Falling out with Homestead

The compilation album The Hammer Party , combining Lungs and Bulldozer , was also released through Homestead Records in 1986, but later that year Big Black had a falling out with the label and its distributor, Dutch East India Trading. According to Albini, Dutch East India’s accounting practices were “always fucked. They would do every sleazy, cheap trick to avoid paying you, like send you a check that wasn’t signed or send you a check that had a different numeral and literal amount.” Homestead then asked to make five hundred copies of a 12-inch single of “Il Duce” for free distribution to radio stations. The band agreed on the condition that the single was not to be offered for sale, since the song had already been released as a 7-inch single in 1985 and, according to Albini, “We didn’t want our audience milked for extra money to buy an alternate format.” A few weeks after the single’s release, Albini began seeing copies for sale in record stores outside of Chicago. He soon found out that the 12-inch single was being sold both in the United States and abroad as a high-priced “collector’s item”. Though Homestead claimed not to be selling copies, Albini telephoned one of the label’s salespeople posing as a record buyer and was told that they would sell him copies, but not in Chicago. As a result of the deception, Albini and Big Black severed ties with Homestead and Dutch East India. Though the band was receiving lucrative offers from major labels, they chose to remain independent and signed to Touch and Go Records , Albini being good friends with label head Corey Rusk.