BIG BLACK- RICH MAN'S EIGHT TRACK TAPE

If you are like me and came of age in the late 90's or early 2000's then you no doubt bought CD's when shopping for music. Why wouldn't you? They were fairly cheap (depending on how dedicated you were to buying music and looking for good deals) and basically the only way to obtain the majority of releases. I never gave much thought about why CD's had replaced vinyl or cassettes and my naive little brain was quick to assume that it must be because CD's sounded better than vinyl!

So fast forward to about 2005: I was finding that a lot of music I wanted to buy was either not available unless I got it specially ordered and if it was available, it was really expensive. Black Sabbath CD's were only $7.99 but other bands' albums (like Big Black's) were as much as $20... I bought the Rich Man's Eight Track Tape on CD for $22.99 because I had only heard Jordan Minnesota and knew this was a band I needed to know inside-out. Keep in mind, this was before I could just go online and find a download of any album in about two minutes. When I got home and removed the shrink wrap and the annoying-as-fuck security stickers Touch-and-Go loved to put on their jewel cases I popped it into my stereo and was instantly pleased. I began reading the love-letter to CD's Steve Albini had penned inside the insert:

"THIS COMPACT DISC, COMPILED TO EXPLOIT THOSE OF YOU GULLIBLE ENOUGH TO OWN THE BASTARDLY FIRST-GENERATION DIGITAL HOME 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 PHILLIPS WILL PRONOUNCE THEM OBSOLETE WHEN THE NEXT PHASE OF THE MARKET-SQUEEZING TECHNOLOGY BONANZA BEGINS."

All analog? Real music media? By now I was not only interested in the mind behind this writing but what he was getting at. I was introduced to the mind and music of Steve Albini from there on. Needless to say, it changed the way I viewed the music industry, music production and obviously, music media. And oh yeah, the music was punishing, fucked up and really catchy.

HERE