Iain Burgess: BLOODSPORT I Am The Game (1985)

Iain Burgess Month: BLOODSPORT



In 1985 the Chicago punk scene was fairly disjointed, having split into factions with only Naked Raygun uniting the scene.  The Effigies had devolved into sub-pop (not Sub Pop), and among the early scene players only Raygun was moving forward with any momentum (or even still really a band).

Some members kept the torch alive, though, and joined up to form the largely underrated Bloodsport.  As the two main bits online about this band both mention, the band was really more famous for who the musicians played in prior to, and then after, Bloodsport (Effigies, Pegboy, Trial by Fire, Strike Under...).  The history - while important - is not really relevant to the fact that their one and only record, the 7-song I Am The Game released on Homestead in 1985, is spectacular.  It's as forward-looking as any Chicago punk record ever was, and it's a shame the band didn't carry on because it's blatantly obvious that there would have been even greater things to come based on these 7 tracks alone.  The last track even features acoustic guitar!

So enjoy this FLAC set, from a (surprisingly) not-poor transfer from original Homestead vinyl.

BLOODSPORT
I Am The Game
Recorded by Iain Burgess at CRC, Chicago
1985 Homestead Records

01 Better and Best
02 Hangman's Dance
03 Rhymes of Reason
04 Ghosts of Scrooge
05 Sixes and Sevens
06 Mettle of Man
07 Killing Floor

Grab it here.

Enjoy!

RIP: Engineer Iain Burgess month on the PoIT

It was two years ago last month that one of your humble blogger's greatest musical heroes - in a technical sense, not specifically songwriting or performance sense - passed away.

There's not a 48-hour period that goes by that I don't listen to at least one track engineered by Iain Burgess.  In fact, I continue to investigate, learn and enjoy "new" records engineered by this Giant among men, just because Iain's one of those people who just had "it".  "It" being taste; "it" being sensibility; "it" being genius.  It's not hyperbole in the slightest to say that musically, I would not be what I am today if not for entire swaths of records engineered by Iain.

To celebrate this man's contribution to our collective musical heritage, this month I will only be posting records engineered by Iain.  By nature of the man's location during his heyday (Chicago, 1980s), this series will necessarily focus on the Midwest punk axis, and by this I mean Chicago and Minneapolis.  I, as has been the case lately, will focus on otherwise out-of-print records, because any band that manages to keep its Iain-produced records in print today needs massive piles of cash flung its way.

*I* know what records I have in my pipeline for this series; if you have suggestions please leave a comment!  It's entirely possible your suggestion will trump something on my list.

Fartpants: The Legacy of Iain Burgess

Iain Burgess died on Thursday, February 11, 2010 from complications due to pancreatic cancer.



He left a lasting legacy behind in the fantastic body of work he engineered, recorded, or produced, as an "architect" of the 1980s "Chicago Sound" style of melodic post-punk.

Iain came to Chicago from his native Weymouth, England just in time to witness the birth of a scene, and have his own hand in shaping and defining it.

Striking a deal with the owner of the megacorporate Chicago Recording Company studio in Chicago's pricey River North neighborhood, he would record bands in lightning sessions from the close of business on a Friday night, vacating just in time by the following Monday morning for the studio's corporate ad agency clients. These bands defined a scene, a style, an ethos. The scene spawned Steve Albini, for starters - and to this day Albini credits Iain for jumpstarting his own engineering career.

Iain's characteristic sound was once defined as the sound of a tank driving into World War III. The guitars are amazingly loud and in-your face, and the drums are often massively powerful. Yet each instrument had its perfect place in the mix - the style of music Iain typically recorded could just as easily have been one muddy, anamorphic mess (see Spot's SST productions). But what often resulted from these "bash 'em out" breakneck weekend recording sessions are pictures of clarity. Many an engineer can learn plenty just by listening to Iain's resume.

Iain lived out his dreams by relocating to provincial France and built an amazing residential studio complex, called Black Box, in the mid 1990s. While not as active as he was in the 1980s/early 1990s, Iain still hosted bands and engineered the odd session at Black Box even through this past January.


Pond at Black Box, France

It's really something how so many of my very favorite, or very sentimental, records from my teenage years have Iain's name printed on the back. It almost became that if it had Iain's name anywhere in the credits, you just knew it was gonna be good.

So in the spirit of the blog, I've put together a bracing compilation of selected works from Iain's long resume. While nowhere near definitive - not even in definitive's city - this collection is as good as any of an introduction to Iain's amazing talent in capturing the sound of an era.

The majority of these tracks were recorded by Iain and produced by him as well. A couple of them, namely the Rapeman and Nina Nastasia tracks, were only engineered by him - yet his fingerprints are all over the tracks. Nina Nastasia's selection was recorded at Black Box with Iain and Albini handling the recording.

Why "Fartpants"? Because Albini gave him that name long ago. Better than "Rumbleknickers", I suppose, which Pegboy calls him in the liner notes to their Strong Reaction / Three-Chord Monte CD.

