Steve Albini RIP

for real

what the hell

one of the few who seemed to be aging gracefully, still working, still growing/wrestling with things

he produced the first cd i ever owned and he still felt vital to music today

wtf!!!!

I really thought it had to be a joke at first. 61? Still young.

new album next week, was about to start a tour. incredibly tragic

This is so fucked. This board has discussed the man's flaws at length, but he seemed mainly like a force for good in the music world these days and seemed like he'd have many more good years in him.

Made a record with him 18 months ago. Not as terrifying an experience as I expected, was a really great thing to get to do. Won’t pretend to have got to know him on any real level over that week but he seemed a good dude.

RIP

RIP, legend

Can't believe it

the artist i think about most when i think of him these days is Nina Nastasia, who is one of the best examples of him continually working with and championing a truly singular musician.

Really shocked, what an icon. Hope he’s blasting Cheap Trick bootlegs in the great beyond

Just gutted on this news. Was anxiously awaiting new Shellac and tour.

Well this has woken me up. Awful news

Oh this is completely unexpected and sad. 61. Wtf? I hate this.

RIP

Truly shaped my worldview.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/steve-albini-mn0000023358#credits

just a staggering body of work

RIP, he engineered some truly amazing music. specifically, the silkworm albums he recorded are to me the epitome of how a rock band recording should sound. i know he always credited the band for that sound, since they basically recorded completely live iirc, but the drum sound especially is perfect.

i was in a band that spent a day recording with him at electrical audio - we weren't popular or funded by a label but the main guy in the band had some money saved up that he wanted to use for that purpose. it wasn't a band that i was particularly proud of but being in it was worth it for that experience. albini was mostly businesslike and efficient (which was appreciated because we were trying to do a lot in one day) but he did have us drink the special coffee and talk to us about about cricket

totally agree on silkworm they are one of my favorite bands of all time and i know they were very dear to steve, they had a natural sense of space in their music that really suited albini's production

I think my favorite thing he recorded/mixed was 18th Dye

yeah it's crazy i keep thinking of more and more albums he did that i loved, like no pocky for kitty, electrelane, high on fire, goes on and on and on

Wtf I just read the excellent Wire interview with Shellac today

aside from silkworm, the stuff he did with kim deal/the breeders and mclusky were the first to come to mind

xposts - oh I love no pocky and am obsessed with Electrelane tho I didn't know he produced them!

I interviewed him way back in 2009, and it was a really fun way to spend a half hour. Most of the music he's best known for recording (Breeders, Pixies, Nirvana, Jesus Lizard) is Not For Me, but plenty of other stuff (High On Fire, Sunn O))), Oxbow, Fire!) definitely is, and I had — have — a real admiration for his attitude toward his work. The music industry needs way more people like him, but it only got one.

https://x.com/blackfaurest/status/1788254721217597763?s=46&t=u2ZSlsY3trRV36IPP6jNDQ

David Grubbs tweets re Albini changing over time and owning up to things ; and re recording with him

Fuck, this is shocking. RIP. Just on the cusp of a new Shellac record and tour too, I'm just stunned by this news.

I know someone will inevitably swing through to remind us of the edgelord bullshit he pulled in early years, but he seemed like a guy who was always genuinely searching himself and trying to become a better person, even as he remained kind of cranky and unafraid to voice his opinions.

Many of you have already mentioned his engineering work and musical legacy, more surely to come, but I think his charity work merits a mention too, espeically his Letters to Santa thing.

xxxpost I think that's down to his old school view of his job, which i really loved, he was there to record bands that wanted to pay to be recorded to the best of his ability and showcase them in the best way he could

in the same way that a guy like ted templeton recorded the doobie brothers, van morrison, captain beefheart and van halen

Pretty sad, I was really looking forward to seeing Shellac again… RIP

really sucks, he didn’t seem like someone who was anywhere near close to done.

just ... RIP.
too sad

i always like what he wrote about people making joke about him producing bush

In critical circles Bush took more than their share of heat. Back home they were derided for ignoring the channels of hype and commerce that the British music scene required of its stars. No surprise the music industry in the UK was incredulous. Bush were seen as usurping the sales, chart position, radio play, and most importantly the money that had previously all been under the control of the clannish enterprises that spawned proper British careers like the Bay City Rollers or Duran Duran.

In the states, they were run down for wearing their influences, often American ones, on their sleeves, and for the un-Bunyanlike sin of having a good looking frontman and, well, putting him out front. All of that, thankfully, can be discarded as the temporal trivia it was, and like most questions involving music, their popularity can be explained by listening.

Bush’s music is proud of its inspirations, and Bush used the platform of their popularity to champion bands they thought deserved attention, taking a score of underground or breaking acts on tour with them and regularly paying tribute to the bands and songs that inspired them, occasionally covering the songs themselves to make it plain. I have worked in the studio with bands from the smallest to the largest, from those with no expectations to those with the grandest ambitions, and I am confident in ascribing genuine motives to Bush as I am of any band I’ve encountered. Through working with Bush they became friends, and I am as proud of their friendship as I am of any work I did for them. They made the music they did because they loved it and they got popular because they worked their asses off, and eventually other people liked it too. You cannot ask any more of an artist.

-steve albini

Honestly can't quite believe this

yeah I expected it to be a hoax (not this thread, despite shakey starting it, I'd already seen the news). between this and Gary Floyd, not a good week

61 is way too young.

Aside from what's already been shared, I will forever be grateful for his work with Jason Molina and Songs:Ohia/MEC.

He recorded an Auteurs album I quite like.

Steve was such a good, caring, and funny guy. I will always treasure the night in ‘99 when he took me to Second City to see a show. I walked into the Electrical kitchen at the agreed upon departure time and he looked at my head, smiled and said, “Your hair is peak Mellencamp.” ❤️

— Jon Wurster (@jonwurster) May 8, 2024

Steve was easily the best writer I know in terms of memorials, whether tweet-length or longer. Someone in our group of Chicago poker/music people shared this:

pic.twitter.com/f7KQN4TPw0

— Ben Bass & Beyond (@BenBassBeyond) May 8, 2024

This is terrible news. RIP to a giant

I have always endeavoured to model my own collaborative practice after Albini’s— never taking points, always working sliding scale even if it means operating at a loss. An absolute hero of mine

for every record that people know about, there are 500 recorded by small independent bands that no one has ever heard about, treated with no less care and hard work than the stuff he did for pj harvey or anyone else

i have no words. his name is on records by some of the most incomprehensibly famous people of all time and also my homie's band that i used to drink with after work. rip steve, an incorrigible and completely wholesome asshole.

good day for a nina nastasia marathon anyway.

Did 20 songs, tried not to include any I worked on but made an exception for Nina. pic.twitter.com/kHPQ0BgZ0W

— regular steve albini (@electricalWSOP) September 4, 2023

he is a real one for putting the proclaimers on there

i loved that

:-(

He was pretty consistent in his taste--I remember him talking about Bill Withers in an interview from 20-some years ago.

currently blasting "Wingwalker" at top volume

This is fucking hilarious, from Bluesky:

just remembered when jerry garcia died, some djs at whpk made a bunch of flyers and posted them around chicago saying "if you miss jerry call this number and leave a message about what he meant to you" but put steve albini's phone number on it. one of the all time great pranks.

never gonna see them do the cute thing where they stretch their arms out and kick their leg back and pretend to be planes onstage ever again ;_; look at me i'm a plane look at me i'm a plane look at me i'm a plane

One of my favorite exchanges in 15 years of Twitter:

I... I have... I have no son. (weeps)@Screamales https://t.co/wj2doXLHsV

— regular steve albini (@electricalWSOP) April 7, 2018

Shellac always had great rapport with the audience too, most shows I have seen had a Q&A period, once someone asked Rob how often he changed his bass strings and he was like "every other show, I like them fresh"

also seen Steve deal with hecklers/drunks in a hilarious and graceful fashion

The full piece about John Grabski is in the wayback machine
https://web.archive.org/web/20120620154238/https://www.electricalaudio.com/johngrabski.html

(so is his food blog)
https://web.archive.org/web/20160607100814/http://mariobatalivoice.blogspot.com/

Oh, gee. Some of my favourite sound experiences of all time came through his hands. Taught me how to listen in some ways. Unafraid to own his mistakes and sometimes-brutally outspoken about his ethical stances. And funny as fuck so many times.

Fuck. This is shocking. I know he has a reputation for being a prick, but the couple of times seen him socially he was genuinely a lovely person. Rest In Peace.

This letter is astonishing, like of course some of the macho bluster is there but the integrity and ethos of it is just incredible

https://news.lettersofnote.com/p/nirvana

https://www.facebook.com/evan.pincus.923/posts/pfbid0idmfSEGkL1Ca8fkZH4ohEHoKrEzpztjomEytQXEvEcDyS6ojQWhVeX9duKc1adMCl

RIP - I went into work unknowingly wearing the Low Chairkickers Union shirt I’ve seen him sport. Absolute legend in terms of how to grow and try to always push forward at being better to both yourself and the people around you.

i'm not joking i'm wearing that shirt right now randomly as well (assuming you're talking about the one with the hand holding lightning?)

PSF: Who's the most replaceable member of Shellac?
Steve Albini: OK, so in the Shellac death pool, who do you think is going to go first?
Bob Weston: Maybe I'll flip a coin...Steve's the one who's already had a heart attack, so he's most likely to die!
SA: Todd, you don't eat enough, so your heart might explode one of these days.
BW: I have genetic heart disease.
SA: But I've already had a heart attack.
Todd Trainer: I'm sure I had a heart attack in Scotland.
SA: You need to eat more!
PSF: Have you really had a heart attack?
SA: Yes, I had a heart attack when I was twenty-five. I had a viral infection of the pericardium.
BW: He had some worms in his heart.
SA: I had the dropsy! I had consumption!
BW: We slipped some pills in his food, and it cleared right up.
TT: If Steve goes first, Bob and I are in for some royalties.

src: https://www.furious.com/perfect/shellac.html

Honestly considering Albini's demeanor it took until I found the Pitchfork article to realize this wasn't a joke. Sucks, as I was hoping to see Shellac on tour; either way, I hope he felt complete in his rest.

that Nirvana letter gets shared a lot, but it is a fuckin' banger for sure.

it's terrible he's gone, but at least he gets to leave this life as the guy who wrote this to Nirvana about recording the follow-up to Nevermind:

#5: Dough. I explained this to Kurt but I thought I'd better reiterate it here. I do not want and will not take a royalty on any record I record. No points. Period. I think paying a royalty to a producer or engineer is ethically indefensible. The band write the songs. The band play the music. It's the band's fans who buy the records. The band is responsible for whether it's a great record or a horrible record. Royalties belong to the band.

I would like to be paid like a plumber: I do the job and you pay me what it's worth. The record company will expect me to ask for a point or a point and a half. If we assume three million sales, that works out to 400,000 dollars or so. There's no fucking way I would ever take that much money. I wouldn't be able to sleep.

If we assume three million sales, that works out to 400,000 dollars or so.

In Utero sold over 15M units so 1.5 points would have netted Steve $2,000,000.

Not bad for a 2x WSOP bracelet winner:

https://www.wsop.com/players/profile/?playerid=97925&s=ROW

would also like to rep for scrawl’s bloodsucker and velvet hammer as two great things he was involved in. this is really such terrible news

i'm not joking i'm wearing that shirt right now randomly as well (assuming you're talking about the one with the hand holding lightning?)

