Bulldozer (EP)

{{short description|1983 EP by Big Black}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox album | name = Bulldozer | type = EP | artist = Big Black | cover = Big Black - Bulldozer cover.jpg | alt = | released = 1983 | recorded = 1983 | venue = | studio = | genre = *Noise rock *post-hardcore | length = 15:36 | label = Ruthless, Fever Records, Touch and Go | producer = Iain Burgess | prev_title = Lungs | prev_year = 1982 | next_title = Racer-X | next_year = 1985 | misc = {{Extra album cover | header = Steel Sleeve from first 200 copies | type = EP | cover = Big Black - Bulldozer limited edition cover.jpg | border = | alt = | caption = }} }} {{Music ratings |rev1 = AllMusic |rev1score = {{rating|3|5}}<ref name="allmusic">{{cite web|title=allmusic ((( ''Bulldozer'' > Review )))|url={{AllMusic|class=album|id=r213246|pure_url=yes}}|publisher=Allmusic|author=Kellman, Andy|accessdate=March 17, 2010}}</ref> |rev2 = ''Rolling Stone'' |rev2score = {{Rating|3|5}}<ref>Brackett, Nathan. "Big Black". ''The New Rolling Stone Album Guide''. November 2004. pg. 69, cited March 17, 2010</ref> }} '''''Bulldozer''''' is the second EP by American punk rock band Big Black, released in 1983. It was their first release to feature an actual band performing, including Pat Byrne from Urge Overkill playing drums on some of the songs in addition to the Roland TR-606 drum machine that provided rhythm tracks on Big Black's first two records.

On ''Bulldozer'', Big Black's founder and frontman Steve Albini achieved a signature "clanky" sound with his guitar by using metal guitar picks notched with sheet metal clips, creating the effect of two guitar picks at once. The ''Bulldozer'' EP was recorded with engineer Iain Burgess and released in December 1983, with the first two hundred copies packaged in a galvanized sheet metal sleeve in homage to Public Image Ltd.'s ''Metal Box''.<ref name="Deming">{{cite web |last=Deming |first=Mark |title=Big Black Biography |publisher=Allmusic |url={{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p10143|pure_url=yes}} |accessdate=2010-03-20}}</ref><ref name="Touch and Go">{{cite web |title=Big Black: Info |publisher=Touch and Go Records |url=http://www.touchandgorecords.com/bands/band.php?id=34 |accessdate=2010-03-24}}</ref> Many of the EP's lyrics depicted scenarios drawn from Albini's rural upbringing, such as "Cables", which described the slaughtering of cows at a Montana abattoir, and "Pigeon Kill", about a rural Indiana town that dealt with an overpopulation of pigeons by feeding them poisoned corn.<ref name="Azerrad, 314">{{cite book |last=Azerrad |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Azerrad |title=Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981–1991 |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |year =2001 |location=New York |page=314 |isbn=0-316-78753-1}}</ref> The EP's final song, "Jump the Climb," was recorded by Albini before the addition of his bandmates.

Albini originally named the EP ''Hey Nigger'' because "anyone stupid enough to be offended by that title is part of the problem... It's better to be confrontational about things like this. Of course I think judging people by the color of their skin is absurd." However, his bandmates made him change the title.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Matos |first=Michaelangelo |date=March 24, 2016 |title=Yearbook: The Chicago House and Hardcore Revolutions of 1984 |url=https://pitchfork.com/features/yearbook/9833-yearbook-the-chicago-house-and-hardcore-revolutions-of-1984 |access-date=February 19, 2023 |website=Pitchfork |language=en}}</ref>

''Bulldozer'' was later compiled with Big Black's earlier six-song EP ''Lungs'' on the 1986 LP ''The Hammer Party''. The CD version also included Big Black's follow-up EP, ''Racer-X''.

== Track listing == # "Cables" - 2:40 # "Pigeon Kill" - 1:47 # "I'm a Mess" - 1:56 # "Texas" - 4:02 # "Seth" - 3:32 # "Jump the Climb" - 2:59

==Personnel== * Jeff Pezzati - bass guitar * Santiago Durango - "smash" guitar * Steve Albini - "klang" guitar, vocals * Roland - Roland TR-606 drum machine * Pat Byrne - drums (all tracks except "Jump the Climb")

== References == {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bulldozer (Ep)}} Category:Albums produced by Iain Burgess Category:Big Black EPs Category:1983 EPs Category:Ruthless Records (Chicago) EPs Category:Touch and Go Records EPs