| Atomizer | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | January 1, 1986 | |||
| Recorded | August–October, 1985 | |||
| Studio | Chicago Recording Company | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 37:24 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer |
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| Big Black chronology | ||||
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Atomizer is the debut full-length album by American punk rock group Big Black released in 1986.
One song from the album, "Big Money", was released as a B-side to the "Il Duce" single prior to the release of Atomizer. 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. 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. When they did, Big Black left Homestead and signed to Touch and Go Records. [2]
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! Not as good as Atomizer, so don't get your hopes up, cheese." The same sticker also appeared on some copies of Sonic Youth's EP Master=Dik . 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. The CD omitted track 9 "Strange Things", as well as the artwork and liner notes from the original records. 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. Compact discs are quite durable, this being their only advantage over real music media. You should take every opportunity to scratch them, fingerprint them, and eat egg and bacon sandwiches off them. Don't worry about their longevity, as Philips will pronounce them obsolete when the next phase of the market-squeezing technology bonanza begins." [3]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [4] |
| Christgau's Record Guide | B+ [5] |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music |  [6] |
| The Great Rock Discography | 7/10 [7] |
| The Line of Best Fit | 9/10 [8] |
| MusicHound Rock | 3/5 [9] |
| NME | 10/10 [10] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [11] |
| Select |  [12] |
| Spin Alternative Record Guide | 9/10 [13] |
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. This is the brutal guitar machine thousands of lonely adolescent cowards have heard in their heads. Its creators deserve credit for finding each other and making their obsession real." [14]
"After countless rock and neo-industrial outfits attempted to one-up each other's levels of extremity over the years, Atomizer holds up extremely well" writes Andy Kellman of AllMusic , "It's not every day that one hears a song considering self-immolation as "just something to do" or another that tackles the case of an alleged parent-child molestation ring from the viewpoint of the offender. 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." He describes the song "Kerosene" as "undeniably Big Black's brightest/bleakest moment, an epically roaming track that features an instantly memorable guitar intro, completely incapable of being accurately described by vocal imitation or physical gesture. It's also Albini at his most plainspoken and bleak: "Stare at the wall/Stare at each other and wait 'til we die." It's Big Black's "Light My Fire," literally." He concludes by calling it "as horrifying as the day it was recorded." [4]
In addition to the ones mentioned below, the album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die . [15]
| Publication | Country | Work | Accolade | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alternative Press | USA | Atomizer | Top 99 Albums of '85 to '95 | #11 [16] |
| Spin | USA | Atomizer | 100 Alternative Albums | #83 [17] |
| Top 100 (+5) Albums of the Last 20 Years | #92 [17] | |||
| Kerrang | UK | Atomizer | The 100 Greatest Rock Albums | #63[ citation needed ] |
| The Kerrang! 200 Albums For The Year 2000 (under "Essential Alt-Rock") | - [18] | |||
| Sounds | UK | Atomizer | The Top 80 Albums from the '80s | #28[ citation needed ] |
| Mojo | UK | Atomizer | The 80 Greatest Albums from the 80s | -[ citation needed ] |
| Rockdelux | Spain | Atomizer | The 300 (+200) Best Albums from 1984–2014 | -[ citation needed ] |
| NME | UK | Atomizer | The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time | #372 [19] |
| Pitchfork | USA | "Kerosene" | The Pitchfork 500 | - [20] |
| Toby Creswell | Australia | "Kerosene" | 1001 Songs | -[ citation needed ] |
| Kerrang | UK | "Kerosene" | 666 Songs You Must Own: The Ultimate Playlist ("Alternative Rock") | #5 [21] |
| Rockdelux | Spain | "Kerosene" | The Top 100 Songs from 1984–1993 | #39[ citation needed ] |
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. Vincent (live at the Our Band Could Be Your Life 10th Anniversary Show at New York’s Bowery Ballroom on May 22, 2011; it was named by Consequence of Sound as one of her best covers. [25] )
All tracks are written by Big Black
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Jordan, Minnesota" | 3:20 |
| 2. | "Passing Complexion" | 3:05 |
| 3. | "Big Money" | 2:30 |
| 4. | "Kerosene" | 6:05 |
| 5. | "Bad Houses" | 3:10 |
| 6. | "Fists of Love" | 4:21 |
| 7. | "Stinking Drunk" | 3:27 |
| 8. | "Bazooka Joe" | 4:23 |
| 9. | "Strange Things" | 3:54 |
| 10. | "Cables" (Live) | 3:09 |
Big Black always credited Roland along with the band's members, though Roland is a brand of drum machine and not an actual person. [26] Additionally, Atomizer and all post-Atomizer releases by the band do not feature the TR-606, instead opting for the E-mu Drumulator.
