Pigpile
Live album by
Big Black
ReleasedOctober 5, 1992 (1992-10-05)
RecordedJuly 24, 1987
VenueClarendon Hotel Ballroom, Hammersmith, London
GenrePunk rock
Length46:02
LabelTouch 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.

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[2]
Alternative Rock6/10[3]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[4]
The Great Alternative & Indie Discography7/10[5]
MusicHound2.5/5[6]
Rolling Stone[7]
Select[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

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.


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