8-Track Heaven was founded on 20 July 1995 by Malcolm Riviera, Abigail Lavine, Russ Forster and Chip Rowe. It was described by the
New York Times as a Web shrine containing a cache of trivia on collecting 8-tracks. The site offered help to the
8-track enthusiast by offering free ads, tips and links to other sites that featured the
cartridges. Founder Malcom Riviera aka Gary C. Broyhill was well-known participant of the D.C. music scene during the 1980s and a member of bands such as Elevator, Grand Mal, Sub Primal Cuts,
The Velvet Monkeys, and
Gumball. He was also an enthusiast of eight-tracks and the history surrounding them. Riviera was also the webmaster for the site. He also founded the alt.collecting.8-track-tapes newsgroup. According to a 2004 article by
The Journal Record, Riviera was "regarded as something of a god in 8-track circles". He was also an article contributor and had contributed an article to the summer/fall 1996 issue of
Chunklet magazine. Abbey Lavine was also a singer. She sang lead on the song "Alligator" by the garage band Soul Assassins. She was also part of the backing group, the Assassinettes. Russ Forster, a musician, founder of Underdog Records and member of bands; Gore Gore Girls, Spongetunnel and Dashing Marble was the editor of the fanzine
8-Track Mind. The website was listed on page 406 of the 1997 edition of the ''New Rider's official World Wide Web yellow pages
directory, and page 538 of the 1998 edition of Official Microsoft Bookshelf Internet directory''. There were no similar sites in both of the directories. ==History==