Description
Label Review.
Two Peel sessions from 1994 & 2004. Also available on CD.
Our Overview.
Chicago, Illinois post-punk rock trio Shellac, formed by Steve Albini are releasing ‘The End Of Radio’ a collection of previously unreleased recordings they made for BBC Radio’s Peel Sessions.
The first LP contains four songs the band cut in July 1994 on BBC Maida Vale Studio 3’s 24-trakck console, the same year they put out their debut, ‘At Action Park’. That record’s “Crow” was among the recordings they recorded that day, and they also did three songs that would later appear on 1998’s ‘Terraform’ and 2007’s ‘Excellent Italian Greyhound’: “Canada,” “Disgrace” and “Spoke.” They mixed them to stereo that day.
They recorded the second disc in 2004 for a “live From Maida Vale” session in front of an audience in Studio 4; it aired that December. The record contains several songs that would later appear on Excellent Italian Greyhound, including the song “The End of Radio.”
Steve Albini along with his studio work for Nirvana and the Pixies, Steve Albini has carved-out a place as one of music's most confrontational artists while fronting Big Black, Rapeman, and with Shellac, his lyrics have long reveled in transgression, degradation, and the repressed rot at the heart of Middle American existence. Accordingly, his music is not pretty. From Big Black’s drilling shrillness to Shellac’s blunt-force post-rock, his body of work has mutated slowly over the decades, but it’s never fundamentally changed. His head is full of worms; he puts them into song.
Although Shellac have no upcoming shows booked, the ‘End of Radio’ announcement came with a note that it will “continue to play shows or tour at the same sporadic and relaxed pace as always.” It added that people should assume that album releases and touring are unrelated. “There will be more new material in the future,” the band added.