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, May 8, 2024 4:38 PM (forty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yup! I’d even been learning to play “Sunflower” and marveling over repeated listens how beautiful and menacing he made that band sound.

Two albums I love that he was involved with: Labradford's Fixed::Context and Ut's Griller.

back to being terribly upset

'Rummy' off Griller was the very first thing i put on when i got home. wonderful track if you don't know it, somewhere between sonic youth and throwing muses:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-OlJSj_8aI

those drums though, fuck yes

Cool didn’t know he produced that

listening to High on Fire's Blessed Black Wings and goddamn this sounds massive in comparison to a lot of modern metal albums

There's some terrific recording knowledge out there... This one alone I've watched multiple times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmP9z-xTRz0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SPjvfVsHik

I’ve been enjoying his Youtube engineering tips these past few weeks, admiring his concision and knowledge. Not to mention that like most folks in this thread his “engineering” made for some records I will always love. Plus I was a diehard Big Black fan back in the day. Rest In Peace and thank you.

RIP to a real one. I randomly listened to this podcast he recorded with Ian MacKaye only a few days ago. It's a good listen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPMNY3roo_Y

Albini’s ethos is being brought up a lot so I wanna just give a shout out to how he ran Electrical Audio. It’s the nicest recording studio I’ve seen and it’s goddamn affordable. He really put his money where his mouth is. I’ve done a few albums there and I have session booked there next week. Not sure what the future holds for it, but I really hope that it will keep going.

There’s an episode of that Dave Grohl HBO series that heavily features Albini. I remember they played up the fact that he rejected Nirvana royalties quite a bit.

One of my favorite albums that he engineered was Electrelane's The Power Out, I love it from front to back and especially "The Valleys", an amazing song

such a great record!

was also thinking of Dirty Three's Ocean Songs, what a beautiful magical album

yep that's a fave

there's a canon of underground rock that means the most to me and he's produced so much of it

yes, exactly

I am so fucked up about this. We were casual friends, texting / bskying, he Zoomed me when I was locked in a between-tour-stops hotel with Covid. but his stature as a guy who lived his passion not just for music but for how music works in community & in people's lives, for music as a meaningful thing whose meaning need not be concerned with its reception beyond the people making it -- for the act of making music as inherently valuable -- even if and when we conceive of music in the world & in our own lives differently -- that stature, that perspective was so valuable, so good. I saw him work with a band who'd flown from Spain just to record at E with him. young dudes. I had the B room with my own engineer that day, the Spanish guys were in A. they were visibly having the time of their lives and he was giving them 100% of himself. I don't know if their record ever got released or anything and it would not surprise me to learn that it was a very small affair, but his conviction that people making music are doing something good & his job was to make that good thing happen was so obviously giving these dudes the full experience, it was just so for lack of a less cliched word inspiring. he was a total fucking mensch to me on several other occasions but these are what I thought of when I heard the awful news today.

[anecdote incoming]

i had a friend book the smallest block of time possible, just to meet him and get a closer look at how he operated. he said he was fully transparent about why he was there. the response was basically, "okay but we should probably focus on getting your music to tape."

just absolutely fucking determined lol.

so agreed, JLJC , his legacy is just as much the thousands of records he made for forgotten small bands as the classics he recorded

damn jclc sorry for your loss.

i loved so much of his work and always found him a fascinating person to keep tabs on. rip

been listening to tons of albini engineered albums today will prob just roll with that all week. got some oxbow on now.

which hum album did he do?

Excellent remembrance: https://tapeop.com/blog/2024/05/08/steve-albini-1962-2024/

the breadth of musicians who recorded with him and mentioned his contributions to the process is amazing. I spent 2018-2019ish listening to a Ben Frost album and the Sunn O))) albums he worked on

speaking of menches, Larry Crane... thanks for posting

when shit like this happens ilx is a real comfort. it's great seeing everyone's first-hand experiences, all the linked remembrances, all the beloved records we can bat around....

for years my favorite test for new speakers and stereo stuff was blessed black wings followed by the blackened air. i should do that on my current setup next time the house is empty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5v8iurCGc4

Steve was interviewed in the October 2022 edition of Games World of Puzzles magazine; they mostly talked about poker and his history with it, other musicians who play poker, and other games musicians play. The last question and its response, though, came close to being a manifesto. (TK is the interviewer, Todd Kreisman.)

TK: Are there any similarities between what you do on the felt and what you do in your time away from it? Any skills you take from your life as a performer or recording engineer that you're able to apply when at the tables?

SA: This question comes up a lot and I have thought a lot about it. I have concluded that no, there is nothing about poker that is applicable to the rest of my life, and there shouldn't be.

Poker is a game where being inscrutable or deceptive is a key component, and I absolutely do not want to be inscrutable or deceptive in my regular life. In poker you're constantly looking for weaknesses or mistakes in other people's play, trying to capitalize on them, attempting to induce mistakes and maximally exploit other people. I absolutely do not want to behave like that in regular life – that's sociopath behavior.

There is a larger discussion here about how game theory and exploitation have insinuated themselves into real life, especially in business and the political arena, and are becoming more influential in interpersonal relationships. I think this is a horrifying trend. Games are a very specific kind of competition, where generally the stakes are small and inconsequential. Treating hugely consequential issues like trivial games and applying techniques of exploitation, coercion, and other strategic elements of games in everyday life leads to behaving like a f***ing monster, and we should all guard against it.

cheers.

that's great

Love it. I just sent that to my poker group.

Yeah thank you for that. As someone who gets a little competitive about scrabble, it's really not the same set of skills you want to be using in your interpersonal relationships. He nails it.

damn that’s the good stuff

Yeah I actually loved hearing him talk poker more then music

Love hearing all the stories, the shared links to interviews, remembrances, etc. Thanks for sharing. I pulled a record earlier today, put out by a local band and local label some 25 years ago (!), that Albini engineered and fully appreciate how great it sounds. The band saved some cash, drove from Texas to Chicago to record with him, and it really has that immediacy that he was so adept at capturing. RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMcRwguQg0U

^ that was the first song i thought of when i heard the news. i'm an electrical engineer by trade and i always enjoyed hearing him speak about recording because it always came from a grounded, scientific approach.

no pun intended <3

Forgot that Albini totally changed the way I cook meat too
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/article/the-steve-albini-approved-midyett-rub-will-change-how-you-cook-meat

came across this on twitter, great interview where he talks about owning up to his edgelord past, realising how shitty it was, and just not being that guy anymore. a model for all of us

https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/steve-albini-counsel-culture-interview

This thread has been amazing, thanks for the posts everyone. Total gut punch, I spent probably the rest of the day in silence and just listening to his work.

Not much to add except that I saw that after Nina Nastasia's (abusive) partner took his own life, she was feeling unmoored with nowhere to go, so he and his wife insisted she come live with them until she was back on her feet and ready to record again. Remarkable but not a surprise coming from him. He was incredibly principled, but he wasn't above self-examination and evolving over the course of his lifetime, and besides putting his best into practice as an artist and technician, he gave back to the community - he made me feel great about living in Chicago and living up to the same standard, and the city's going to feel emptier without him.

XXP I was just about to post that!!

for those that have the time, go back and reread his old cooking blogspot (believe you have to find it on archive) - i remember that introduced me to the midyett rub.

Here's the link for his cooking blog: https://web.archive.org/web/20160607100814/http://mariobatalivoice.blogspot.com

For anyone who hasn't read this one: Why I Haven't Had a Conventional Christmas in 20 Years

w/r/t of the totality of his achievements on his own behalf and often selflessly and compassionately for others, not at all unrelatedly his business and personal ethics, I will simply say that it is disappointing that in light of his laudable reckoning of his edgelord posturing, he continued to level indignant, scornful contempt towards jazz music, hip-hop music, dance music and other music not coincidentally strongly affiliated with, if not completely borne of, black culture. There was never "geez, this music is like black punk rock," or "maybe I or some of my peers can learn something from this?" It was only "this is false, corporate, sellout shit, and the DIY way is the only true way." It is true that he liked to wind people up, but it's clear that this posture resulted from his principles. And yes I know he liked Trouble Funk and Bill Withers (both of which in my view are totems of "oh, most black music is sell out shit, but go go and the James taylor-ish guy is OK").

I do wonder if growing up in Montana left him at a disadvantage w/r/t proximity to Black culture. It seems like good music begins with the Ramones in 1976, and while 40 years ago this was the uncontested view in his peer group, unlike david grubbs or the tortoise guys, he could not budge from this mindset for the overwhelming majority of his life. He did a AMA on Electrical audio, and when queried about different kinds of music than the "rock music" he must advocate, he mentioned liking Conlon Nancarrow, which means that 20th century composition must sound like "buckshot going off" for him to approve. He also was sneeringly dismissive of NYC, like in a Chicago booster-ish manner that seems needless and sports-fan-ish.

There is no question that he was the recipient of cultish adoration: in 1987, I think right around this time of year, at a VFW hall in Lville KY, Big Black was the headliner on a bill alongside Urge Overkill and Slint. the Slint guys sat front and center during the BB set, slackjawed in worship. And the Electrical audio boards were full of guys kissing up to him and similarly unable or unwilling to adjust to any conditions at all having changed since 1987. If he was tough minded and principled, I think it is also true that he was susceptible to thinking his shit didn't stink due to the approbation of his stans.

I was a huge, probably at points insufferable (as I am sure UMS can attest) fan, Big Black, Shellac, the recordings, everything, he was a real guiding light and eventually I got to know Shellac a bit cuz I was such dork, mostly Bob, my had (has) a huge crush on him and Todd cuz I would see him around town, but Steve a bit too

Later I finally wormed by way into a band and every year we would do a Lunch Show, which was an idea we stole from Shellac’s breakfast shows, they were basically potluck matinee’s first at someone’s house then at 7th Street Entry
One yr, the Lunch Show was going to be a joint with our close friends Signal to Trust, plus we were giving out a free split single, but we wanted to go all out and we asked Shellac if they would open, unannounced, and they of course said yes (provided they could headline that night in the First Ave big room). We told no one.

Bob and Steve drove overnight from Chicago and right to the venue after sleeping at rest stop for a couple of hours. Our friends and family walked into the tiny Entry to see Shellac’s gear all step up onstage, Steve, a bit loopy from lack of sleep proceeded to wax nostalgic and in explicit detail about all the great sex he had in Mpls over the yrs. It was a hilarious, mind-blowing day.

We made some records with Steve as well a bit later, and I was never close exactly I can say we were friends, though I would still get a little charge when he would like a post on bluesky or whatever.
He was the key connector for me to a huge extended family of comrades from Oakland to Chicago to Wales and all points in between and goddammit I am going to miss him

There was never "geez, this music is like black punk rock,"

Not sure if this is true. I remember an interview where he said he had come to realize that House Music was the punk rock of gay black people or something like that.

OK, if someone can retrieve him saying that, we'll see. Otherwise we have him telling the electronic artist who politely asks for permission to use a sample that he detests dance music and the people who like to dance, and various comments that hip-hop isn't real music like "rock music" or "punk rock" where you you have to have talent and work hard to play a real instrument… and there's nothing more punk rock than insisting that you have to work hard, be professional, not be amateurish and try out new technologies that make tried and true musicianship obsolete…

He also was sneeringly dismissive of NYC, like in a Chicago booster-ish manner that seems needless and sports-fan-ish.

