Atomizer

Product Information

The label sent the promo 12" to radio stations, then sold extra copies outside of Big Black's native Chicago, hoping the band would never find out. One song from the album, "Big Money", was released as a B-side to the " Il Duce" single prior to the release of Atomizer. The album gained immediate notoriety due to its stark lyrics discussing the seedier, more disturbing aspects of human life – child sex abuse, corrupt cops, domestic abuse, volunteering at a slaughterhouse to kill cows for fun, or just growing up in a rural town and finding your only joy or entertainent in setting things on fire and fucking – so you get the bright idea to combine the two and see what happens. But needless to say this is a great album, really an example of the Great Lakes underground sound of the 80s, where you can really feel the failing cities and abandoned industrial dystopia of that time and place.

In addition to the ones mentioned below, the album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Big Black was started by Steve Albini in 1982 while he was attending Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. By 1984, the band haddone some touring and recorded the ‘Racer X’ EP andthe start of the ‘Il Duce’ 7”.

Atomizer was originally planned for release sometime in late 1985 – however, the band ran into some legal issues with the album cover, which originally featured Marvin the Martian. Steve's guitar is the distance between ice and hoarfrost, the lyrics archetypal of on the edge sociopath, or maybe just a frustrated disc-jockey. Pezzati was replaced by Dave Riley, an audio engineer who worked closely with Parliament/ Funkadelic. The song "Kerosene" has been covered by Kerbdog (as a b-side to their single " End of Green" [22]), Pitchshifter (on the "enhanced" version of their album Deviant [23]), Lamb of God (on their album Legion: XX, under their original name Burn the Priest [24]) and St.It's also Albini at his most plainspoken and bleak: "Stare at the wall/Stare at each other and wait 'til we die. My copy (bought new in '86) has white labels, plain white inner sleeve with a printed insert, so make of that what you will. Instrumentally, Atomizer is a wailing behemoth of assaultive Roland beats, Steve Albini and Santiago Durango's clanging and whirring guitars, and new member Dave Riley's lumberjack bass. Homestead Records also issued "Big Money" and "Il Duce" the A-side of a 12" record with three live songs on the B-side (including the live version of "Cables" that would appear on Atomizer) with the agreement that the 12" be used for promotional purposes only. You should take every opportunity to scratch them, fingerprint them, and eat egg and bacon sandwiches off them.

Apparently they ran out of inner sleeves before first press vinyl (if it's even true that the printed inner sleeves predate the inserts). This is the band’s first recording since bassist Jeff Pezzati left in late 1984 to work more closely with his other group, Naked Raygun. That same year Atomizer was compiled onto compact disc along with the Headache EP and the band's "Heartbeat" single under the name, The Rich Man's Eight Track Tape. Soon after, Steve recruited Jeff Pezzati (Naked Raygun) on bass and Santiago Durango (also Naked Raygun) joined them on guitar. Instead, Steve Albini expressed his general dislike for the compact disc format in the CD's liner notes, saying, "This compact disc, compiled to exploit those of you gullible enough to own the bastardly first generation digital music system, contains all- analog masters.

In the year after Atomizer's release, Big Black recorded their 4-song Headache EP and released it with a sticker that bore the words, "Warning! The CD omitted track 9 "Strange Things", as well as the artwork and liner notes from the original records. Vincent (live at the Our Band Could Be Your Life 10th Anniversary Show at New York’s Bowery Ballroom on May 22, 2011.