Remembering Big Black bassist Dave Riley (1960-2019) with a little help from our followers.
Give me your favorite Big Black tune
— Billy Joel / France is Bacon / Blokechain (@Iheartnoise) December 26, 2019
Kerosene (picked by Will McAlpine Conan Neutron Nick Panagakos and Steve Belcher)
Bad Houses (picked by Steve Belcher)
Passing Complexion (picked by Incentive)
Fists of Love (picked by Steve Belcher)
Tiny, King of the Jews (picked by Prison City Noise)
Racer X (picked by Prison City Noise)
Cables (picked by Counterzine and MuteAnt)
Jordan, Minnesota (picked by MuteAnt)
Bad Penny (picked by Nick Panagakos)
L Dopa (picked by Jeff Nale)
Kasimir S. Pulaski Day (picked by NoiseCrumbs)
Texas (picked by NoiseCrumbs)
Precious Thing (picked by Cranberry Friend)
Deep Six (picked by Matt Collins)
Dead Billy (picked by Burial Grid)
Fish Fry (picked by equal.fm)
Things To Do Today (picked by pH Pro Audio and nam citsale)
I Can’t Believe (picked by pH Pro Audio)
Colombian Necktie (picked by Neko Case)
The Crack-Up (picked by Leela Corman)
The Model (picked by Neil Donovan)
Kitty Empire (picked by Simon Greenwood)
Lungs (picked by Burnthouse Lane)
The Power of Independent Trucking (picked by Liz B)
Pavement Saw (picked by Andy B)
Sleep (picked by William Ham)
Steelworker (picked by Andrew Ellis)
My Disco (picked by matt 906)
Worthy to mention too – Dave’s post-Big Black bands include Bull and Miasma of Funk (while his pre-BB band Savage Beliefs received a reissue treatment in 2015 via Alona’s Dream Records). Here’s Shiny Grey Monotone sounding off on Gordon Zone, the only full-length by Bull:
Mike Meadows of Shiny Beast plays drums and bass on this one (albeit not simultaneously one must assume), and if you are a fan of Shiny Beast’s sort of lumberjack thud, then you should do ok here too. It’s not as Melvins-y as Shiny Beast, but it definitely has the same reference points Shiny Beast did. Lots of starts and stops where the guitar just feedbacks to fill in the space and the rhythm section (the one guy) plods along to the beat of their drummer (literally). Not unlike if Tad was covering old Floor songs. Kevin Collins of Subculture (aka the best NCHC band you never heard of, but who rule about as hard as COC, who have heard of), Erectus Monotone, and most recently Double Negative, plays guitar here. How these two North Carolinians ended up in Chicago playing in together as Bull is a mystery I do not have the answer to, but would love to know.
Another mystery I’d like to know is, did they name the song “Walsby” on this record after future Shiny Beast and Double Negative bandmate (and world famous graphic artist…peep the 7 Seconds Walk Together Rock Together cover for proof) Brian Walsby?
No vocals. So if that is a deal breaker, then….deal’s off I guess. The instrumental nature doesn’t bother me one bit with this band, you can easily get lulled into their messy groove and zone out to the noise.
Trivia: ex-Big Black bassist Dave Riley was in the original version of this band, and recorded with them on their first ep. Worth mentioning because…well…Big Black. If Bull was good enough for Dave Riley you can sure as shit bet they will be good enough for you as well.
You can also read our profile of the band from 2008.
The late David Riley's post Big Black band… https://t.co/0no6w8eSAd
— Ray Taaffe (@uvray1) December 26, 2019