A friend shared this Instagram post with me

https://i.imgur.com/Bf7CEqs.jpeg

Xpost:

On Marc Maron’s podcast he had this to say about the original house music scene:

Yeah. Like the house music scene in Chicago was a genuine expression of underclass and um sort of not just minority but like you know people of different sexual identities that was a genuine expression of joy for them right and then it was stylized and co-opted and turned into a formula and it's easy to hate that formula right and it's easy to hate that formula. Right. And it's easy to hate that exploitation. But its initial expression in the clubs and in the garages in Chicago, I mean, that's legit. It's beautiful. You know, it has its own soul.

Source: https://podscripts.co/podcasts/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast/episode-650-steve-albini#google_vignette

whatever his feelings about jazz, it's funny i recently discovered Fire! a new Mats Gustafsson jazz project from this year recorded by Albini at Electrical Audio and goddamn does it sound absolutely amazing, he approach is so suited to jazz it's a shame he didn't do more of it (though it's possible he did more than i think, I'm wondering if he did any Ken Vandermark stuff)

https://firesweden.bandcamp.com/album/testament

(thx to pom for the heads up)

Chicago is great fuiud!! It's not for everyone though.

I ordered the 2013 remix of In Utero, have yet to hear it but his passing reminded me to pick it up.

I'm going to do a deep dive based upon his intimidating list of credits, I always hate when this happens, when I'm prompted to look closer than I already had at an artist when they pass away. But when people talk with great emotion about their enthusiasm for someone's work in the wake of their passing, it just sparks something greater then normal everyday recommendations.

Chicago is great fuiud!! It's not for everyone though.

xpost

someone made this 100 song/100 artists Albini produced playlist - pretty cool and definitely covers well known and obscure stuff

https://bndcmpr.co/6f164549

I've always had great times in Chicago as a visitor

Albini also recorded Bag It! by another Mats Gustafsson group, The Thing:

https://thingjazz.bandcamp.com/album/bag-it

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0073474144_10.jpg

oh yeah the Thing rules

This is going back a few years, but I really enjoyed this two part Kreative Kontrol convo between Albini and Ian MacKaye

http://vishkhanna.com/2015/11/12/ep-223-ian-mackaye-steve-albini-part-i/

http://vishkhanna.com/2015/11/17/ep-224-ian-mackaye-steve-albini-part-ii/

Holy cow, NINE YEARS back

Sorry to bust out the ol' fuiud but that's just *~~the Chicago way~~*

I mean Chicago does have its drawbacks obv.

Whiney!

https://www.stereogum.com/2262790/steve-albini-final-interview/interviews/weve-got-a-file-on-you/

Great read! I’ve read a ton of these since yes and he must have been a perfect interviewee, always interesting, insightful and opinionated. Can’t imagine that they have anything else in common but he’s like Neil Tennant in that respect.

Don't know when this dates from, but I found it on Reddit with lots of outraged comments below. There's obviously a bit of trolling here - I can imagine him having uproarious debates with the likes of Grubbs, O'Rourke, the Tortoise guys et al along these lines back in the day - but he actually makes some valid points. Getting into jazz to be "sophisticated" and lord it over rock and pop fans is obviously stupid and not what being a music fan is about. And the bit about being offered total freedom and just playing changes and trills is funny and rings true about a lot of conservative jazz.

It makes total sense that Mats Gustafsson, who has always been punk, would approach Albini to produce The Thing and Fire! Those are great sounding records. The sense of space he creates on the recent Fire! is beautiful, really perfect for their slow burning doomy blues. Of course Mats has played with The Ex quite a bit, so there's already a connection there. Would love him to have recorded more jazz acts - so many great ones on his doorstep.

Anyway, over to the man himself. RIP.

Jazz serves a cultural function in the music scene. It is a signifier for musical "adulthood." To embrace jazz is to don a kind of graduation cap, signifying a broadening of tastes outside "mere" rock music. This ostentatious display of "sophistication" is an insult, and I find the graduation cappers transparent and tedious. Certainly there must be interesting music one could call "jazz." There must be. I've never heard it, but I grant that it is out there somewhere.

Jazz has a non-musical parallel: Christiania, the "free" zone in Copenhagen. In Christiania, like in jazz, there is no law. People are left to their own inventions to create and act as they see fit. In Jazz, the musicians are allowed to improvise over and beside structural elements that may themselves be extemporaneous. Sounds good, doesn't it? Freedom -- sounds good.

The reality is much bleaker. Christiania is a squalid, trashy string of alleys with rag-and-bone men selling drugs, tie-dye and wretched food. Granted Total Freedom, and this is what they've chosen to do with it, sell hash and lentil soup? Jazz is similar. The results are so far beneath the conception that there is no English word for the dissappointment one feels when forced to confront it. Granted Total Freedom, you've chosen to play II V I and blow a goddamn trill on the saxophone? Only by willfully ignoring its failings can one pretend to appreciate it as an idiom and don the cap.

that is proper trolling. you have to tip your hat. sometimes i'll bring up how much i love metal when i talk to byron coley because i know he hates it. it's funny when he hates something. byron also has no time for bop. post-bop. no hank mobley for byron.

My Steve Albini story; in I think the late summer of 1987 I saw Big Black in their Songs About F*cking tour in Columbus, OH. Both my girlfriend at the time and my roommate hated them, but I dragged them to see the concert anyway, along w/ my roommate's girlfriend.

— rev recluse (@revRecluse) May 9, 2024

I mean, I could point out that jazz that uses chord structures etc isn't necessarily aiming for TOTAL FREEDOM and that's fine, but where's the fun in that. Albini knew what he was doing.

whiney's stereogum interview is great, had no idea about the cheap trick re-records. they sound great!

thank u vc

Yeah, that was a good piece. Wish it was about five times longer.

being sneeringly dismissive of the most overrated city in the world is good not bad, but doing it from the worst city i ever lived in takes some cajones. (tldr: New York sucks, Chicago is even worse)

― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table)

idk i feel like if you're gonna go after a city like new york it _has_ to be from a city even worse. if i say "new york sucks" it doesn't fucking mean anything, who cares? hell i wouldn't even say "brooklyn sucks", although if i was more informed about brooklyn maybe i could. chicago's the second city - going after the first city almost feels like a requirement.

ok, there's that maron excerpt, and perhaps he just liked winding up jazz people! Good! but re: how he was susceptible to ass kissing: it is transparently obvious that Gavin Rossdale and the other guys in Bush were shameless corporate tools, but since Rossdale liked the Jesus Lizard and other midwestern aggro acts Albini was buddy-buddy with, and otherwise knew the right things to say to him, Albini defended them (and apparently went to Rossdale's wedding to another pop star), comparing what I consider to be the shittiest mainstream rock act of the 90s favorably to Duran Duran. Five pretty boys wear makeup, which is bad, but another pretty boy doesn't wear makeup but does wear Silkworm t-shirts, and that's good.

Even kinder gentler Steve never grew completely out of being a high school edgelord snob in some respects

the 2015 dance music rant:

I am absolutely the wrong audience for this kind of music. I've always detested mechanized dance music, its stupid simplicity, the clubs where it was played, the people who went to those clubs, the drugs they took, the shit they liked to talk about, the clothes they wore, the battles they fought amongst each other...

Basically all of it: 100 percent hated every scrap.

The electronic music I liked was radical and different, shit like the White Noise, Xenakis, Suicide, Kraftwerk, and the earliest stuff form Cabaret Voltaire, SPK and DAF. When that scene and those people got co-opted by dance/club music I felt like we'd lost a war. I detest club culture as deeply as I detest anything on earth. So I am against what you're into, and an enemy of where you come from but I have no problem with what you're doing...

In other words, you're welcome to do whatever you like with whatever of mine you've gotten your hands on. Don't care. Enjoy yourself.

Steve

xpost a friend of mine is a professional guitar tech/roadie/sound mixer and he's worked for rossdale's band institute (he connected with him because the guitar player from bush was in later versions of helmet who he had worked for a long time), anyway he did institute tours including a U2 soccer stadium tour they were opening for, he has nothing but good things to say about rossdale as a guy and and an employer and he's certainly no one who rossdale has to kiss ass to, i think they are just nice guys

xpost - Not disagreeing with your overall thesis veronica, but I think Bush were genuinely trying to NOT be corporate tools with their Albini engineered album. It's such a weird and odd thing (and genuinely good! a hill I will die on, though I know I'll be completely alone), I think they genuinely wanted to be accepted like an American indie rock band, but couldn't for many obvious reasons, not the least how "corporate" the debut was. Anyway, I think some of the guys in Bush were genuine in their love for American indie and underground rock and could never really recover from the rep of the first album. When their deliberate curveball with Albini pretty much tanked, they went back to the corporate well.

Anyway, I get the sense that Albini genuinely liked them, I don't think that was ass kissing.

(please forgive me overuse of "anyway", danger of multi-tasking when writing a post)

"Swallowed" is one of the best post-1994 mainstream alt rock songs that got a ton of radio play IMO.

Yeah, double checking the charts and sales, Razorblade Suitcase actually did way better than I remembered, though it only sold half of what the debut did (still 3x platinum though!). I guess the reputation since then had me thinking it did worse.

Anyway, I digress, the only truly interesting and great album Rossdale had in him only exists the way it does because of Albini, so, yeah.

“Swallowed” was their biggest hit in the charts. It’s also their best single, had no idea Albini was ever involved with them. Figures now that I’m re-listening to it.

But yeah, a bit weird how he thought of Nirvana being “rem with a fuzz pedal” and vibing with Bush. I think he just didn’t like Nirvana as people… I get the sense reading some interviews that he looked down on musicians that did excessive alcohol and drug use.

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/thurston-moore-pens-lenthy-tribute-to-steve-albini-an-authentic-visionary-a-person-alive-with-the-delight-of-creative-impulse/

Lee Ranaldo comments as well.

i don't get the sense he disliked them, i think he probably thought they were a mediocre band, there is some quote where he decided to do it because he says them as his type of people, like a local band he would record

here's some stuff from his Reddit AMA on In Utero on the recording, doesn't sound like he felt the sessions were a mess or anything:

That's a lot of questions there fella.

- The band had done a lot of recording so they had pretty good studio manners and were pretty prepared and familiar with recording. Not a lot of what we did was experimental. Kurt had a broken guitar amp, a Fender Quad Reverb with three broken output tubes, that sounded odd, but he loved it. Technically, the one remaining tube was creating asymmetrical distortion and the loading and operating voltages on the tube were all incorrect. I was surprised it made sound at all, but when he played through it the distortion was really unusual and distinctive. He used it as one or another track (he would double certain sections of most songs) on almost every song.

- No video, some photos by Bob Weston were included in the 2013 anniversary edition.

- Kurt used his Mustang, his Jaguar, a Univox Hi-Flyer (Mosrite copy), a custom Jaguar/Mustang hybrid and a Veleno guitar of mine I re-strung for lefty.

- I only saw Kurt use regular commercial effects pedals, the ones you mentioned, and a box I brought with me that was a kind of ring modulator/overdrive called Pedal X made by a friend of mine. That might be what his tech (Ernie?) was referring to.

- The basic recording was done with the guitar isolated in a little booth, some of the overdubs were done in the big room with an added ambient mic. I'm sorry I don't recall which were for which song. The individual tracks would have been different mics, generally a ribbon mic and a condenser mic, sometimes with an ambient mic as well. On a song-by-song basis, Kurt would decide which amp would be the main sound and which would be the overdub sound, so the Randall, Quad and one other amp (I forget which) would be done live, the other guitar part overdubbed. I don't recall there being a Plexi. He did have a Mesa Boogie preamp and power amp as his live rig for touring, and we tried that out but it sounded awful and we never used it.

