Shellac, if you didn't know, are the musical project of three producers named Todd Trainer (drums), Bob Weston (bass + vocals) and Steve Albini (guitar + vocals). All three of them are hugely touted amongst the underground and have put their names to consistently excellently sounding records, but if you're not familiar with these obscure records you're not likely to have heard of them. Steve Albini on the other hand, has lent his hand to records like "In Utero" by Nirvana, Bush's "Razorblade Suitcase" and many other famous names. If you're familiar with Albini's production style (raw, dirty, distinctly Pro-Tools free), then Shellac's sound won't surprise you one bit. It's abrasive, it's angular, it's complex, and it's angry as all hell.
"1,000 Hurts" is their third album, and many people say it's their best yet. I personally think "At Action Park" slightly beats it as their finest work, but there's no doubting that this is a very good album. It starts out with the slow burning and angst ridden "Prayer To God", which starts out with just Albini's strained vocals and his very distinctive guitar sound as he intones his wishes for God to kill certain people he doesn't like. This is many peoples favourite song on the album, although I can't help but think this is probably just because there's a lot of swearing on it... the drums make this song for me.
The instrumentation throughout the album is often pretty complex, and you can kind of tell this is a band who are full blown musicians. As an aside, Shellac have the best bass sound in the whole world - see them live and you'll see what I mean. PLUS Weston has a beard - could he be any cooler! Their guitar sound is nice as well - a tight, scratchy, messy sound which sounds perfect playing Albini's off kilter, weird riffs. As a band they veer from full tilt, angry-as-hell stuff like "Watch Song" ("HEY MAN! I wanna have a FIGHT with you!") to the quiet-loud build ups as honed by Slint (a band Albini produced) of songs like "Mama Gina". The album is intense throughout, and I've got to say you'll probably get more from this if you're as angry a person as Albini seems to be.
The packaging is immense, as both the CD and vinyl come in box-packaging rather than just jewel cases or sleeves. The inset is embellished with glow in the dark ink as well! The vinyl is truly a thing of beauty and - what's this - comes with some free unlabelled CD inside the box! Let's put it in the CD player and see what happens... my oh my, it's the album in CD form! Yes, that's right, Shellac have decided to reward all of us vinyl purists by supplying the CD as a free gift with the vinyl. Could there be more incentives to buy it on vinyl? No.
If you're into the kind of weird hardcore touted by labels like Touch & Go and Southern, then you should really be already into Shellac. If not, then you won't get a much better introduction to Shellac, and this whole sound, than this album.
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"This is a sad fuckin' song!" sneers Steve Albini over the opening industrial scree of ... more
"Squirrel Song". "We'll be lucky if I don't bust out cryin'!" Three minutes into Shellac's third album, and already, there has been a fair bit of sad stuff--sad, and...
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May 21st, 2002
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