#336
RAPEMAN - Two Nuns and a Pack Mule and Budd (1988 Touch and Go)
noise rock \ post-hardcore
"Big Black broke up in the rarest of rock-and-roll manners: honorably, after announcing the amicable split to fans, then going on to release its best work (Songs about Fucking, 1987, Touch and Go). Founder Steve Albini formed his next band that same year with drummer Rey Washam and guitarist David Wm. Sims, both recently freed up by the breakup of their former band, Scratch Acid. (Washam also drummed for the legendary Austin, Texas, post punk/hardcore band, the Big Boys.) Never one to mince words, shy away from an honest but button-pushing opinion, or otherwise cause bristling where bristling was likely to occur, Albini decided to name his next band after the title character in a Japanese comic book, Rapeman. Widespread opposition to the moniker-gig protests became a tenacious issue-may or may not have contributed to the short lifespan of this amazing band, but internal tensions (some of them carried over from the rhythm section’s unresolved issues in the previous band) definitely did, and Rapeman lasted just long enough to release two 7-inches, a four-song EP (Budd), and the bar-raising landmark album of noise rock’s then-fledgling history, Two Nuns and a Pack Mule. After years in front of a drum machine in Big Black, the improved nature of Albini’s jagged, trebly-happy guitar work benefited immensely from Washam’s John Bonham-of-post-hardcore skills, and the album (combined with the four-song Budd EP by Touch and Go for release on CD) showcased the most forwardthinking, hair-raisingly exciting sound to come out of American post hardcore until Slint’s Spiderland album (notably produced by Albini) rearranged listener synapses some three years later. For fans of the more incendiary and visceral areas of indie rock covered by this book, immersion in Two Nuns and a Pack Mule is obligatory." - Gimme Indie Rock
#fckem_500indie #fckem_noiserock #fckem_posthardcore