- I didn't really know what to think when Kurt told me about the Quad with one tube, but when I looked in the back of it, sure enough there were three shattered tubes and one working one pumping away.

and on his relationship with Kurt:

We weren't close, so I don't really have any personal stories. He told me he saw the last show of my band Big Black, at the Georgetown steam plant in Seattle, and took home a broken piece of my guitar (I smashed my guitar at the end of the show oops), and he had it with him in his guitar case. That was pretty cool. I didn't like talking about things like that at first because they suggest an intimacy that wasn't real. I grew fond of Kurt and I grew to admire him, but we were never close as friends, and I don't want to be another person leaching credibility from an association with him. A lot of time has passed now so I guess it just seems like another data point now. At the time, countless people were hounding Kurt and the rest of the band, pressing them for whatever utility they could get out of a famous person, and I didn't want to give them the idea I was like that. I wanted to be a bit of a respite from that, be the one person who wasn't trying to steal any of their credit, their money or their fame.

also read the Bush thing again and watch - he's very complimentary about their work ethics, them as people, their influences and showcasing them etc etc - he never once says he thinks they make good music haha

lol

It doesn’t necessarily deny that maybe the drug use is what made him not befriend Kurt but made him like Gavin. Bush members were fairly abstemious iirc and mostly did weed, Albini allegedly didn’t do drugs after the 80’s and very rarely drank.

It just speculation on my part tho, maybe he just simply felt overwhelmed with the insane popularity of Nirvana at the time.

He certainly came around in the past two decades to praising bands as people and for their ethics, even when he didn't like their music (e.g., Rush). Related:

Yes, I'm saying the Juggalos are good. A non-judgmental, inclusive community for people on the fringe, built on a beautiful communion they call "family." They remind me of punk/queer chosen families and I love them. I haven't heard much of the music, it's atrocious. Who cares.

— regular steve albini (@electricalWSOP) February 7, 2022

I interviewed Rossdale for Stereogum in 2022. (Nice guy, terrifyingly good-looking.) Here's what he had to say about Albini:

When you were making Razorblade Suitcase with Steve Albini, how much money did he take off of you either at poker or pool?
ROSSDALE: [sharp inhale] We played a lot of pool, and he’s very good. He’s too good at poker. So I didn’t get into that with him. But yeah, the pool stuff, we played, and I’m just… I have really fond memories of making that record with him, and just the idiosyncrasies of Steve Albini. To be there working with him and hearing [it] coming back from the monitor board — it was very exciting. It was commercially the worst idea, we should have just… we could have just found someone to try to reproduce Sixteen Stone and keep in that more polished vein, and we were just brilliantly naïve, like, fuck it, we’ve now played two years on the road, if anyone can capture the kind of muscularity of the band or the shimmer of the band, he’s the guy. ‘Cause he’s literally like, he only allows you overdubs if it’s compositionally intentional. If you said it at the beginning. Daft. If it was compositionally intended, then okay, but otherwise it was like, who cares.

terrifyingly good-looking

Still?!

It's interesting, I have two albums made by friends' bands with Albini, on my hard drives, that went unreleased. Big plan to record with him, drove down, recorded, the results sounded like shit. In both cases, Albini's approach only emphasised everything that was deficient about the band to begin with... he was harsh lighting.

Conversely, I can't think of any other engineer who could have Scout Niblett show up at a studio with her drums and a bassist and turn out anything as brilliant "Kidnapped By Neptune". That album sounds like a Silver Apples album (to my ears, anyway)

Snapshot/relic from the Electrical Audio fridge pic.twitter.com/3hCItVF6Pc

— Franz Nicolay (@FranzNicolay) May 8, 2024

Still?!

Oh, yeah. I really want to see the portraits he and Lenny Kravitz have hidden in their attics. They must look like Joel-Peter Witkin photos.

"Harsh lighting" is a good way of describing what you'd get with him. And since he wasn't producer-as-arranger or producer-as-coach, he wasn't there to save the band either. Neil Young's Tonight's The Night was one of his favorite albums, and I think of that as an example of what he aimed for: capturing a performance where anything warbling or out-of-tune or off-tempo was part of the snapshot of that day, not something to be fixed.

Some sung but mostly unsung credit in Albini's adult-era maturation is due to Heather Whinna, Albini's wife, who I think initiated Letters to Santa, but also was apparently entrusted with sizing up whether Gavin Rossdale was a genuine dude or a post-Nirvana opportunist and he apparently passed the cool dude test, so Gavin really owes Whinna quite a bit.

One of my favorite exchanges was Whinna pre-marriage writing into Mark Prindle's site to set the record straight on Albini "trying to be funny" in an interview:
https://www.markprindle.com/albini-i.htm

just a personal reflection on what i knew of him...

when you look at his more prestige/high profile work ―bush, nirvana, pj harvey, etc― there was a lot of heavy critique of his input specifically around those records/artists. maybe that contributed to his overall grouchiness and steadfastness in his staunch worldview, but he never got defensive. even when the records he made would ge critiqued to the point of revision. he always stood by his work, even when it wasn't necessarily "cool" to do so.

he was the punk rock Dr. Morbius

"Harsh lighting" is a good way of describing what you'd get with him. And since he wasn't producer-as-arranger or producer-as-coach, he wasn't there to save the band either. Neil Young's Tonight's The Night was one of his favorite albums, and I think of that as an example of what he aimed for: capturing a performance where anything warbling or out-of-tune or off-tempo was part of the snapshot of that day, not something to be fixed.

― paisley got boring (Eazy), Thursday, May 9, 2024 3:28 PM (forty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

bums me that he never got a chance to record NY, which iirc was a bucket list artist for him.

(nb that 2002 was six years after Razorblade Suitcase; we are now twenty-two years past 2002)

I wonder if he ever heard this kid 606 album

https://i.imgur.com/XYdWG8W.jpeg

I can't think of any other engineer who could have Scout Niblett show up at a studio with her drums and a bassist and turn out anything as brilliant "Kidnapped By Neptune". That album sounds like a Silver Apples album (to my ears, anyway)

That record is so fucking fantastic.

This might have been his final interview, or so the site say (were any of the Shellac ones done more recently?) 15 years of Journal for Plague Lovers

https://headlinermagazine.net/steve-albini-manics-journal-for-plague-lovers-final-interview.html

If that podcast is dated April 16, I can say with absolute authority that it was not his final interview

yeah seemed unlikely to me. good read though

bums me that he never got a chance to record NY, which iirc was a bucket list artist for him.

When pressed by Mark Caro, he said Crazy Horse was definitely one he wanted to record. FWIW both episodes of his podcast interview with Caro have now been combined into one two-hour interview:

https://rss.com/podcasts/thecaropopcast/1471919/

Towards the end, Caro brings up some past comments, specifically what he wrote about Liz Phair during his famous row with Bill Wyman, and he makes a pretty honest assessment that at the time of its release he failed to get why the album was important, particularly for articulating the experiences of being a woman in “Guyville” (metaphorically speaking, not just Wicker Park). IIRC he says musically it’s “not to my taste” but added that it didn’t matter because it’s speaking to or for other people beyond himself.

The evolution from "this is shit" to "this is Not For Me" is a very difficult one. Many people never successfully manage it.

The "this is not for me" seems like a necessary extension of working on 1000s of records but having to do a good faith effort regardless, but I figured eventually he'd end up working with bands and people he'd personally insulted over the years and always wondered what the initial awkwardness if any there would be, or would they amiably bond over insulting each other?

Kreative Kontrol have an interview that was due to run next week, about upcoming Shellactivity, now possibly on hold

No one will miss Ross Robinson this way

#6 will!

https://www.revolvermag.com/sites/default/files/media/images/article/shawn-clown-crahan-slipknot-2013-ollie-millington-wireimage.jpg

Marten Broadcloak, mild-mannered GOP congressman (Raymond Cummings) at 6:21 9 May 24

No one will miss Ross Robinson this way

only the compressor plugins of our great nation

Real talk, Slipknot would have sounded absolutely sick with Albini recording

Ugh. I made the mistake of trying to engage politely with someone on a reddit thread who was gleefully shreiking that Albin was "a pedo" all over the thread (vis that awful thing he said about the 12 year old kids and the bottles). I simply pasted his 2021 tweets that owned up to all his edgelord shittyness, then I was suddenly downvote bombed into oblivion. Lord knows what got said aside from a few "shut the fuck up"s I saw, because when I went back the next morning the entire conversaion had been nuked by the mods, lol.

No one will miss Ross Robinson this way

Oh god the stories of Robinson's shittiness to ATDI's drummer when they were recording Relationship Of Command. not a good guy. the opposite of a mensch.

Drowned In Sound's Albini thread appears to be putting him on the same level as Ian Watkins

had a look over there. gave up parsing through it, but seems to be mainly because of being friends with peter sotos? the explicit conflation of that with the extremely horrific crimes of watkins is baffling. also surprised how active it is over there imagined the dis forums would be a bit of a ghost town these days.

‘5,6,7,8’ was a banger tbf but i feel like albini’s contributions to music were more valuable overall xp

Googled to see what was the root of this scandal and saw the "pedo" "angle" was being amplified by kiwifarms, I'm guessing because of Steve's support of trans people.

amplified by kiw*farms

hi sorry to muck up this thread with muckiness, but can we pls start partially censoring this?

albini was problematic af and made a lot of people IA because of that. idk anything about his involvement with anything discussed. he certainly made provocative music, but ian watkins? really?

xp ^^^^ this all got dragged up around the time Steve was making pro-trans statements and doing interviews about regretting his past edgelordism - that was my suspicion too.

on the reddits I was reading, in contrast to Trayce most of the "pedo" comments were being downvoted and I clicked a few profiles and yeah, mostly 4chan type trolls

that medium article going around was written by this guy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Ryne_Goldberg

hi sorry to muck up this thread with muckiness, but can we pls start partially censoring this?

argh sorry

They didn’t actually mention Ian Watkins, figure of speech there

no, someone there was explicitly comparing it to watkins

Ah I couldn’t face reading the entire thing

christ i'm so glad i left the DiS forums

my regular discord server (cardiacs) has been much better about it all, acknowledging he did some shitty stuff but that he recanted and grew as a person, and did some titanic work for rock music as a whole. one person who's a mclusky obsessive to the point of it being a bit creepy piled in with what amounted to 'oh i heard mclusky was working with him on their next album so i'm a bit relieved....not that death is the ideal solution of course!' and you can guess my response and it all got a bit messy. this being the mclusky who ofc would have been just as famous had they never worked with albini in the first place. anyway

I mean reading about the Sotos connection I don’t know why so many of you are ok handwaving that. There’s no edgelord posturing that would make associating with him acceptable, I don’t know if wearing the “my friend who distributed child porn and writes at length about his fascination with child kidnapping and torture is NOT a nonce” tshirt would be enough for me, you know?

ok then, what do you want from us

just remember to take a moment while you're sad about someone who died to feel bad about yourself as well

I don't think that's it but whatever

Not a hugely difficult point to understand, unless you’re really determined to.

https://i.imgflip.com/8pm5fi.jpg

wrong thread ffs

fuck off keir

I mean reading about the Sotos connection I don’t know why so many of you are ok handwaving that. There’s no edgelord posturing that would make associating with him acceptable, I don’t know if wearing the “my friend who distributed child porn and writes at length about his fascination with child kidnapping and torture is NOT a nonce” tshirt would be enough for me, you know?

― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac)

for the record

and i want to make it clear that none of this excuses or justifies _anything_ sotos did

i've known a fair number of people who could be described as having a "fascination with child kidnapping with torture" and _all_ of them are CSA victims

if people want to say steve albini is a horrible person for not publicly repudiating sotos, for continuing to be his friend, i think that's a reasonable point of view

i don't know anybody who did the stuff sotos did. i don't know how i'd react in that kind of situation. i'd feel more comfortable judging albini if i did know.

also yes fuck off keir

Those firecrackers:

1987. Big Black played at an old church, renamed to Mabel’s in IL. The lights dimmed. We didn’t know what was happening and I took flash photos as Steve Albini rolled firecrackers down the entire length of the venue. I’ll post the rest in the comments. #RIPSteveAlbini pic.twitter.com/tHHyzT2DUY

— loustejskal (@loustejskal) May 9, 2024

everyone I know who was at one of those shows remembers it vividly (maybe a half dozen people, I only saw them later, summer 87)

I guess that is also 87 but where I saw them was at the Oberlin auditorium opening for Sonic Youth so I am guessing any firecracker action was nixed.

SY killed it, this was the "Ramones medley encore" era and we went nuts

I was at the Oberlin show too. [smile emoji redacted] I recall BB killing it a lot more than SY, but these things seem so legendarily historic now, I don't know what to say. Albini did do some edgelordly patter about lawn jockies that's regrettable. I remember that!

and i want to make it clear that none of this excuses or justifies _anything_ sotos did

I am not defending Sotos' decision to include actual child porn in Pure, but reading about his work (I have never seen any of his books or listened to the sound collage Albini worked on) makes it impossible to believe that he's not involved in a very serious, apparently lifelong project. This interview is worth reading. He compares his work to that of Andrea Dworkin and David Wojnarowicz.

Having read that interview, having read Sotos' Wikipedia page and the linked news articles, I feel that I have enough of an understanding of his work to satisfy myself that he is not a mere pervert and not a child pornographer. (FTR, Sotos appears to be gay and interested exclusively in adult men, to the extent that he's "interested" in other humans at all.) I will not read his books, because the subjects that interest him do not interest me. But what he's doing — the extremely deep and apparently clear-eyed analysis of male psychology, criminalized urges, victimization, cruelty, and society's response to it all — is worth doing, and worthy of serious consideration by others. And that's all I'm going to say about Peter Sotos.

BENDY!!!

I mean BB were great too, I mostly remember the Ramones medley. also BB played a killer version of L-Dopa, which has a line referencing a headache, Headache itself has not yet come out and my friend and I nodded knowingly at each other when we heard that line (it did not come out on Headache ofc)

😬 😬 😬

xpost

https://imgur.com/a/pJA58E0

https://i.imgur.com/UTtDaHw.jpg

and i want to make it clear that none of this excuses or justifies _anything_ sotos did

I am not defending Sotos' decision to include actual child porn in Pure, but reading about his work (I have never seen any of his books or listened to the sound collage Albini worked on) makes it impossible to believe that he's not involved in a very serious, apparently lifelong project. This interview is worth reading. He compares his work to that of Andrea Dworkin and David Wojnarowicz.

Having read that interview, having read Sotos' Wikipedia page and the linked news articles, I feel that I have enough of an understanding of his work to satisfy myself that he is not a mere pervert and not a child pornographer. (FTR, Sotos appears to be gay and interested exclusively in adult men, to the extent that he's "interested" in other humans at all.) I will not read his books, because the subjects that interest him do not interest me. But what he's doing — the extremely deep and apparently clear-eyed analysis of male psychology, criminalized urges, victimization, cruelty, and society's response to it all — is worth doing, and worthy of serious consideration by others. And that's all I'm going to say about Peter Sotos.

― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson)

thanks for sharing, unperson. i very much appreciate it and i think i get where you're coming from.

as i said earlier, i do have a certain amount of indirect personal experience with CSA and CP. i choose not to discuss those experiences at length or in detail. people with lived experiences do _not_ have a responsibility to talk about those experiences. therefore, i don't know to what extent what anyone says here is based in lived experience and to what extent what people say here isn't. i want to make it clear that i respect and honor and hold, for lack of a better word, _valid_, anything anyone says that's borne out of their lived experience.

and since the topic has come up, i will say this. if you are a victim of CSA, you did not deserve what happened to you. you are not responsible for what happened to you. i say this because in my experience people who have had those experiences are often taught otherwise, and i think it is important to reaffirm the essential truth - that victims are not responsible and do not deserve what happened to them - over and over and over again. it's how people learn.

-

anyway. steve albini. steve albini wrote that song. "jordan, minnesota". about the satanic ritual abuse panic. and we looked at that and we decided, collectively, as a society, that it was a moral panic, that it wasn't real. that, i think the story goes, some psychiatrists brainwashed these poor gullible kids into making wild, blatantly false accusations.

and now i'm older, and i've had a lot of experience with both abuse and with false accusations of abuse. and what i've found is that in most cases the victims aren't making up things that didn't happen. that they were hurt in some serious way. and a lot of times, the people who did those things, they were above reproach. you told people that person x did certain things to you, and nobody would believe you. not person x. they're a Good Person, they wouldn't do something like that.

so you find ways of talking about it that people will believe. if people won't believe person x did something to you, it was person y. if people won't believe that the youth pastor did it, you say it was the satanists, and people will believe that. i mean, even today, if you look at the statistics, if you look at who actually commits child abuse, you find a whole lot of youth pastors. nobody calls _them_ groomers. people, Good Christian People, call people like _me_ groomers. i mean, ok. i guess i radically accept them saying that.

i don't know what, if anything, happened to any of the kids in that satanic ritual abuse panic. there's no evidence of the sorts of satanic cults the kids talked about. all we have is evidence of CSA today, of what people in authority perpetrate it, of what institutions defend and support the people who perpetrate it.

if you are a victim of CSA

the generic "you", not talking to or about unperson specifically.

for anyone here who's not speaking from personal experience... i'd just say, please be mindful that it's _very_ likely that there are people here who _do_ have some degree of personal experience with CP and CSA, experience which is unknown and probably unknowable to anyone else. i can only say for myself that i'm attempting to be mindful here, and if i fail, i accept whatever consequences of that there may be.

*raises hand* it's cool, thanks for mentioning

been watching ppl wildly misinterpret and/or overreact to Sotos/Whitehouse/Merzbow/etc for what seems like my entire life, so it's no surprise to see people fall for the straight up trolling in that Medium hit piece, I mean Albini is on record about all this stuff as Trayce noted above

that being said I tend to fall on the Hakim Bey side of things (another super problematic person, yeah yeah) as laid out in his landmark dismissal of what I call "transgression culture", one of the essays in TAZ but I forget which one. at the end of the day stuff like Answer Me/Sotos/etc is depressing and boring.

I guess he conceptualized his own predation in a more spiritual vein

not even sure who you are referring to there, and I don't care

I don't know why this is being entertained at all but it's pretty reprehensible

I guess it's time to mention that albini's own diaries (posted here a while ago not sure if this thread or not) describe himself engaging in what reads a lot like sexual assault - I couldn't read much of it - or how about his habit of sexually harassing female audience members from stage of which there are many accounts

at a certain point writing all this off as edgelord shit is just apologism

xp you mentioned hakim bey and yeah yeahed his habit of molesting children and writing poetry about it and all that shit as "problematic"

oh cool, we've reached this stage of the RIP thread

I mean you're handwaving a lot of shit I don't know what I'm supposed to take away from that

that you are engaging in pointless moral posturism?

tell me where you stand

I guess it's time to mention that albini's own diaries (posted here a while ago not sure if this thread or not) describe himself engaging in what reads a lot like sexual assault

I believe he later described the Forced Exposure tour diaries as being mostly fiction. (Wasn't there one in which he claimed to have had sex with Cher?)

- I couldn't read much of it -

Oh, poor you.

or how about his habit of sexually harassing female audience members from stage of which there are many accounts

Got a link? This is new information to me. All I know of his stage behavior is telling gross jokes (Big Black era) and answering audience questions (Shellac era). And there's tons of video of live performances going back decades on YouTube, which I presume would include examples of this sexual harassment of female audience members. So whaddya got?

shut the fuck up

you're a real piece of shit

fuck this place, rest in piss albini

Left why don't you take this back to the other, far more appropriate thread that you were shitting up with your holier-than-thou garbage?

was cruising down the freeway earlier blasting Liar by The Jesus Lizard, absolutely crushing album

Conversely, I can't think of any other engineer who could have Scout Niblett show up at a studio with her drums and a bassist and turn out anything as brilliant "Kidnapped By Neptune". That album sounds like a Silver Apples album (to my ears, anyway)

Coincidentally, Albini also recorded a Silver Apples album (it's not good)

I am not defending Sotos' decision to include actual child porn in Pure, but

Having read that interview, having read Sotos' Wikipedia page and the linked news articles, I feel that I have enough of an understanding of his work to satisfy myself that he is not a mere pervert and not a child pornographer.

oh cool, we've reached this stage of the RIP thread

that you are engaging in pointless moral posturism?

Left why don't you take this back to the other, far more appropriate thread that you were shitting up with your holier-than-thou garbage?

But yeah, if you don’t like people discussing the bad shit people have done in their lives after they died, I’ve got really bad news for you.

Albini asking St. Peter to look at a lot of stuff "in proper context"

pk memes aren't always the right answer, but are often the best.

Peter Sotos classic or dud

We’re overdue for everyone to atone for their cringe noise board posts

That's the thing - a lot of us were edgy cringe dudes but none of us here promoted cp, called our band "run n-word run" or called Tyler the creator the same word. Look I like Steve as much as the next middle aged record nerd, but I do wish he discussed his past head on rather than making blanket "I did regrettable shit but I'm a better man now. Anyway here's my opinions on everything." statements.

I was going to say - did anyone get arrested for publishing violent CSAM on here? Weird take to be like, well whom among us wasn’t edgy.

“It’s not about being liked,” he said, as we sat at Electrical Audio. “It’s me owning up to my role in a shift in culture that directly caused harm to people I’m sympathetic with, and people I want to be a comrade to.

“The one thing I don’t want to do is say: ‘The culture shifted – excuse my behaviour.’ It provides a context for why I was wrong at the time, but I was wrong at the time.”

It was a clear and honest apology, and it was the truth.

guess gyac must have Kate killfiled b/c that has already been discussed

There’s plenty of excusing his behaviour itt, which he seems to be against, so I don’t know why you’d be like, he apologised for all the bad shit in a blanket way, the rest of you shut up now.

Yah see that's not really facing what he actually did or said. It's waxing philosophical about how he's better now.

I was going to say - did anyone get arrested for publishing violent CSAM on here? Weird take to be like, well whom among us wasn’t edgy.

Steve Albini was arrested for publishing violent CSAM?

If your issue is the association, plenty of us have talked about Whitehouse.

His friend so many of you think is fine was. He did collab with him after the fact, and write an endorsement of the rag that published said material, and he called him a friend as late as a few years ago.

He literally promoted and talked about how he enjoyed the stuff peter was arrested for

There’s plenty of excusing his behaviour itt, which he seems to be against, so I don’t know why you’d be like, he apologised for all the bad shit in a blanket way, the rest of you shut up now.

― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac)

this is fair, and like him I am not trying to make excuses, what I object to is the idea that finding value in his work is somehow bad by default

If your issue is the association, plenty of us have talked about Whitehouse.

xp to Kurt schwitterz I’m not going to reproduce the quote from the endorsement of Pure, but it’s a disgusting description of a violent sex offence done to a child, and he is frankly lucky he managed to slip away from that without it causing any problems for him.

and jeez I already called Sotos "depressing and boring", but don't let that interfere with your assumptions

what I object to is the idea that finding value in his work is somehow bad by default

It’s not as though you couldn’t enjoy his work knowing this, it’s like, it’s all part of his life even if he was pretty successful brushing it under the carpet in the later decades. But the people whose posts I objected to weren’t saying that. They were sneering at the idea anyone would have a problem with it.

u are addicted to conflict and roxymuzak already said everything to you that needs to be said on this board, bye

Thanks for the reminder, Omar - I’m throwing on some Jesus Lizard now!

xp what a hill to die on!

This also happened to be the JL album that I most loved

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6U1YtKGMHA

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81ABpIWBIAL._SL1500_.jpg

You bet, raymond 🤜🏻💥🤛🏻

why did they make Steve dress like Silent Bob

Sotos's work is uniquely repulsive, I'm pretty sure I get what he's doing -- in the end it's just De Sade redux but when we read De Sade we're in France long ago, etc etc, and Sotos wants the reader to experience what he is describing vividly and in their present world: though to what good or useful or aesthetically novel purpose I'd insist, none, he lacks the intellectual honestly to drop his pose anywhere long enough to say, here's the point of this, that linked interview is really par for the course with him, he talks around any actual interpretation of his work. cowardly in the end. I find any defenses of it troubling; the only argument in favor of its existence is free speech edgelordism, in my view. it's bad and should be called bad. albini's defenses of it mellow down eventually to "he is a friend," which is a nobler defense than "he wants to be extreme" because again to what end -- none of these guys ever embark on a study of how filthy toilets smell, something equally revolting -- no, they situate themselves as "interested" in morally repellent things only, harmful things. this is a poor use of art & of in some cases real talent. but a person defending this stuff is not the same as the person doing it, for me, although my regard for such a person is diminished by their position.

Thanks for the reminder, Omar - I’m throwing on some Jesus Lizard now!

― Marten Broadcloak, mild-mannered GOP congressman (Raymond Cummings)

This is running right now btw:

THREE POLLS AND A PACK MULE: ILM Artist Poll #120: Steve Albini

Albini v. Lil Bub

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6weRtKgMCj

Jimmy Page

https://blabbermouth.net/news/jimmy-page-pays-tribute-to-steve-albini-he-was-so-passionate-and-knowledgeable

My first 4 initial exposures to Albini (apologies I was out of the midwest PigFuck loop until the mid-90s), and other than the obvious drumsound, close-micing the rhythm guitar (often with no output lol), 1/2" tape fetish... one thing that stood out was his treatment of the lead guitarist.

1) Joey Santiago: when Kim joined the Pixies, she suggested Joey borrow her goldtop LP and man was that an suitable choice for him... sustained discordant overdriven bends all over Surfer Rosa.

2) Peter Solowka: when the Weddoes re-recorded "Brassneck" (the lead single from their 2nd album), they flew to Pachyderm and Steve brought Peter to the front of the mix: harsh, abrasive, metallic, feedback... tones that seemed alien to early-90s North England. They liked the results so much they came back to record their next album with him.

3) Gary Thorstensen: Tad's Salt Lick has all those trademark shattering glass, piercing feedback, out of phase leads just bleeding in/out. Quick shout-out to the other 3 Tad fans on ILM.

4) Mac MacCaughan: The "Throwing Things" first-outro (? the noisy part from 2:51-3:03) had those on-demand chirping feedback blurps* first (I think?) but within a year they were viral and every emo/screamo/alt/indie band was aping them. I know this post is about the outstanding lead guitar tones that Albini recorded and I also will incite hostility by saying this but these are the best drums on a Superchunk record, courtesy of "Chuck" Garrison just prior to leaving the band.

*I remember Billy C0rg@n trying to claim that he invented them but as we all know, the only thing Billy invented was his nauseating voice, lyrics and interminable wanking.

Lmao

https://www.twitter.com/yungl0af/status/1788815520453595371?s=46&t=56pvpJvqL5GRtMdLh4N49g

I don’t know enough about Sotos as a person, but Pure literally begins with quotes from Goebbels and De Sade and the entire book has the “photocopy of scary, gruesome shit” aesthetic that persists to this day in the noise scene.

Idk, maybe I’ve become too inured to it, but it’s legit young boy edgelord juvenilia.

The electronic music I liked was radical and different, shit like the White Noise, Xenakis, Suicide, Kraftwerk, and the earliest stuff form Cabaret Voltaire, SPK and DAF. When that scene and those people got co-opted by dance/club music I felt like we'd lost a war. I detest club culture as deeply as I detest anything on earth. So I am against what you're into, and an enemy of where you come from but I have no problem with what you're doing...

from the "dance music rant" (a reply to somebody's question iirc) upthread - what's interesting about this to me, and describes his aesthetics pretty well, is that I felt like he did when Cabaret Voltaire released The Crackdown. They were my favorite fuckin band! What the fuck are you guys doing? (I was 16 I think. Maybe 15.) This is not what you guys are doing, you guys are fuckin mysterious and even boring and the whole point of what you're doing is blah blah blah, this is what being an aspiring aesthete was all about for me & my crew, holding an artist to "this was your best work" notices we'd nailed to an office breakroom in our heads. I remained a hater for a long time, even despite having had my life utterly changed by a couple of years on the dancefloor of a club that I often say saved my life in those years -- but this speaks to that way people, including me, are able to wall off parts of their lives to support positions to which they are attached. But Cabaret Voltaire didn't get "co-opted" -- they'd been making weirdo basement tape-collage shit since 1974, and they were interested by the sonic terrain being explored in dance music. A rational, even obvious thing for musicians to do -- to grow, to pursue their interests into unexplored terrain, to challenge themselves in their listening and creating! but Steve cherished, I think, a notion of original vision -- that he cites the first Ramones album elsewhere speaks to this. we've all had the experience of getting attached to whatever we first heard from an artist, right? it's easy to consciously or unconsciously base one's evaluation of later music by an artist who blew your mind on your subjective experiences of the work that blew your mind, it's even natural, but good critique isn't natural & imo shouldn't situate itself in "first thought best thought" nonsense. Steve explicitly held a view still held by many, that there's some "this is the good shit" zone for most bands. the only real harm in this is to the listener who clings to this kind of thought -- most musicians and most people are just interested in "does this sound cool, does it groove?" -- but I think the thought informing the "dance music rant" is rooted in an overarching belief, a narrative for lack of a better word, that's basically the authenticity fallacy in the end. and I get it. I was like that for a long time myself, it took conversations with friends & here on ilx to make me question my assumptions long enough to really reevaluate them.

Idk, maybe I’ve become too inured to it, but it’s legit young boy edgelord juvenilia.

I mean it is, he's just "good" at it. he has refined his deal over the years & for a long time I couldn't help but look. the thing he ran in "Answer Me!" was horrifying to me. It's that he's a considerably better writer-qua-writer than most people doing his thing, if you read a few pages of it it gets inside yr skull. that's true for me anyway, I relate to some stuff rushomancy posted upthread about how engaging this kind of thing is an errand abuse survivors sometimes take. I did that for a while but I arrived at "there's not actually anything of value there" and was done.

finally to triple-post I am now a fierce defender of later period Cabaret Voltaire, The Conversation is amazing

I have not read anything outside of Pure, so can’t speak to how Sotos developed as a writer.

But I will say it’s utterly simple to take his work as a celebration and endorsement of abuse.

I mean the entire (god I hate this term) Pigfuck thing was exploring these areas. Pretty sure you should have no concern about the guys from Killdozer being actually pro weird, midwestern acts of violence.

I have not read anything outside of Pure, so can’t speak to how Sotos developed as a writer.

But I will say it’s utterly simple to take his work as a celebration and endorsement of abuse.

I will remove myself from the Sotos convo. Not a guy or hill I want to die on. Was a dumb thing to say because I do not know the scope of his work, but what I have seen seemed par for the course of 80s underground “transgressive”.

I do feel like there's a dividing line in terms of how people perceive Albini in terms of if you think of him as the guy from Big Black or the guy from Shellac (I respect and am sort of in awe of Big Black but Shellac felt like *our band* and going to shows was like a class reunion for people who were playing in bands that I knew in the late 90s/early 00s)

I’ve never listened to much of Albini’s work as a frontman or guitarist, so for me he is primarily a recording engineer with a distinct aesthetic and a gifted critic and writer. I loved his anti-jazz tirade for its rhetorical flair, but substantively of course defining jazz as total freedom is a strangely intellectual way of listening to it. As Keith Richards correctly put it, “Rock and roll ain't nothing but jazz with a hard backbeat.” Considering that Albini’s recording aesthetic seems closer to say Rudy Van Gelder’s than George Martin or Phil Spector’s it’s surprising Albini doesn’t seem to get that. But again he seems to approach music from a somewhat more intellectualized angle.

you don't hear rudy in his room though. he's invisible. you definitely hear steve in his. which is what i don't like about some of the records he made for others. his personality is on them. but i do like a lot of them. don't get me wrong. Goat is probably my fave rock record of the 90s. he was no john loder though. who will always be my god. and who died right around the same age as steve. too soon!

you don't hear rudy in his room though. he's invisible.

Oh, I totally disagree with that. I wrote a story about Van Gelder and his methods a few years ago. He was super heavy-handed, and there were musicians (Mingus loudest among them) who hated Van Gelder. In my Cecil Taylor book I have some quotes from Taylor about getting into fights with Van Gelder while making Unit Structures and Conquistador! (and Conquistador! sounds much better than Unit Structures, ftr).

i'm sure people disagreed with his choices but you don't think about him when listening to some random old prestige record. i totally think of albini when i hear some record with that drum sound or some random 90s band that ends up sounding like his band. his studio sounded like him. van gelder's studio just sounds...good? good for acoustics and acoustic instruments? i don't know. i think about what i'm hearing when i listen to them. and this is decades of music. i don't think of rudy.

ha, sound familiar:

“I’m an engineer, not a producer,” Van Gelder told a New York Times reporter in 2005. “I’m the person who makes the recording process work. I built the studio, I created the environment in which they play, I selected, installed and operated the equipment.”

even when i listen to a nina nastasia record i think of albini and i don't really want to be thinking of him. but that sound he got is so "him" i can't help it. still love her music.

I guess we're different flavors of nerd, because I think about Rudy's sound all the time, especially when I'm listening to something like this, where he lets the drums absolutely explode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJBLA39spc4

Also, the albums he recorded for Blue Note sound totally different from the albums he recorded for Prestige or Impulse!. He was all over the records he made.

i love the way his records sound. but i don't think about him. i make a note of the fact that the record was made in englewood cliffs and i move on. probably, like albini, he thought you were milking it if it took you longer than a day to make a record. but i don't have anything bad to say about him really. i'm glad he was there.

"I will simply say that it is disappointing that in light of his laudable reckoning of his edgelord posturing, he continued to level indignant, scornful contempt towards jazz music, hip-hop music, dance music and other music not coincidentally strongly affiliated with, if not completely borne of, black culture."

