Atomizer

Product Information

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. 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. It's also Albini at his most plainspoken and bleak: "Stare at the wall/Stare at each other and wait 'til we die. 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.

In 1985, Big Black recorded their first full-length, ‘Atomizer’, as well as finishing the ‘Il Duce’ 7”. Big Black always credited Roland along with the band's members, though Roland is a brand of drum machine and not an actual person. Hey it's not Zep but if you're against the Big Black grain then maybe you exist in an airtight, brain-free starless environment. Soon after, Steve recruited Jeff Pezzati (Naked Raygun) on bass and Santiago Durango (also Naked Raygun) joined them on guitar. One song from the album, "Big Money", was released as a B-side to the " Il Duce" single prior to the release of Atomizer.

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. Apparently they ran out of inner sleeves before first press vinyl (if it's even true that the printed inner sleeves predate the inserts). 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. Don't worry about their longevity, as Philips will pronounce them obsolete when the next phase of the market-squeezing technology bonanza begins. That same year, the band recorded and released the 7” of ‘The Model’ / ‘He’s A Whore’ as well as their second full-length album, ‘Songs About Fucking’.

My copy (bought new in '86) has white labels, plain white inner sleeve with a printed insert, so make of that what you will. 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.

Reviewing for The Village Voice in September 1986, Robert Christgau wrote that, "Though they don't want you to know it, these hateful little twerps are sensitive souls—they're moved to make this godawful racket by the godawful pain of the world, which they learn about reading everything from textbooks to bondage mags. 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.