![\"cheap-trick_the-latest_on-8-track.JPG\"](\"http:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/images\/cheap-trick_the-latest_on-8-track.JPG\")
<\/p>\nMy buddy Mike sent word this morning that the new Cheap Trick album, appropriately titled The Latest<\/i>, will be available soon in multiple formats, including — are you ready for this? — 8-track tape<\/i>.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Yes, 8-track, that clunky lo-fi audio technology of the early 1970s that never sounded especially good even by the standards of the day. I’m sure everyone of, ahem, a certain age<\/i> remembers how 8-tracks always tended to interrupt the songs (usually in the middle of the bridge or a cool guitar solo) with a harsh click-clack<\/i> sound as the head changed from track to the next, and the way those brick-like cartridges got hotter than a microwaved Kwik-e-Mart burrito after only a couple of plays. I can’t imagine anyone feeling nostalgic for these things, unless it’s simply for the objects themselves, as artifacts of a simpler time; I’m definitely not aware of any kind of 8-track-o-phile community that actually enjoys the sound<\/i> of 8-tracks, like the vinyl true believers who still prefer records to CDs. And yet this Cheap Trick offering is apparently not a joke. You can pre-order The Latest<\/i> on 8-track here<\/a>. (You can also get the album on LP<\/a> or CD<\/a>, depending on your preference. Oh, and I suppose there’ll be a downloadable version for the Damn Kids\u2122, not that any of them would be listening to an old band like Cheap Trick anyhow.)<\/p>\n