Customer Reviews

1000 Hurts

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

On one fo the lesser tracks on this album "New Number Order", drummer Todd Trainer leads a strange spoken word soliloquy on a changing of number order "to... make... it... more... in... ter..est.. ing..."

Always striving to be "interesting" is what Shellac, and Steve Albini, are all about. A somewhat minimalist rock trio, they throw together elements of gang of four, wire, ac/dc, zz top, and killing joke, among others, to form a strange sound. They defnitely have a signature sound that has changed littel since their incredibly awesome early singles for touch and go.

On their last album, "Terraform", they tried to shake that formula up a bit by throwing some interesting curveballs. That album's 12-minute opening exercise in frustrating monotony was for many Shellac fans a mis-fire. I loved it, and still think it's one of their best tracks. On the new album, "1000 Hurts", they go even more out on a limb.

The most "traditional" Shellac song on the record is the final song, "Watch Song". It has their trademark of tense, sharp arrangements and angry, confrontational lyrics. A masterpiece, it's only flaw may be it's similarity to some of their older tunes.

My personla favorite on the album is track 2, "Squirrel song", which showcases Albini's underappreciated and truly bizarre sense of humor. A song that is actually about squirrel's, the lyrics about the observations of the life of a squirrel are swallowed up by the propulsive rhythms and pummeling guitar work. The song explodes with Albini's parting cry: "This isn't some kind of metaphor/this is real", echoing his sentiments in "Terraform"'s anti-art-school screed "This Is A Picture".

In short, this is a truly head-scratching record, and not one I'd recommend to one who is hearing Shellac for the first time. But I am truly impressed by this band's continued musical inventiveness and their ability to keep it interesting every time.

I've had this CD since it's release, and I can't see how people can go out of their way to do a review and bash it. First of all, one reviewer on this page bashes fans of the CD, too, as though there is something chemically wrong with anyone who likes Shellac or frontman Steve Albini, the studio genius. Guess he doesn't know how to play the guitar or drums, because anyone who does knows how exceedingly difficult this music is to play.

If you like Jesus Lizard, Big Black, Helmet, Slint (to some extent), Evil Mothers and old Pigface (1990-1992), what some people may loosely include in the "mathematical music" category, then you should love all of Shellac's stuff, and you probably already have their 3 CD's. All three are spectacular, all three are similar, and each just barely outdoes the previous. All of those bands I just listed include Steve Albini in some manor, whether it be playing, writing or producing.

Each song is a little different. On "1000 Hurts," they trio actually add some melodic music to the mix ("Prayer To God"). "Ghosts" highlights the album, in my opinion, maybe his best piece of writing to date. "Song Against Itself," "Shoe Song," "Squirrel Song" and "Watch Song" are also great songs, as good as any the band have recorded on previous CD's. If you're expecting "power ballads," or something "dancy" go elsewhere. I believe that some listeners are expecting something that doesn't deliver, in a sense. Hey, Shellac is a three-man percussion band. Even the bass and guitar are used as percussive rhythm-setters throughout Shellac's 3 CD's (1000 Hurts' "QRJ" for example). If that's not what you like, don't buy their albums! It's like someone reveiwing this CD, and saying, "You know, I really love Shania Twain, Bush, Jessica Simpson and Linkin Park, but I cant stand this CD...don't buy it." Obviously!!!!

It's so easy to tell if a reviewer is an uniformed non-musician with no ear for music--they are the ones who don't recognize it when a full-time studio producer forms a band for a short time and experiments with music. I like to compare Albini to Chris Goss (Masters of Reality, Queens of the Stone Age). Both are well-respected producers (doing records for QOTSA, Nirvana, PJ Harvey, and all the above mentioned bands) who have side project bands that really kick ass...but they are very different, even from what we call "alternative." By reading some of the reviews here, you will see how angry people get when they don't understand music, and can't tolerate anything that gets away from the norm. Pity.

Check out Shellac, and the other Albini bands listed at the top. If you like hard-driving drums constantly changing time and loud, pounding, odd guitar chords (other than those of the "power" variety) you won't be sorry, gauranteed.

Okay, this isn't "At Action Park." There will never be another one and that's just the way it goes. But it is a broadening of horizons, and for a band like Shellac that can be a dangerous thing. This is the first Shellac release to contain layered guitars (obviously overdub or some sort of delay), and is also the first that Bob sings lead vocals on. Both work out to the band's advantage.