Electric Ladyland is the third and final studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, released in October 1968. A double album, it was the only record from the Experience with production solely credited to Hendrix. The band's most commercially successful release and its only number one album, it was released by Reprise Records in the United States on October 16, 1968, and by Track Records in the UK nine days later. By mid-November, it had reached number 1 on the Billboard Top LPs chart, spending two weeks there. In the UK it peaked at number 6, where it spent 12 weeks on the British charts.
Surfer Rosa is the debut studio album by the American alternative rock band Pixies, released in March 1988 on the British label 4AD. It was produced by Steve Albini. Surfer Rosa contains many of the elements of Pixies' earlier output, including Spanish lyrics and references to Puerto Rico. It includes references to mutilation and voyeurism alongside experimental recording techniques and a distinctive drum sound.
The Rich Man's Eight Track Tape is an album by American punk rock band Big Black. It was released in 1987 by Touch and Go Records. The album is a CD compilation of Big Black's Atomizer album, "Heartbeat" single and Headache EP. Atomizer is pictured on the cover artwork as an eight-track tape playing in a Panasonic TNT portable player.
Big Black was an American punk rock band from Evanston, Illinois, active from 1981 to 1987. Founded first as a solo project by singer and guitarist Steve Albini, the band became a trio with an initial lineup that included guitarist Santiago Durango and bassist Jeff Pezzati, both of Naked Raygun. In 1985, Pezzati was replaced by Dave Riley, who played on Big Black's two full-length studio albums, Atomizer (1986) and Songs About Fucking (1987).
Fillmore East – June 1971 is a live album by The Mothers, released in 1971. It is the twelfth album in Frank Zappa's discography, and was produced by Zappa and mixed by Toby Foster.
The Hammer Party is a 1986 release of Big Black's early EPs made between 1982 and 1984. Originally released by Homestead Records, and later rereleased by Touch and Go, the LP came out at the same time as Big Black's Atomizer album, and featured the six songs from Lungs on one side and the six songs from Bulldozer on the other. The CD version was expanded to include Big Black's third record, Racer-X.
Infotainment? is the third album by the band Pitch Shifter, released in 1996.
Clear Spot is the seventh studio album by Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band. It was originally released on LP in 1972 in a clear plastic sleeve.
Songs About Fucking is the second and final full-length studio album by the punk rock band Big Black, released in 1987 by Touch and Go Records, and reissued in 2018. The album includes a rendition of Kraftwerk's "The Model" in a remixed version from that which appeared on Big Black's then-recent single. The compact disc of Songs About Fucking added the other side of that single, a cover of Cheap Trick's "He's a Whore".
1969: The Velvet Underground Live is a live album by the Velvet Underground. It was originally released as a double album in September 1974 by Mercury Records. The September 1988 CD re-release was issued as two separate single CD volumes, with one extra track per disc. Since many of the band's studio albums were out of print in the United States from the early 1970s through the mid-1980s, 1969 was one of the more popular albums by the band, and is a fan favorite. Spin magazine's Alternative Record Guide included it in the top 100 alternative albums of all time in 1995.
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Steven Frank Albini was an American musician and audio engineer. He founded and fronted the influential post-hardcore and noise rock bands Big Black (1981–1987), Rapeman (1987–1989) and Shellac (1992–2024), and engineered acclaimed albums like the Pixies' Surfer Rosa (1988), PJ Harvey's Rid of Me and Nirvana's In Utero.
The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads is a double live album by the American new wave band Talking Heads, released in 1982 by Sire Records. The first LP features the original quartet in recordings from 1977 and 1979, and the second LP features the expanded ten-piece lineup that toured in 1980 and 1981. The album contains live versions of songs that appear on their first four studio albums: Talking Heads: 77, More Songs About Buildings and Food, Fear of Music, and Remain in Light.
Smooth Noodle Maps is the eighth studio album by the American new wave band Devo. It was originally released in June 1990 and would be their last album released through Enigma. The album was recorded over a period of three months between October 1989 and January 1990, at Master Control Studios, in Burbank, California. Smooth Noodle Maps was Devo's last full-length studio album until the release of Something for Everybody in 2010, as well as the last Devo studio album to feature David Kendrick on drums.
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Flour is the musical project and nickname of Minneapolis musician Pete Conway, who wrote songs and played bass guitar in the bands Rifle Sport and Breaking Circus until the mid-1980s. He released four solo albums on Touch and Go Records from 1988 to 1994 on which he plays most of the instruments himself. Flour toured as a live band twice with a lineup that featured ex-Big Black guitarist Steve Albini on bass and former Breaking Circus percussionist Todd Trainer on drums before they went on to form the band Shellac. Flour's solo recordings feature the drum machine sound characteristic of Big Black, which was also toyed with by many other independent rock bands in the Midwest during that time period. Flour's third solo album Machinery Hill was described by Allmusic's Richard Foss as "an oddball masterpiece of grinding guitar, fluid bass, hammering drums, and very creative ideas".
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