As much as I like a lot of Albini's music and some of the bands he produced I sadly expect this pig ignorant crap from a lot of the 'alternative'. Its music turned up to piss off your parents and alienate a lot of your friends, but it isn't to do something structurally open or daring with the music itself, so they get all at sea with jazz and hip-hop and you instead get trolling. What's daring is controversy, as has been discussed. Fascism one day, child abuse another.

Some of that crowd went onto "Xenakis and free jazz can appeal to the heavy metal guys", but even then an appreciation on its own terms is a struggle. Guys like Albini don't even go there, which explains why he was approached by Nirvana and Bush. Which can be fine in itself but few would say In Utero really gave Cobain another way. There was ofc a lot going on there but he had reached a dead end with music.

It was good to post that stuff on twitter, apologise and show some awareness, but it was always the minimum.

Isn't RVG known has having one of the hottest (from compression or otherwise) sounds of the jazz era.

?

I've thought RVG did for Art Blakey what Page did for Bonham. It sounds amazing but it is not natural.

Isn't RVG known has having one of the hottest (from compression or otherwise) sounds of the jazz era.

Yes to this. He definitely had a sound that wasn't an accurate reflection of what the players sounded live, and likely wasn't intended to be. He liked a sharp top end, a very strident tone, he usually had quite a bit of distortion and overload on his recordings, and he compressed the hell out of his mixes. The sound varied a bit as he changed equipment and especially studios/locations, but his general approach remained.

That was a very interesting observation from Don Was in your article, Phil, that some of Van Gelder’s signature sound actually came from customization of the lathe that he used to transfer the master tapes to the master record, which logically would mean that CDs made from the tapes would lack that element. I’d never considered that possibility before.

oh I’m sure he loved that song https://t.co/HW1WXyHd3M

— the discourse sommelier 🇵🇸 (@funnierhandle) May 10, 2024

There seems to be preference from some for the earlier Blue Note Cd masters rather than the RVG remasters.

I think a fair bit of the "Albini tone" are the mics he preferred for mic'ing drums & the sound of his studio (A room sounds different from B room but both reflect his preferences for tone). when he also mixed he preferred dry vocals which are far from the norm, MOST singers want some 'verb so that too I think.

I just listened to the one Albini-recorded and mixed album that I have on vinyl: 7-Toku by Space Streakings. It sounds good tbh. They use drum machines instead of real drums so the drum mic’ing isn’t a factor. And the shrieking and shouting are well suited to a drier tone.

One I always wanted to ask Steve about was Manfred Eicher, especially Arvo Pärt and other ECM artists that weren’t jazz. Eicher’s albums often work for me personally as prime examples of Albini’s principles, but with more of an invisible hand.

"There seems to be preference from some for the earlier Blue Note Cd masters rather than the RVG remasters."

because old and deaf.

i will just say this. i own more records - and really vinyl is a whole other thing and CD will never get the holy magic sorry cd people i like them too but its true especially the early stuff but even on into the 70s - recorded by RVG than anyone else. hundreds of them. they surround me now as i write this. and pound for pound they are some of the best-sounding records i've ever heard. and almost ALL of them sound good to great. but they aren't monolithic. there are differences through the years. both steve and RVG liked them loud. that much i know.

speaking of ecm, they also open up on vinyl in a way that they don't on cd. they are fuller on vinyl. the crit on ecm is that they are dry, clinical, samey, etc. but they also aren't monolithic. they change over the years as well. with technology. i prefer 70s ECM. i think the early digital era is not so hot. but the CDs that they put out now sound wonderful to me! go figure. things change.

Will Oldham on Steve Albini

lol @ "My Hero" jfc

I had forgotten that Albini engineered Oldham's Viva Last Blues (as Palace Music), it is an amazing record

yeah I don't personally think Oldham ever sounded better than on that record, "New Partner" is tremendous

I think Albini recorded Oldham’s Now Here’s My Plan EP, that jaunty version of “I See A Darkness” is so good.

“New Partner” is one of those songs that makes me cry no matter what.

this uncharacteristically rowdy jammer is also one of my favorites

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piKiB9EUf70

aw i love that song

I always imagine Dolly Parton doing a great cover of Work Hard/Play Hard

Eugene Robinson of Oxbow, for whom Albini recorded two albums, pays tribute. Make sure you read the photo caption.

These remembrances are fantastic.

Eugene Robinson otm

re: Oldham, Albini also did Arise Therefore which is comfortably my favourite of his, both performance and as a listening experience. Viva is fantastic as well of course.

I saw Will do this one (also Albini-recorded) at The Second City at 7 a.m., surrounded by improvisors' kids, as part of the 24-hour Letters to Santa in the late 2010s:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZJC5rabI6Q

(Ope, my mistake: Paul Oldham recorded it.)

Arise Therefore is amazing!!

Interesting and detailed reminiscence from Brian Beattie - reproduces an Albini letter packed with recording info and one "edgy" bro joke (page 1 below).
http://www.brianbeattie.com/#/steve-albini-is-a-menace-to-society/
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5612f737e4b0b59b835093d3/1444193196017-5STO6WIHN710NQ9ZU4YO/steve+p1.jpg

Oldham’s really good at writing/talking about people he admires, when I saw him 10 years ago his between-song banter was often more in hater mode, but seeing him at Big Ears this year he kept going on these effusive monologues about particular musicians and how much they inspired him and made him want to keep going into his old age.

xp 180 %, Steve?! We've got him.

"edgy" joeks aside, I could read a book of scribbled "studio gags"

he's probably someone who spent a lot of time setting up his speakers at home.

i went and looked at stuff he had engineered/recorded and man i probably haven't heard 95% of it. i didn't know half of the bands. i don't really listen to too much old stuff that he did that i loved in the past. i did play songs about fucking not long ago. and i didn't know that he had recorded my fave band of susans record. but it makes sense now because the lead guitars totally sound like albini guitars. that album sounds like it was recorded in a cave. cave drums. i dig it though. very murky. i guess that was the first time that page hamilton worked on with albini. i always liked that Tar album he did but i haven't heard it in years. i should play Pod one of these days. also sounds like a cave. but a different kind of cave. i just always wanted noise rock from the 80s to sound like the first two minor threat EPs and they rarely did. my fave american alt-rock production is on hardcore records from 1980 to 1983. and you know they weren't making schematics for amp placement on those. when all is said and done, his cover of "heartbeat" might be my favorite sounding thing he ever made. though, like i said, i haven't heard a lot of it. -

maybe everyone else already knew this, but in 1997, Cheap Trick rerecorded their album In Color with Steve Albini recording. it was never released, but you can listen on YouTube - it's heavy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bsT3EWlsJM

i thought it was released? after the fact anyway. RSD thing?

sadly not, still a bootleg

Huh is it good?

This Guardian piece is all about what it was like to work with him, and there are some great stories in there.

I was surprised (but delighted) to read some remembrances from people in the Chicago house music scene on Facebook this weekend. Everyone mentioned their love for Electrical Audio. I wonder if Albini and Funk were friends.

cheap trick recordings are really raw and heavy, really enjoyed hearing them last week

xp - I've only heard a few songs from that Cheap Trick one, I liked them okay but I was never really a huge Cheap Trick fan to begin with, so not a frame of reference. in reading about it though it seems like people who dig Cheap Trick and would be familiar with Albini through other work absolutely rave about it; diehard Cheap Trick fans who don't know anything about underground rock absolutely hate it - my favorite YouTube comment was basically, "this Albini character must be deaf"

Some good local tributes in the Chicago Reader.

His brother Marty's original Facebook post eulogizing Steve.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjNh_giIUPc

I can't believe how much the forthcoming Shellac album cover and title works in the context of his departure

friend posted on facebook today, received his LP in the mail today

says sold out on the touch & go site, this is probably going to be the best selling one since at action park

Damn, must be getting a lot of attention:

"The new Shellac album, TO ALL TRAINS, is temporarily out of stock in the Touch and Go webstore. The album will be available in retail stores on May 17, 2024.

A 2nd pressing is already on order. If you would like to be notified when the album is back in stock in the Touch and Go webstore, go to the TG store home page and scroll to the bottom to signup for the Touch and Go newsletter. Thank you."

(ha caught in the xp!)

I wonder what their initial vinyl pressing was on this? 2000 copies? 5000?

This happens now every time a non-pop record is (unexpectedly) in demand: the reality of where this industry is today really hits

Anyway, I signed up for T&G emails so I can know when the CD is back in print

(Good questions, unperson.)

it's hard to say - i lean a little more towards 5K than 2K, just because they always seemed to tour in Europe and Scandinavia a lot and I think they had a good fanbase overseas

also sold out on T&G doesn't mean sold out I'm sure the stores are going to be getting their copies on Friday

Those Chicago Reader remembrances and his brother's Facebook eulogy are lovely. They conjure a brief but vivid period of time in the 90s. Through one of my high school friends, an ex-musician, I met Steve Albini and Heather a few times at Lounge Ax - at a house party at Corey Rusk's house and after various shows. My friend was working with P.W. Long's Reelfoot and I went on the road one weekend with her, Preston, Dan (R.I.P. :() and Mac helping them drive to Wisconsin and Iowa for some college shows.

My friend had some health and financial issues later in life and Steve supported her somewhat financially, similar to others as described in Marty's post. When she got married in 1994, he bought her a grandfather clock as a wedding gift. Thought some of you might get a kick out of that.

He struggled a few times to keep EA afloat IIRC, that was one reason he sold some In Utero mics at one point. Hope some rich sugar daddy rock star will step in and ensure that it sticks around.

I heard over the weekend that he played Snoopy in a high school play. Snoopy!

You're a Good Man Charlie Brown?

https://amp.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/may/13/pj-harvey-mogwai-sunn-wedding-present-jon-spencer-on-steve-albini

1993 fairly-technical interview with stereo nerd Michael Fremer:
https://trackingangle.com/features/the-dean-of-alternative-rock-engineers-steve-albini

I personally like Albini's style, for instance the Mclusky record he did sounds so lean and powerful, but the idea that Albini didn't impose his own style on the band seems ridiculous. If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

sadly not, still a bootleg

― I painted my teeth (sleeve)

wasn't the version of "hello there" from the "rock band" video game from the albini re-recording? or did i get that wrong?

xpost an Albini produced Rush album would have been interesting

I'm trying to even imagine what it would be like!

https://amp.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/may/13/pj-harvey-mogwai-sunn-wedding-present-jon-spencer-on-steve-albini

― Marten Broadcloak, mild-mannered GOP congressman (Raymond Cummings), Monday, May 13, 2024 4:22 PM

some powerful memories recounted here.

Something that I haven't really been seeing mentioned is that for a producer with his reputation, his open door policies were really unique. Seemed like he would record any band that wanted to and could afford what... 1500 per day?

Given how Electrical was struggling even with Steve there I wonder what will happen to the space? It would be a real shame if such a meticulously planned and constructed space (special imported brick, floating floors...) was turned into a Starbucks or torn down altogether.

Electrical Audio Lofts

yeah exactly.

Quite a few stories being shared are basically fans who are drawn there to meet and work with Steve - I'm not sure how much of the business comes from those clients, but it is worrisome if that's been a big chunk of their revenue.

re: rock band, I think it is! weird that the highest fidelity option available for an albini-recorded cheap trick song would be a video game but maybe that'll be the dominant format in 100 years.

re: studios, how bad of a money pit are they that not even the richest of rock stars can keep pachyderm, smart, fantasy going even as museum operations (though I heard smart ended up revived as a semi-functioning studio but mostly functioning drug den)?

