Nachos. Steamy.
-Sleazy guy from a Primus video-
My love affair with Seattle’s Big Business starts with my love affair with tattoos and then nachos. In that order. This past summer my tattooist mentioned them while I was getting some work done and I filed their name in my brain under “try and remember these guys when you’re out record shopping”. There are a lot of bands like this filed away in there. Then more recently they put out a new album titled “Mind The Drift”. I kept seeing press photos for the album where the band is wearing matching U.S. Flag bandannas staring at a glorious pile of nachos. Based on the glory of said nachos alone, I pushed their file to the front of my brain and a few months later remembered to seek them out. So unfortunately this review is about a half year late. But they just put out a music video for The Drift so it’s still culturally relevant says I.
So what should we know about Big Business before knowing if the album is worth your money? Well firstly they started as a 2-piece consisting of Coady Willis on drums (Murder City Devils) and Jared Warren on bass (ex-Karp). If you know the FSS you know a couple things about us. We hate pretentious garbage like Pitchfork and Polvo and we loves us some Rock and Roll especially in the form of the Murder City Devils (we’re seeing them do back to back shows in Philly and NYC this month). We also once saw the tail end of a Karp show at Maxwell’s some many years ago. I think there were seriously 5 people in attendance and much of that night is hazy if you’re picking up what I’m putting down. Anyway, after starting Big Business Jared and Coady became members of The Melvins. Playing with them on tour, opening for them as Big Business, and backing them on a couple records. In 2008 they added Toshi Kasai on guitar. And in the summer of 2009 they released the album in question.
“Mind The Drift” is fucking epic. Epic like “It’s it. What is it? It’s it. What is it? epic”. It’s demands being played loud with the bass turned way the fuck up. The low end on it is re-goddamn-diculous. It spins yarns of frontier life, age long battles between cats and mice, and streets overrun with nerds and C.H.U.D.s. Their sound is categorized as heavy metal, stoner metal, sludge metal, etc, but I hate labeling bands like Big Business as they generally defy categorization. They really are in a class unto themselves in many ways. At one point to promote the record they sold collectible ceramic plates with the bands picture on them. Who the hell else does this? It seems absurd and in many ways much of the imagery on the record is equally absurd. The liner notes contain various old postcards of state parks with the band cleverly inserted here and there dressed in trailblazing attire. But somehow it all makes sense if you look at it in the context that musically they are blazing new trails and forging new paths through unknown territory. When Warren preaches “you can’t draw a map with money” on The Drift it’s as much a statement on Lewis and Clark as it is on bands that spend great deals of cash on their sound and image all along playing it safe and boring. Big Business is no such band. They’re out there in the forest taking down buffalo with six shooters. Epic indeed.
If you don’t believe me or just want to hear it for yourself, they’re still streaming it on their website. Do yourself a favor and check it out. And if you’re anywhere near New York or Philly in February go see Coady set his drums on fire with the Murder City Devils. I’m not speaking metaphorically either. He’s been known to literally set them on fire during live performances.
Related articles: Midnight Service at the Mutter Museum, Murder City USA, Polvo – In Prism
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