Archive for Shellac

Top 20 Touch and Go Bands of All Time

Posted in Lists with tags , , , , , , , , , on 09/06/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

(Note: The number of releases and duration of time spent by the bands on the label factored into this ranking. Nor did it take into account bands that issued records through Touch and Go‘s sister label, Quarterstick Records.)

1. Shellac
2. The Jesus Lizard
3. Big Black
4. Slint
5. Scratch Acid
6. Die Kreuzen
7. Don Caballero
8. Girls Against Boys
9. The Black Heart Procession
10. The Delta 72
11. Killdozer
12. Blonde Redhead
13. Didjits
14. Quasi
15. The New Year
16. Silkworm
17. Man or Astro-man?
18. Laughing Hyenas
19. Brick Layer Cake
20. CocoRosie

(PS: Fuck Butthole Surfers)

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Big Takeover #96: Michael Gira and Todd Trainer Interviews, Bernie/AOC Rally Coverage, More

Posted in Album Reviews, Essays, Features, Interviews, Reviews with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on 06/05/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

The special 45th anniversary edition of The Big Takeover, one of the oldest and last-surviving punk-rock magazines, is now available here. The special issue features more contributions from yours truly than every before–and they’re exclusively featured in the magazine:

• a deep conversation with Michael Gira of Swans
• my second feature with drummer Todd Trainer, stemming from the first interview he gave after the passing of his beloved Shellac bandmate Steve Albini
• a dispatch from a “Fighting Oligarchy” event in Idaho that featured Built to Spill, Bernie Sanders and AOC (and drew national attention)
• my reviews of new releases by Airport 77s, Dez Dare, Librarians With Hickeys, Mdou Moctar, mssv, Onsetter, Pleasure Pill, Plight, Royal Chant and Unstable Shapes

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Todd Trainer on Surviving Shellac: ‘There’s Still a Massive Void There’

Posted in Interviews with tags , , on 06/02/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

One of the greatest noise-rock drummers of all time granted yours truly his first interview following the still-unbelievable death of long-time Shellac bandmate Steve Albini, roughly a year after the underground legend’s tragic departure. Read one of two feature stories stemming from a truly heartfelt conversation via Music Connection.

Tip Jar: Todd Trainer — Inside the Mind of a Drummer

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Shellac’s ‘At Action Park’ in Treble’s Hall of Fame

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags , , , on 04/13/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Shellac’s At Action Park was the consummately contrarian, anti-establishment record of the 1990s that didn’t belong in a record store’s hardcore bin. In many ways, the masterwork by Steve Albini, Bob Weston and Todd Trainer was the antithesis of every rock record that had come before it—a Paul Bunyan-size middle finger to the corporate machine regarded at the time as the enemy. Read my lengthy review of one of my favorite records ever for Treble, which inducted it into their Hall of Fame.

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Best Albums of 2024: Gaerea, Shellac, Chat Pile, Kim Deal

Posted in Lists with tags , , , , , , , , , , on 01/03/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
  1. Gaerea – Coma (Season of Mist)
  2. Shellac – To All Trains (Touch and Go)
  3. Chat Pile – Cool World (The Flenser)
  4. Kim Deal – Nobody Loves You More (4AD)
  5. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Wild God (PIAS)
  6. St. Vincent – All Born Screaming (Total Pleasure)
  7. Oranssi Pazuzu – Muuntautuja (Nuclear Blast)
  8. Thank – I Have A Physical Body That Can Be Harmed (Big Scary Monsters)
  9. Necrot – Lifeless Birth (Tank Crimes)
  10. Alcest – Les Chants de l’aurore (Nuclear Blast)

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Live Review From The Vaults: Shellac Are Not Your Friend

Posted in Interviews with tags , , , , on 08/04/2024 by Kurt Orzeck

Go to New Noise to read my live review, previously published on MTV News’ now-shuttered website, of Shellac’s caustic concert at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood on January 28, 2001.

For the sake of good measure and posterity, here’s an email that largely media-averse Shellac guitarist/vocalist Steve Albini sent me before his deeply sad passing on May 7:

“I’d be happy to talk to you. I’m traveling at the moment but I’ll be back on May 6th. I can do a conversation any morning prior to my normal sessions starting at 10 am (Central) or I can answer questions by email, where I will likely be more eloquent.”

The Bad Penny, named after one of Albini’s creations, already misses him more sorely than words can express.

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Shellac’s ‘To All Trains’: Two Cent Review

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags , on 05/18/2024 by Kurt Orzeck

Check out my FLOOD review of To All Trains, which is presumably the final studio album by indispensable, iconoclastic noise-rock outfit Shellac. The analysis also includes some my reflections on the band’s guitarist/vocalist and one of rock’s most singular engineers ever, Steve Albini. (His song “Bad Penny,” created with his previous outfit Big Black, inspired the name of this website.)

Days before Albini suffered a fatal heart attack at his own Electrical Audio studio in Chicago, the underground legend agreed to talk with me about To All Trains (Touch and Go), 26 years after our first and only other conversation. A transcription of that first interview will surface online soon; sadly—but not a smidgen as sad as his passing—the second rendezvous never transpired.

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Scratch Acid, Big Black, Man … Or Astro-Man? Give Chicago Hope At Touch And Go Bash

Posted in Concert Reviews, Reviews with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on 02/20/2023 by Kurt Orzeck

… And here’s my review of the Touch and Go Records’ three-day anniversary concert from September 2006.

(Go here to read interviews with Steve Albini, David Yow, Rob Crow and other indie-rock immortals ahead of the legendary event.)

CHICAGO — Touch and Go’s three-day anniversary bash wasn’t just a lesson in the history of the seminal record label. It was a Cliff’s Notes-like recap of the last 25 years of indie rock itself.

Underground granddaddies Big Black, Scratch Acid and Killdozer spit forth a lethal dose of abrasive, confrontational brutality, while !!!, Ted Leo and Enon courted the crowd with dance-rock appeal. And therein lied the clear distinction between the challenging approach taken by yesterday’s bands and the sheer accessibility of their successors.

Continue reading →

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Superchunk’s Laura Ballance In 1998: ‘The Music Industry Is Nuts Right Now’

Posted in Interviews with tags , , , , , , , on 09/14/2010 by Kurt Orzeck

With the music-business climate perhaps more rotten than ever, there’s a growing tendency to romanticize the past. But it’s easy to forget the challenges faced by indie-rock bands and labels prior to the dawn of the Internet. Or, in the case of Merge Records, prior to the dawn of the Arcade Fire. Continue reading →

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