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FARTPANTS
The Legacy of Iain Burgess
a Power of Independent Trucking Special

01 RIFLE SPORT Exploding Man (1990)
02 EFFIGIES Fly On A Wire (1985)
03 BHOPAL STIFFS Bottle It Up (1987)
04 NAKED RAYGUN Soldiers Requiem (1988)
05 BREAKING CIRCUS Song Of The South (1986)
06 BIG BLACK Passing Complexion (1986)
07 DIDJITS Joliet (1988)
08 NAKED RAYGUN I Don't Know (1984)
09 BLOODSPORT Better and Best (1985)
10 POSTER CHILDREN Question (1989)
11 BIG BLACK Il Duce (1985)
12 NAKED RAYGUN Managua (1984)
13 PEGBOY Through My Fingers (1990)
14 TAR Les Paul Worries (1990)
15 BIG BLACK Bad Houses (1986)
16 DEFOLIANTS Mr. Spy (1987)
17 POSTER CHILDREN Jeremy Straight (1989)
18 NAKED RAYGUN Vanilla Blue (1988)
19 RAPEMAN Dutch Courage (1988)
20 JAWBOX Static (1992)
21 PEGBOY Revolver (1994)
22 POSTER CHILDREN She Walks (1989)
23 NINA NASTASIA Superstar (2003)
24 NAKED RAYGUN New Dreams (1985)

Split across two RAR files available here.

RIP Iain, may you live on in your legacy......

RIP Iain Burgess, legendary punk engineer

I've profiled him before on these pages and I will put together a more comprehensive "best-of" compilation of tracks he was involved in.



Legendary architect of the 1980s "Chicago Sound" of punk rock, Iain Burgess died on Thursday of complications from pancreatic cancer.

Steve Albini wrote a beautiful post with stories about Iain's generosity here.

RIP Iain.

postpunk on the prairie: TAR (part II)

Apologies for the update delay, life does intrude occasionally for your humble blogger.

Events have conspired to force me to suspend indefinitely my Joy Division/New Order postings. I can't say exactly what, but it's actually a pretty funny reason. Someday there's an incredible story to be told.

So instead we're going to revisit a prior featured artist, Tar. Why? Because I can.



Some time ago we featured Tar's 3rd full-length record, Toast. That record is still in print.

The records featured today are not, however, having gone OOP with the fading away of label Amphetamine Reptile.

Before they had developed their signature Tar sound (ref. Toast), they sounded a bit more derivatve of the scene they arose from: 80s Chicago punk, specifically Naked Raygun's sound and Big Black's vocals. After an EP, a couple 7" singles and their first record, they lost a bassist, gained a new one and kept developing. And as is common, suddenly they hit the magic note one day and created their own unique sound, first evidenced in full with 1991's Jackson - the band's second full-length.

And you frankly can't discuss Tar without discussing drummer Mike Greenlees' steady use of the ride cymbal (that "ding ding ding ding ding" cymbal sound that comes up on every Tar song at one point or another), it's so 1970s you can't help but laugh.

So allow me to present the following:

1988 - "Play To Win" / "Mel's" 7"
(No Blow Records, NBLW 01)



01 Play To Win
02 Mel's

Recorded by Steve Albini, this is the band's self-released debut. Very much of its time and place in the Chicago punk scene, it sounds more Naked Raygun than anything else. Perhaps a weird melding of early Slint and Naked Raygun with a touch of sub-Big Black vocals?


1989 - HANDSOME EP
(Amphetamine Reptile, 89160-1)



01 Static
02 Mumper
03 Same
04 (untitled)
05 Downtime
06 Seam
07 Mel's

"Static" and "Downtime" recorded by Iain Burgess, and the rest by Steve Albini, this record further lays on the Raygun styling and is perhaps the most "accessible" Tar record. "Mel's" in particular is a standout, featuring terrific dynamics and the push/pull of guitarists John Mohr and Mark Zablocki closing out the record brilliantly.


1990 - ROUNDHOUSE
(Amphetamine Reptile, 89197-1/2)



01 Les Paul Worries
02 Cold
03 Glass Grief
04 Pick One
05 Black Track
06 Bad Box
07 Mercury Block
08 Gag Reflex
09 Thermos
10 Jurbo

Churning guitars and often-buried vocals mark this Iain Burgess-produced record. Perhaps the most "dense" of Tar's records, nevertheless it's a nice transitional record - transitioning from the sub-Raygun earlier works to the more driving, dynamic and unique Tar to come. I never used to rate this record, always thinking it paled to the later Tar, but having revisited this a LOT lately, I've come to love it. "Les Paul Worries" (video) is great, great - and is it about the worries of guitarmaker Les Paul, or worries about the guitar itself? Singer John Mohr says both (scroll down). And the start/stop guitars in "Thermos", where the (very slight) finger noises on the fretboard precede and follow each start/stop effect, gets me every time.


