Info:

As the authority on all things punk, I declare this to be the Big Boys' greatest album. It's also one of my favorite records ever. Although I love the Big Boys' diversity of musical styles on their later stuff (they could write any kind of song well), I like the consistency on this one more. Not that all the songs sound exactly the same; it's more that I feel like this is the Big Boys' original unique style: catchy bass-driven punk with minimal druming and choppy clean guitar. Biscuit's vocal delivery - so over the top and wonderful - has yet to be topped. Listen to "Identity Crisis" or "Spit" to get a sense of what I mean. This Mark Rubin quotation (from the liner notes to The Skinny Elvis CD) says it better than I can: "I thought I knew a whole lot, that I was a punk rock motherfucker, but mid way through a spin of Industry Standard I realized I didn't know shit."
The band only pressed 800 copies of the record (the double name comes from the fact that the record sleeve gives the name "Where's My Towel?" and the label on the record reads "Industry Standard") and screened each cover themselves, so even if you're lucky enough to find the original vinyl, it's probably too expensive anyway. Touch & Go did a great job with the CD reissue, though, with plenty of awesome pictures and stories about the band.
-CHRIS


Unlike most bands, the Big Boys put out their most stylistically consistent records before they really hit their true groove. Like the first EP, this record is an amazing feat of punk rock minimalism mixed with hints of straight-faced whiteboy funk. They were never able to unite the two elements the way bands like Gang of Four did, and instead would end up dividing them entirely in order to take each to bombastic new levels. Here, however, the terrain is more even as the band works through subdued anthems like "Complete Control," "T.V." and "Identity Crisis" with a steady arrangement of soft-toned, choppy guitar, driving bass, and understated drumming. The arrangements on the whole album are more sparse than anything the band would attempt again. Biscuit, who later (perhaps inspired by Gary Floyd or Jello) gleefully indulged in manic vocal histrionics, here appears fairly detached, almost ironic. He isn't the menacing "After 12:00" whisperer heard on the live split, but certainly not the ravenous party animal that would emerge on Fun, Fun, Fun. The funkiest track here, "Spit," while not quite the rave-up that "White Nigger" is, still manages to deliver. When he nails the line, "be a robot, baby," Biscuit takes the song over the top. The record ends, appropriately, with a sudden acceleration into hardcore for "Wise Up." Calling a record with lines like "Kid wise up, your life sucks," subtle would be disingenuous, but Industry Standard does represent a band of volcanic power at the moment before everything got blown sky high.
-JT