Big Business

by Stewart Mason A rhythm section that says "Guitarists? We don't need no steenkin' guitarists!," Big Business are a two-piece band that do the sludgy, low-end stoner metal thing as well as any more fully populated act. Big Business formed in Seattle in 2003, comprised of two veterans from the local alternative metal scene: bassist and singer Jared Warren, formerly of Karp, and drummer Coady Willis, formerly of the Murder City Devils. After releasing a self-titled demo in 2004 on their own Wantage USA label, Big Business signed with the indie Hydra Head Industries label for their proper debut album, Head for the Shallow, in early 2005. After touring in support of the album, Willis and Warren relocated from Seattle to Los Angeles in early 2006. Later that year at the invitation of fellow Pacific Northwest transplant Dale Crover, Willis and Warren became the rhythm section of Crover's long-running sludge metal act, the Melvins, starting with the album A Senile Animal. For that release's tour, Big Business performed an opening set on their own, followed by a set backing Crover. The duo's second album, 2007's Here Come the Waterworks, featured a slightly wider range of influences and instrumental dynamics, including occasional bits of synth and guitar.