About this deal
Vincent (live at the Our Band Could Be Your Life 10th Anniversary Show at New York’s Bowery Ballroom on May 22, 2011. 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. Soon after, Steve recruited Jeff Pezzati (Naked Raygun) on bass and Santiago Durango (also Naked Raygun) joined them on guitar.
The CD omitted track 9 "Strange Things", as well as the artwork and liner notes from the original records. 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. In 1985, Big Black recorded their first full-length, ‘Atomizer’, as well as finishing the ‘Il Duce’ 7”.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. It's also Albini at his most plainspoken and bleak: "Stare at the wall/Stare at each other and wait 'til we die.
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. 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, 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’. 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.