{{short description|1992 live album by Big Black}} {{More citations needed|date=April 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}} {{Infobox album | name = Pigpile | type = live | artist = Big Black | cover = Big Black - Pigpile cover.jpg | alt = | released = {{Start date|1992|10|05}} | recorded = July 24, 1987 | venue = Clarendon Hotel Ballroom, Hammersmith, London | studio = | genre = Noise rock | length = {{Duration|m=46|s=02}} | label = Touch and Go | producer = | prev_title = Songs About Fucking | prev_year = 1987 | next_title = | next_year = }} '''''Pigpile''''' is a live album by the American musical group Big Black. It is a recording from July 24, 1987, during the noise rock band's final European tour, released in 1992 originally as a VHS tape (it was their second video release, following the 'Live' tape on Atavistic Records). It was later issued as an audio-only LP/cassette/CD. The recordings were made at the Hammersmith Clarendon ballroom, London. A 5" transparent heavy-duty vinyl record was included away free with all copies of the VHS tape and some copies of the soundtrack album, featuring a cover version of the Mary Jane Girls song "In My House". Lower-quality recordings from the Hammersmith concert had previously appeared in a different configuration on the bootleg LP ''Tonight We Walked With Giants''.
''Pigpile'' coincided with the re-release of Big Black's entire catalog on Touch and Go Records. A limited edition of ''Pigpile'' was issued as a box set that included the LP and its insert, a VHS tape of the Hammersmith concert, the "In My House" one-sided 5" single, a poster and a Big Black T-shirt.<ref name="Rolling Stone, 2001">{{cite book |editor1-last=Bashe |editor1-first=Patricia Romanowski |editor2-last=Pareles |editor2-first=Jon |editor3-last=George-Warren |editor3-first=Holly |title=Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll: Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll |date=2001 |publisher=Touchstone |isbn=978-0-7432-0120-9 |page=72 |language=en}}</ref>
==Reception==
{{Music ratings | rev1 = AllMusic | rev1Score = {{rating|3.5|5}}<ref name="allmusic">{{cite web|title=allmusic ((( ''Pigpile'' > Review )))|url={{AllMusic|class=album|id=r71104|pure_url=yes}}|publisher=Allmusic|author=Raggett, Ned|accessdate=March 17, 2010}}</ref> |rev2 = ''Alternative Rock'' |rev2score = 6/10<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/alternativerock0000thom|title=Alternative rock|first=Dave|last=Thompson|date=April 12, 2000|publisher=San Francisco : Miller Freeman Books; Berkeley, CA : Distributed to the book trade in the U.S. and Canada by Publishers Group West; Milwaukee, WI : Distributed to the music trade in the U.S. and Canada by Hal Leonard Publishing|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> |rev3 = ''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music'' |rev3score = {{rating|3|5}}<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_NNmFiUnSmUC&q=sound+of+impact+big+black+1987&pg=PA2601|title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music|first=Colin|last=Larkin|date=May 27, 2011|publisher=Omnibus Press|isbn=9780857125958|via=Google Books}}</ref> | rev4 = ''The Great Alternative & Indie Discography'' | rev4score = 7/10<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/greatalternative0000stro|title=The great alternative & indie discography|first=M. C. (Martin Charles)|last=Strong|date=April 12, 1999|publisher=Edinburgh : Canongate|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> | rev5 = ''MusicHound'' | rev5score = 2.5/5<ref>{{cite book|title=MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide|editor=Gary Graff|editor-link=Gary Graff|edition=2nd|year=1999|location=London|isbn=978-1-5785-9061-2|publisher=Visible Ink Press}}</ref> | rev6 = ''Rolling Stone'' | rev6Score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}<ref>Brackett, Nathan. "Big Black". ''The New Rolling Stone Album Guide''. November 2004. pg. 69, cited March 17, 2010</ref> | rev7 = ''Select'' | rev7Score = {{rating|4|5|full=U+25A0.svg|empty=U+25A1.svg|rating=medal}}<ref>{{cite journal|title=Big Black: ''The Hammer Party'' / ''Atomizer'' / ''Songs About Fucking'' / ''Pigpile''|journal=Select|issue=31|date=December 1992|last=Perry|first=Andrew|page=86}}</ref> }}
Released five years after Big Black chose to disband at the peak of their artistic and commercial success, ''Pigpile'' received concurrent and retrospective reviews ranging from lukewarm to gushing. Writing shortly after the album's release, ''Spin'' magazine remarked that ''Pigpile'' was "a live album with sound quality unworthy of an audio nut like Albini."<ref name="Spin, 1995">{{cite book |last1=Weisbard |first1=Eric |last2=Marks |first2=Craig |title=Spin Alternative Record Guide |date=1995 |publisher=Vintage Books |isbn=978-0-679-75574-6 |language=en}}</ref> Looking back at Albini's career through Big Black and his subsequent band, Rapeman a decade on, ''Rolling Stone'' called ''Pigpile'' a "fun-but-not-revelatory live album," ranking it a notch below any of the group's studio albums.
==Track listing== # "Fists of Love" – 4:14 # "L Dopa" – 1:49 # "Passing Complexion" – 3:06 # "Dead Billy" – 5:12 # "Cables" – 3:18 # "Bad Penny" – 3:03 # "Pavement Saw" – 2:56 # "Kerosene" – 6:38 # "Steelworker" – 4:52 # "Pigeon Kill" – 2:24 # "Fish Fry" – 1:55 # "Jordan, Minnesota" – 7:05
==Album credits== *Big Black - Performance *Steve Albini - Inlay Notes *Cheryl Graham - Album Artwork
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Big Black}}
Category:Big Black albums Category:1992 live albums Category:Touch and Go Records live albums Category:Au Go Go Records live albums