So Wrong They’re Right: 30 Days with the 8-Track Underground

So Wrong They’re Right is an ode to a peculiar group of individuals whose fascination for the obsolete Stereo 8 format resulted in their exclusion from the mainstream of modern popular culture. The film is filled with anecdotes and oddities that are sure to entertain. But its greatest achievement resides in the fact that it is the only ethnographic-like study of the 8-track underground.

So Wrong They’re Right is the brainchild of fanzine-editor-turned filmmaker Russ Forster. The documentary is in many ways a 16 mm version of 8-Track Mind, a Chicago-based fanzine Forster published with friends and various collaborators throughout the 1990s. “Trackers” from all over the US contributed to the fanzine and it is those people that Forster decided to interview for the film.

In 1994, Forster and Dan Sutherland, a fellow Stereo 8 enthusiast, set out on a 30-day road trip to meet “trackers.” They covered 10 000 miles and the adventure ultimately earned them Best Documentary award at the Chicago Underground Film Festival.

So Wrong They’re Right begins with Forster reminding us that this “is not just a chronicling of an underground network of 8-track eccentrics. This is a statement of active outrage and rebellion from a group of people who have opted-out of a disposable consumer culture that has been laid out for them to embrace in the spirit of growth or progress.”

“Trackers” do not form a homogeneous group but the film makes it clear that, despite their differences, 8-track enthusiasts all belong to the “cartridge family.” It is in that spirit that the individuals interviewed share, mostly without inhibition, their own experiences and obsessions for the obsolete format.

“Every time you play an 8-track, the tape gets a little bit hazier and a little fuzzier, you never really know … is this the last time I am going to hear this … there is this process … this transfer going on between the 8-track and your memory,” Jeff Economy tells the camera.

The unreliability of the format explains why Forster and Sutherland stopped in Seattle, Washington, for a quick tutorial on how to fix broken cartridges. Other “trackers” interviewed include, among others, store owners who lament the disappearance of Stereo 8 tapes, an 8-track librarian turned 8-track superstar, a man whose entrepreneurial spirit allowed him to develop a highly profitable business out of reselling rare tapes, and an Illinois resident who stood up (unsuccessfully) to Columbia House Record Club to keep Stereo 8 alive.

There are also the incredible San Diego “Eye Dance” performers who remind us that all of it is a combination of fun and mild insanity. Together, the above individuals form part of an underground network that sits on the margin of consumer culture trapped somewhere between pop nostalgia and dissent.

So Wrong They’re Right is very much like the format it celebrates. The film’s narrative is presented in fragments and the thoughts presented are often interrupted. The film is a raw collage of interviews and footage with abrupt and rapid jumps that prevent the ideas presented and introduced to flow smoothly. There are also moments when the voice is not in sync with the image which suggest that Forster and Sutherland might have experienced post-production problems. It is also possible that they intended it that way.

The insertion, in So Wrong They’re Right, of a short-film titled My Vision of America plays with our perception of what is intentional or not (although it is quite obvious here). The short film follows a Stereo 8 tape delivery boy throughout New Orleans. The music that accompanies the short film slows down and warbles just like the music coming out of an old 8-track player, whereas the image is reminiscent of an old classic in need of restoration.

So Wrong They’re Right is not a classic but it is a healthy mix of humor and passion. It is a film which speaks loudly about consumerism and mainstream culture without taking itself too seriously. It is also very much about compulsive behaviors although that is not made so obvious. The portrait it paints of the “cartridge family” is an honest and enjoyable one. Just like the 8-track tape, So Wrong They’re Right is far from perfect but it is worth playing to see where it will take you.