There are some classic Shellac-style songs, like "Canaveral" and "Watch Song," but there are also some unexpected moments. The songs "New Number Order" and "Shoe Song" make one wonder if Slint hasn't been reincarnated in the Electrical Audio studios, while "Ghosts" boasts an intro straight off a Man or Astroman? record.

The true highlight of this record is obviously the opener, "Prayer To God." A Johnny Cash meets Math Rock ballad in which Steve asks God to kill his ex and her new lover - "Her she can go quietly, by disease or a blow.... him just f##king kill him... f##king kill him..." The last phrase is repeated twenty-some times during the end of the song, and it's not one to listen to right before getting out of the car. The dark image of God making the guy "cry like a woman" will be stuck in your head all day, this song is so catchy.

So to make this long review... well, end, this record is very good. Not legendary, but good. Every Shellac fan needs it, and any other fans of interesting sounds should give it a listen. Plus the packaging (a reel-to-reel box) is nice.

Shellac is an excellent ensemble that has a lot more going on than their music often suggests. People often say they are minimalist and experimental within the rock format; however, it is rarely noted that their music seems to have strong connections with genres such as jazz and blues. 1000 HURTS displays these connections in a different way than the previous two albums. For example, as regimented and "mathy" as the songs sound upon a casual listen, anyone who has seen Shellac in live performance knows that various sections of various songs can be extended at the band's leisure. In terms of tonality, Shellac is more specifically concerned with texture than with pitch. Hence, one hears creepy meandering notes accentuated by sparse and seemingly accidental drumming on "Mama Gina" and in the middle portion of "Shoe Song". The structure of the typical Shellac song (e.g. "Watch Song" or "Squirrel Song") is simultaneously simple and complex. One hears a simple pattern repeated again and again; upon closer inspection, one realizes the intricacies of the interaction between the drums, the bass, and the guitar (which tends to sound like anything but a guitar). 1000 HURTS is Shellac's best effort in terms of exploring the science of sound, while utilizing non-rock methods within the general rock format. The music is most reminiscent of the first Tortoise album or, perhaps, some old-school atypical blues stuff (e.g. Skip James or Mississippi John Hurt). Shellac is completely grounded in the present, though, and everything they do deserves attention. By the way, for the uninformed, check out the URANUS 7". The songs "Doris" and "Wingwalker" are prime examples of Shellac at their best.

I dunno. It seems like after the near-perfect At Action Park that Steve and co. have been drifting around somewhat aimlessly. Terraform was decent, but the monolithic first track aside, it basically repeated most of the ideas from the first album. Now comes album number three and it starts out with quite a wallop. "A Prayer to God" is easily one of Shellac's best songs and the best thing on the album. And also, at a concise couple of minutes it could have taught a lesson to the rest of the mostly overlong tracks. The rest of the album is considerably more problematic. Now it's by no means bad and it can often be quite great, and there are some suprises like the almost new wave-ish "Song Against Itself", but it's also often not too terribly interesting either. Half of this album sounds more like outtakes than the truly amazing rock record it should have been and had the potential to be. And I'm sorry, "New Number Order" is just plain embarrassing. There's unfortunately no real spark or interest to some of this material. Whereas before the use of repetition and subtlety further enhanced the music, here it tends to drag it all down. I suppose this album's pretty decent, but if you're new to Shellac you're much better off buying At Action Park instead.

The problem with Shellac (and hence this album) and Big Black (one of singer/guitarist Steve Albini's previous bands) is that I just don't know why I like them! But, there's just something about both these bands that just demands repeated listenings. Both these bands just grow and grow on you. Big Black's Hammer Party wasn't too bad the first time I heard it in 1994, but now it is inexplicably one of my alltime favourite albums. I feel I might say the same for 1000 Hurts a few years down the line.

Prayer to God is nothing short of a phenomenal kick start to the album (much like Steelworker on BB's Hammer Party). It's short, concise and utterly fantastic. The lyrics are very much in your face, but you just feel that they are NOT for shock's sake. Caustic, brutal, angry, psychotic and heart wrenchingly sad all at the same time.

