder," is a faster, hammer-to-nail number with a gnarly pause in the middle, but the song doesn't really amount to much except more Albini vocal reverb. What the fuck. In past releases, Albini's distant, flat cries of vengeance and hillarity were much more effective. "Headache's" vocals sound like they were cut an paste in with current Apple Garageband technology later in the recording process.

"Ready Men," song 3, opens like a slow, dirgy number, then kicks into a killer Big Black beat. But again, the song doesn't really grab any attention along the process. Ehh, "Pete, King of the Detectives," (a take on Jesus, King of the Jews), is the only real Big Black classic in the whole bunch. It is a short, stop start number that has that infectious chorus that you find yourself chanting for days on end, yet there is no melody to speak of. What a great number.

"Headache" becomes especially annoying if you have it on 12'' vinyl. After 2 songs you gotta flip the big slab for more of the same. Damn, Albini, my forearms hurt. And yes, I guess I am a lazy American. No, wait! I'm not because I fall down and worship King Dick. No, ok, I am lazy.
!

5/10