1991 - JACKSON
(Amphetamine Reptile, amrep 004)



01 Short Trades
02 Cross Offer
03 Walking The King
04 On A Transfer
05 Trauma
06 Dark Mark
07 Goethe
08 Tellerman
09 Land Luck
10 Viaduct Removal

Perhaps the best overall Tar record, this Steve Albini recording is the summation of the "classic" Tar sound. Thick guitars, pummeling bass, and John Mohr's unique vocal stylings, "Short Trades" kicks things off nicely and they don't let up until the record's over.

All the above in three RAR files, gotta grab 'em all as usual....

Part I / Part II / Part III

enjoy!

variations on a theme: Iain Burgess

edit: New post here with a much more comprehensive compilation of Iain's recordings, in light of his recent passing...

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Iain Burgess, for many years, was the "architect" of the Chicago classic punk sound in the 80s and early 90s. If your record wasn't engineered by Iain, it seemingly didn't exist. Virtually every Chicago punk/alternative band used him at one point or another.


Iain in 2003-ish, at his residential studio Black Box in France

Oddly there's little to no biographical information about him on the internets. I do know he came to Chicago from the UK, did a lot of production, and eventually moved to France to open his own studio. Steve Albini credits Iain for introducing him to a lot of recording techniques he uses today, especially about preserving the sound, presence and impact of a loud punk band playing in its element - live.


Iain in 1988 behind the boards at Chicago Recording Company, recording the Poster Children (see below)

Having searched the vast, wide web of the world, I do believe this is the first blogpost ever to spotlight Iain Burgess's works. Hooray!

So enough blathering - what about the music?

EFFIGIES / "Fly on a Wire"



(from the 1985 Ruthless LP Fly On A Wire, long out of print)

Chicago's Effigies were among the first postpunk bands to make a name for themselves outside Chicagoland. This is a terrific proto-indierock blast that shows how they've moved on from hardcore to something maybe more melodic.

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BIG BLACK / "Kerosene"



(from the 1986 Homestead LP Atomizer, currently available on Touch And Go on vinyl, and on CD as part of The Rich Man's Eight Track Tape)

From their first real full-length (not counting Lungs or Bulldozer), really, what else is there to do in tiny smalltown America than jump kerosene? Iain really makes the guitars scraaaang and that walloping piledriving drum machine hammer.

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DEFOLIANTS / "Mr. Spy"



(from the 1987 Pravda 7" EP Hang Ten, long out of print)

I saw these guys open for Naked Raygun at the Riviera, Chicago in 1989 and ever since been on a quest for Defoliants material. Even then you couldn't find the records, and even today the utter lack of Defoliants--age on the internets is disappointing. This is the only track I could find and it just doesn't do the memory of these guys live-on-stage justice. Think Dick Dale fronting a punk band. Amazing stuff.

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NAKED RAYGUN / "Soldiers Requiem" and "Vanilla Blue"



("Soldiers Requiem" from the 1988 Caroline LP Jettison, "Vanilla Blue" from their 1987 self-released 7", also on the CD issue of Jettison)

The torch-bearers of the Chicago punk scene, probably the band with the greatest national and international recognition. These guys were/are something else live, yet they never were afraid to themselves laugh at the whole spectacle of it all - even having John Haggerty's guitar lowered to him from the rafters at the Cabaret Metro. Amazing, amazing band, this lineup was their classic lineup that lasted from 1984-1989. 1989 saw Haggerty quit to form Pegboy (see below).

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POSTER CHILDREN / "Question"



(from the 1989 Limited Potential LP Flower Plower, currently on the band's own Twelve Inch Records label)

Formed at University of Illinois - Champaign/Urbana in the late 80s, this band really lived (and still lives) by the Minutemen "we jam econo" credo. This track is from their first full-length record and a great snapshot of the energy and spunk the Poster Kids carry.

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PEGBOY / "Through My Fingers" and "Strong Reaction"



("Through My Fingers" from the 1990 Quarterstick EP Three-Chord Monte, "Strong Reaction" from their 1991 Quarterstick LP Strong Reaction)

Pegboy was formed in 1989 after John Haggerty quit Raygun, joining up instead with his brother Joe on drums and two ex-Bhopal Stiffs on vocals and bass. Really, the only reason to listen to Pegboy is Haggerty's guitar sound, he's got one hell of a roar and his playing style is perfect for the music.

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JAWBOX / "Static"



(from the 1992 Dischord LP Novelty)

The first non-Illinois band here, Jawbox came from the Washington, DC Dischord scene and in fact J Robbins was former Government Issue - another key hardcore touchpoint band. Dischord and the Chicago Touch And Go scene shared a lot of friends, commonality and ethics and they cross-pollinated quite a bit. Here we have these guys traveling to Chicago to record with Iain, on their last independent record before skipping Dischord and signing to Atlantic.

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After the mid-90s Iain was relatively quiet production-wise, concentrating on building his own studio in France. There have been a a couple really fantastic records made there and with his assistance, including.....

NINA NASTASIA / "Superstar"



(from her 2003 Touch And Go LP Run To Ruin, recorded by Steve Albini and Iain Burgess at his French residential studio)

This Brooklyn, NY singer/guitarist is amazing - and this record is a perfect example of how you cannot pigeonhole Steve Albini's production style.

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Like these? Thoughts?