The album continues at what is mostly quite a frenetic pace - short sharp minimalist punk noise bursts mixed in with some slower more restrained tunes but which still contain as much guitar experimentalism/abstraction/perfection and backed up by what the NME calls "the best rhythm section in the world".

All in all, I can recommend this very highly, but obviously not to just the casual mainstream music fan. If however your tastes run towards Slint, The For Carnation, Big Black, Sonic Youth, ...And you will know us by the trail of dead, and the like, then go ahead - give it a bash!

that only should get three stars, but since they give you a free CD(if you buy the vinyl), and the opening song "Prayer To God", we should forgive them. I love Shellac. I love everything Steve Albini does. Shame that Albini's wicked jape at the CD industry isn't widely appreciated; he's trying to tell us something folks...could it be...theyre OVERPRICED? I've been pissed off since 1989 when I started having to pay 2x the money for a tinier, sonically inferior product. Anyway, you buy this for "Prayer To God", which now should occupy the #1 spot as hymnals for jilted lovers go. In it, Steve attempts to exhort the Almighty to kill his ex girlfriend and her lover. Following this are a few slam bangs like "The Squirrel Song" and "The Watch Song" that'll give the steering wheel drums in your car a workout. There are very good, meditative, minimalist moments to be found on the "Watch Song" and "QRJ" and "Song Against Itself", but unfortunately, some of the songs are only worth it for a brief primal Albini guitar outburst,and you have to try and sit thru some mildly boring stuff to get to it. Granted, I would rather listen to any of this given the choice between this and most tripe,but "At Action Park" remains their most complete LP. So, you ask, what do all the mumblings and mutterings and rants that punctuate the record mean? Only Steve knows, I guess. Shellac has never been about lyrics. They sure are about making lots of cool noise, though. Go get it.

I don't care to speculate about what traumas may have been the fuel for this controlled burn of creative energy, but something must have inspired this collection of material that's harsh, sometimes disturbing, yet austerely beautiful. Steve Albini has taken elements of industrial and electronica, purified and distilled them into "songs" performed with traditional rock instrumentation and a minimum of studio effects. On most of this material, the wall of noise hasn't been throttled back so much as transformed into a wall of gleaming barbed wire.

I strongly recommend listening to this with headphones, to make it easier to play it loud and pick out the subtleties in the mix, and to avoid scaring the neighbors.

There's subtle wit, humour and sarcasm here as well. The album title is a both a warning on what's in store for the listener and a pun on a recording/electronics term, Hertz.

This is not a mass-market appeal album. If you're already familiar with Albini and Shellac, or if you're bored by the current state of rock, get this now and enjoy. The rest of you, go back to your Creed albums.

it really must be weird to sit down and have a discussion with steve albini, just judging by the various musical endeavors he's done (as a performer, not producer), he is one eclectic individual. shellac is so sparse, realistic, angry, and at the same time so spacey that it is simply amazing. this record could probably do with out 'mama gina' and the instrumental, but otherwise it is truly mindblowing...it sounds like a demo tape. no overdubs or polish. just guitar, bass, drums, and albini's incessant, droning voice. 'canaveral,' 'the squirrel song,' and 'prayer to god' may be some of the best songs that i have ever heard. the packaging is also incredible, something you should already expect from a shellac release. the package is a plain, fold-open box that is made to look like an old master tape carton. hell, the record even starts like an old recording spool start off message. i was not aware that the lp had a free cd of it too, but reading that review i will definately have to pick up a copy.

'More accessible' than At Action Park? Hmm.. if by more accessible the author means 'less good,' then yes, I would agree with such a statement. As a CD package, it certainly is more accessible (Albini uses a case/cd design that is made to resemble the old reel-to-reel box n' spool) since the At Action Park package was puritannically ear-marked for vinyl, but that aside, the music is as grating and acerbic as ever - no compromises are made in Shellac's primal gameplan of minimalistic rage and thunder. (Phew..) The problem is not with the album's discipline, but that the collection of songs here is simply not of the caliber of the At Action Park LP, in my humble opinion. That said, Shellac still make most eveything else seem inert by comparison.

The first two songs, "Prayer to God" and "Squirrel Song" are respectively good, but lack staying power. "Mama Gina" and "QRJ" are decidedly more interesting, while "Ghosts" is a cut above. "Song Against Itself" sounds like a ditty that early Fugazi might have penned if they were ever in the business of writing ditties.