Shellac
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A, 1992. Here Steve Albini, once of the incendiary Big Black and infamous Rapeman, recording engineer par excellence and general thorn in the side of the recording industry, meets with Todd Trainer, drummer for bands such as Rifle Sport and his own Brick Layer Cake, for sessions of off the cuff jamming after a few years, as performers at least, out of the limelight. Trainer stayed behind the drumkit (comprised, it seemed, mainly of toms rather than cymbals), Albini again picked up his heavily customised Travis Bean aluminium guitar, and for bass the services of Naked Raygun (a huge influence on Albini’s work with Big Black) Camilo Gonzalez were enlisted for a short period (his only recorded appearance is on the band’s debut seven inch, ‘The Rude Gesture: A Pictorial History’) before Bob Weston, himself a producer and member of bands such as Volcano Suns and occasionally Mission of Burma, would fill the role permanently for every record from ‘Uranus’ onwards.
Their a-melodic, highly complex and startlingly sparse music is all self recorded on to analogue equipment with overdubbing avoided wherever possible – a hardly surprising approach given that, far from earning their living as rock stars, Weston and Albini make a living from recording other bands records, leaving to Shellac often being referred to as a ‘hobby’ band. Indeed, instead of touring at a regular pace to promote a record, Shellac shows often act as time off from day jobs, and see the band visiting places they’d simply like to spend a bit of time in. There’s no fixed fee for gigs, and they’ve even been known to ask the promoter to remove a charge on the door for shows altogether, if it’s deemed unnecessary. Curious things to happen at Shellac shows include question and answer sessions hosted by Bob Weston between himself and the audience, the band taking time out in the middle of songs to hold their arms out at their sides and pretend they’re planes, and joining up with David Yow of The Jesus Lizard to perform an entire show of Sex Pistols covers, dressed up as Johnny Rotten and co.
Their dedication to their own way of doing things doesn’t stop in the live setting, as their sporadic and curious way of releasing records attests. Aside from their four LP releases (on which, they claim, all of the songs are about “either baseball or Canada” – a lie), the band has given away one of singles at gigs, with comic books and whole albums to friends, such as ‘The Futurist’, and instrumental LP recorded for (but never used by) a Canadian dance troupe.
Shellac have released four albums; ‘At Action Park’ in 1994, ‘Terraform’ in 1998, ‘1000 Hurts’ in 2000 and ‘Excellent Italian Greyhound’, out this very day.
SHELLAC @ SOUTHERN RECORDS: Includes a biography in which you can find out each and every one of Robert Spur Weston IV’s nicknames: "Westy", "Rusty", "Robbie", "Bob", "Kitten", "Furball" and "Disco Stu".
SHELLAC @ TOUCH AND GO: The finest source for all things new album.
ELECTRICAL AUDIO: If you’ve got a spare few grand (really not that much, when you consider his pedigree) and somewhere to sleep in Chicago, Steve Albini will record your band. Just fill out the form.
THE BIG BLACK / SHELLAC / RAPEMAN PAGES : Probably the finest resource, outside of this article, of Shellac/Albini related material on the net, or anywhere else.
SHELLAC: A RETROSPECTIVE : Tom Hannan takes a detailed look back at every single Shellac release in a style almost as geeky as the meticulous descriptions of each and every microphone used that the band used to give away with early seven inch releases.
MISSION OF BURMA – OnoffON: Shellac bassist Bob Weston acted as producer and ‘sound manipulator’, even performing with the punk legends live, for their first record in a mere 22 years.
THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS 2004: Jake and Dinos Champan, the arty types, asked Shellac to perform at the inaugural Nightmare event, as put on by All Tomorrow’s Parties. They chose wisely.
THE DIRECTORS CUT 2004: Again as part of ATP, Shellac are invited back to curate a day’s worth of bands. They put on Lightning Bolt, Dead Meadow and Mclusky, but steal the show by playing two sets in ten hours to an adoring throng.
ATP VERSUS THE FANS 2007: Their most recent appearance at the festival was in its new home in Minehead, with a set to which “the whole foundations of the venue shook”.
‘MY BLACK ASS’ (from ‘At Action Park’) LIVE @ ATP VS THE FANS, MAY 2007:
‘THE END OF RADIO’ (from ‘Excellent Italian Greyhound’) LIVE @ TOUCH AND GO 25TH ANNIVERSARY PARTY