Pachyderm is back open I think

As of right now Electrical doesn’t seem to be booking more sessions, but is honoring the ones already on the calendar.

I don’t where majorairbro heard they were struggling, but my experience there is that both A and B are consistently booked.

In interviews, Albini has said that he bought the space for 190k in the 90’s. I would imagine it’s owned outright at this point. I think it could be a desicion between Heather and Greg Norman how (or if) things move forward.

Xp. It’s too depressing to see if Electrical’s website still has the rates up there, but if memory serves you could book Studio B and Albini for exactly 1000 a day.

xpost an Albini produced Rush album would have been interesting

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, May 14, 2024 2:17 AM (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I'm trying to even imagine what it would be like!

― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Tuesday, May 14, 2024 2:21 AM (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

he would still be mic-ing up Neil's massive drums now

amidst a seemingly endless reservoir of heckles for Rush's randian lyrics Albini copped to liking Geddy's rotisserie chicken amp gag so i'm imagining a constant background sizzle of warm, analog chickens roasting in harmony with the vocals. "InvisszzziiblezzzzAirwaveszzzz..."

I think Rush was very much inspired by the kinds of sounds Albini and others were cooking up in the early 90s. Counterparts doesn't really sound like it was recorded by him, but you can hear how they are trying to push in the direction of a more raw, live in the studio sound.

Caress of Steel would sound menacing with Albini production.

Rush seem like perfectionists that would not gel with Albini's approach.

FWIW, Electrical Audio thanked everyone for nearly clearing out their merch store after Albini died (i.e. they could use the money).

from 2005 sound on sound interview: "My monthly nut on this place is about 30 grand, meaning come hell or high water, I have to make a $1000 every day."
I can't imagine that number went down in 20 years... yikes!

Oof....maybe I can buy some mugs when they re-stock.

iirc he dumped at least some of his poker winnings back into the studio? I can see how that would make the difference.

was that around the time when covid was at its worst? cos that must've been pretty difficult for them

I really worry about Electrical, I know it's a world class studio but the real draw was wanting to work with him

Hope it doesn't end up getting broken down into programming suites or something, accompanied by the low hum of Albini spinning in his grave

given the location, more likely more "luxury" condos

was that around the time when covid was at its worst? cos that must've been pretty difficult for them

Per his brother's Facebook post, Albini went deep into debt keeping his staff paid (and presumably employed) while the studio was closed during lockdown.

New album cover reminds me of JD's Closer. I'm utterly certain that is just me and it wasn't intended. But, it still does.

https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/interviews/i-wanted-it-to-be-for-keeps-an-oral-history-of-shellac

I had a ticket to see them next month and reading that now I'm sad I won't get to see the Q&A section all over again

The Wire transcript is great, I love hearing Todd in particular talk about the band

FWIW Electrical Audio has re-stocked most of their merch store, and it looks like they give you the option of picking up your order at the studio if you’re in Chicago.

Don't suppose anyone has any idea if you can just show up at EA and buy a hoodie?

Didn't ever realise there was a merch store and would have loved to have helped out and put money in the coffers but oof postage to UK has killed that idea.

$60 to post a hoodie, a mug and some pencils.

Don't suppose anyone has any idea if you can just show up at EA and buy a hoodie?

They are more than happy to take your money.

can't wait for tomorrow, going to head up to the store right away and get the new Shellac

be curious to see the reviews, have a gut the pitchfork review gained 2 points at least in recent days

thanks for the reminder

its been pretty wild how Albini chat has infiltrated virtually every sphere of online discourse I'm a part of now, wonder if the fact that he was so responsive to any randos who wanted to talk with him has something to do with it, lotta people coming off like they lost a personal friend. hell it kinda feels that way to me.

100%. He was an extrovert who hung out in spaces usually occupied by introverts!

Conversely he was mentioned on NTS the other day and the chatroom went into meltdown with people yelling about what a horrible paedo he was. That's obviously a much younger crowd on average than us old farts

So the new one is up on Spotify along with all the previous albums - have they always been there?

And Big Black - I thought they all got taken off a few years ago.

Not available in the UK by the looks of it. Not yet, at least (and no Big Black at all).

All the previous albums (though not the very hard to find singles) have been up on Apple Music for some time now.

New one? Not yet

Yeah no Shellac singles on Spotify either, just the albums including the Peel Sessions album. All the Big Black singles and EPs seem to be there though.

Nothing in UK

They’re available on Tidal in UK.

The new album is not up on Tidal in the US yet, presumably because it's not midnight anywhere here. But all the previous albums are. I wish Touch & Go would compile the early singles; they're not even available on Bandcamp.

along with comp tracks, yes that would be nice

My confusion with finding Shellac on Spotify is that there seems to be another artist called Shellac (all in capitals) who is definitely not the band.

US Spotify only has playlists called "STEVE ALBINI" with Black Hole Sun on them

Steve brought up somewhere that a Shellac early singles comp was in the planning stages. There’s a full-length’s worth of Big Black rarities and sessions that haven’t been compiled yet.

So the last song on the new album is called "I Don't Fear Hell"? A little on the nose...

a Shellac early singles comp could maybe be their best album

i love Albini's song Big Black Sun

hoping “how I wrote how I wrote elastic man” is Steve’s clapback for “50 year old man”

Lots of Albini talk out there, but precious little about his being in collusion with Virgin trains. Odd that.

go home, mark. you’re drunk

28 minute lp

Listening now

28 minutes, yes! Chef’s kiss, guys - in and out.

Only three songs tagged for explicit lyrics!

Sounds great

There’s a lot of death preoccupation on this one. I mean it makes sense, there’s a mindset shift between your 50s and 60s I imagine. But still. I felt a chill there.

wow To All Trains is great. definitely their best since 1000 Hurts.

short running time, super tight, no wasted motion, some very killer classic Shellac riffs. Todd is on fire and the drums sound absolutely massive.

I have DL'd from Bandcamp but not listened yet, gonna actually try go buy the LP when the store opens today

had to hit three stores but i got it, might be worth calling ahead, the first two places said they had orders in but it hadn't shown up yet, i'm sure the demand is far beyond what touch & go projected.

noted, tyvm!

the 2 stores are real close so I might as well just hit them up and look at the used "new arrivals"

haha yeah the first place i ended up getting an old gamelon field recording record, dire straits s/t, and the mono reissue of piper at the gates of dawn so it was a good trip

T&G sold out of the initial pressing but they are taking pre-orders for the next one

short running time, super tight, no wasted motion, some very killer classic Shellac riffs. Todd is on fire and the drums sound absolutely massive.

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, May 17, 2024 2:01 PM (thirty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I think if Steve hadn't died, Todd would be the talking point of this record

Audio quality is paramount, as always, with Shellac. The LPs are being manufactured by Green Vinyl Records using an injection molding process. This new process uses 100% recyclable PET (like soda bottles) and is environmentally friendly, containing no PVC or Phthalates. The process also uses 79% less CO2 than conventional hydraulic PVC vinyl presses. The records weigh 180 grams.

it should be said this pressing sounds (dude) incredible, i hope this pressing method gains some traction

To All: Trainer.

update: neither store has copies yet

😞

now I get to blast the FLACs from Bandcamp, so all is not lost

and yeah Todd is amazing on this

ahhh "Scrappers" is the "WE'LL BE PIRATES!!" song I saw them do live last time they came through

Never have guessed there was repping of Dire Straits on the Albini page, but all is good.

Fourth or fifth listen. This is winning me over, hard.

Chick New Wave a favourite so far

First run through and Tattoos is the earlist point where it feels like Albini's band rather than a band Albini is in.

It then imo turns into Squirrel Song

Wednesday has definite aspects of the early singles, the timing elements of them.

Love Bob on Elastic Man

I just listened to this (NB: I don't think I've ever listened to Albini/Shellac/etc) and got a distinct Minutemen vibe from many of the songs. Anyone else think that?

YES

“Scabby the Rat” is basically

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1mkGjQnHdo

They’ve always had little Minutemen moments but I think this album is peak corndog

Even his singing style kind of reminded me of Boon.

so... what does Chicago's Union Station have to do with this except for the title & cover image? - https://maps.app.goo.gl/XGhtcZbjiEdrMCct7

The most I can gather from his recent interviews is that Bob took the photo and they liked the various ways in which you could interpret the sign that says 'To All Trains'

Shellac are on UK Spotify but not when you search for Shellac. WTAF?
https://open.spotify.com/artist/6I8R5MFTlez7rHCsH4cx0u?si=AgL_IuonTraE66Ihhf0ySg

and big black too

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5EYkvHZuGM3pwU3DZUrrZ3?si=ym9TZuD0RLajH2wih1SsMQ

they don't show on search yet in the US either, but links take you to their page where the albums are available.

I think there was some effort on the band's part to divest from spotify because of joe rogan but at the same time they don't care how you listen to them, so maybe that was the compromise? How does a band's control of streaming appearances work with t&g? I vaguely remember an interview where they say they actually got nice-dinner sized checks compared to million-streaming artists who get pennies thanks to less overhead.

Shellac now showing up in search in the UK

Maybe Glenn reads this thread?

he's no longer at Spotify

They are on US now too

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/steve-albinis-bands-shellac-and-big-black-return-to-spotify-other-streaming-services/

so... what does Chicago's Union Station have to do with this except for the title & cover image?

I'd compare it to the cover of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: just having something local and extraordinary in the same city as where the album/people were.

Thread title making me sad every time I see it

Just sat through a bit of the last Harry Potter movie and there's the scene in purgatory/King's Crossing that had me chuckling about the new album title.

Audio quality is paramount, as always, with Shellac. The LPs are being manufactured by Green Vinyl Records using an injection molding process. This new process uses 100% recyclable PET (like soda bottles) and is environmentally friendly, containing no PVC or Phthalates. The process also uses 79% less CO2 than conventional hydraulic PVC vinyl presses. The records weigh 180 grams.

it should be said this pressing sounds (dude) incredible, i hope this pressing method gains some traction

I hope it gains traction too, and that we collectively realize that if records are going to be made like Mountain Dew bottles they should be like $10 new

How much of the price of pressing vinyl is the plastic puck at the start of the process?

I just listened to this (NB: I don't think I've ever listened to Albini/Shellac/etc) and got a distinct Minutemen vibe from many of the songs. Anyone else think that?

― nickn, Saturday, May 18, 2024 5:06 AM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I thought the same thing first few listens.

The Minutemen are def touchstone for basically their entire career, cf "Billiard Player Song", and also obv Wire, but the new songs certainly extremely economic in ways they haven't been since the mid-90s era

Well done, Whiney.

An absolute delight to read, front to back.

https://tymguitars.com.au/blogs/blog/the-day-steve-albini-changed-my-life

amazing

In case anyone who's bookmarked this thread has missed it there's an Albini RIP poll running here:

THREE POLLS AND A PACK MULE: ILM Artist Poll #120: Steve Albini

Plenty of time left to vote

Looks like they may be holding regular concerts at Electrical Audio to help keep them financially solvent.

Or at least that's the hope:

"I think this is definitely going to be a big learning experiment,” MacDonald said. “I’m really hoping it goes well because this would be really cool and fun to have a little bit of a series — something to do a couple of times a year."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uUNeejxWp0

^ Steve Albini is sorry for his haircut

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6fiLwfbQAEjkLf?format=jpg&name=large

that John Cale entry is hilarious