Big Business had a big year in 2006. Along with relocating to Los Angeles and recording their newest album, the heavy bass-and-drums twosome also became the newest members of The Melvins.
The duo recorded on The Melvins’ latest record, (A) Senile Animal (Hydra Head), and embarked on a three-month tour of double sets, opening each show with Big Business material. Here Come the Waterworks is a more operatic brother to the duo’s shockingly good debut album (Head for the Shallow, 2005).
Every bit as attractive as its older sibling, Waterworks has harnessed a bit of rawness without losing a drop of vitality. Beginning appropriately with the epic “Just As The Day Was Dawning” (which debuted on Kemado’s 2006 Invaders’ Compilation), Big Business grabs the listener by the ear and makes a run for it.
Showcasing a depth and complexity not often obvious in hard rock, the duo ranges from crunchy AC/DC-like rock anthems (“Hands Up”) to orchestral sounds (“Shields”). “Grounds For Divorce” and “I’ll Give You Something To Cry About” sound like drummer Coady Willis’s former band, The Murder City Devils, as well as Tom Waits and Nick Cave.
Bass player Jarred Warren (formerly of Karp and Tight Bros. from Way Back When) is an incredible vocal force, the kind that budding rock singers can only dream about. “Another Fourth of July, Ruined” is dramatic and eerie, with Willis’s poignant military cadence interspersed with soft melodic vocals, demonstrating that Warren croons as sweetly as he screams.
More vocals, more guitars, and more self-assurance than ever before have made this album one of the year’s earliest (and heaviest) masterpieces.
– Jamie Ludwig
Big Business (Hydra Head)