At Action Park

Shellac: Steve Albini (guitar); Robert Spurr Weston IV (bass); Todd Stanford Trainer (drums).
Featuring indie rock anti-Svengali Steve Albini, the more organically minded Bob Weston and tumultuous timekeeper Todd Trainer, this is Shellac's long awaited first album. Shellac makes the complex simple using churning, melodic guitar licks and Albini's signature speak-sing-yell voice. On "Song of the Minerals," the squawking vocal, "It's all right if it makes you feel better," is repeated over a roiling bass line, interjected with a saw-like, circular guitar pedal-induced noise. Most of the songs are similarly constructed, the words fitting like puzzle pieces in a grand rock scheme.
Retro-technical themes are conveyed in the music, and also in Shellac's packaging--the compact discs sport pro-vinyl messages, and the vinyl sleeves are intricately packaged and designed. Titles, like those of the previous three releases, RUDE GESTURE: A PICTORAL HISTORY, URANUS, and BIRD IS THE MOST POPULAR FIGURE, all seven-inch vinyl singles, hint at humor as artistic expression. With a heavy, linear sound, Shellac manages to be both nerdy and head banging.