Steve Albini interview

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Sorry if that came across as spam. With all the music fans here, I sincerely thought people would want to hear about an entertaining new interview of a major music industry figure. Apologies and cheers!

i like reading opinions of movies i haven't seen, too

Mactin— In the future, link to your blog from a secondary ILX account, with the headline OMG THIS IS SO GHEY!

Then everyone will spend time defending your ghey link.

Cannibals, that is a brilliantly perverse metasuggestion as befits your ILXOR screen name.

One of several earlier threads on Albini

Steve Albini Video Lecture

Steve Albini - nothing much impresses him does it?

Steve Alweenie, morelike

everything the guy records sounds like a demo tape recorded in a garage. in his interviews he talks about all this equipment he uses and yet he gets the same fucking sound over and over. he buries the vocals, the guitars are trebly and the drums sound like oil cans.

seriously, the best thing you could think of was "ben bass and beyond?"

i respect the dude but i don't believe he can mix for shit

I just bought ex Italian Greyhound on vinyl :):)

cheap like

he buries the vocals, the guitars are trebly and the drums sound like oil cans.

This is called "being fucking awesome".

"That fucking Spector, he just buries everything under this Wall of Sound shit".

Well, it's not just damning him for what he's good at, it's also inaccurate... maybe you're being sarcastic? Because the Nina Nastasia albums he recorded are probably the most pristine wonderful recordings I've heard this decade.

I wuz going to say that it's not accurate either, but I'd rather praise Albini for being fucking awesome.

OMG Albini = NPR music!!1!!!!

I like his productions, but is he a bit of a prick? Seems like one.

A bit?

Which bit?

this is possibly the bit where I defend Yanqui UXO to the hilt

"That fucking Spector, he just buries everything under this Wall of Sound shit".

lololol

"That fucking Spector, he just buries everything under this Wall of Sound shit".

haha yes this is great.

albini's done a great job on pretty much everything i've heard him record.

Well, everything Albini records sounds like it was recorded by Albini.

Which makes it great for identifying artists with such a weak aesthetic sensibility that they don't mind sounding like somebody else.

right, like Joanna Newsome. Her record Albini did really sounds wayyyyyy too much like Mclusky for my tastes.

Not heard her. Never will do. I do include Wedding Present, PJ Harvey, Pixies & Nirvana, though

But not Shellac, obv.

None of those albums really sound like each other either.

I just assume that when people do the "Steve Albini stuff all sounds the same", it's because they're still bitter about how awesome they think In Utero would have been if Bob Rock had produced it.

"DUDE DAVE GROHLS KICK DRUM IS LIKE PUNCHING ME IN THE FACE YEAAAAAHHHHH!"

In Utero sounds great!!

Sounds hell of a lot better than Nevermind, IMO

I think you might be missing my point.

everything the guy records sounds like a demo tape recorded in a garage. in his interviews he talks about all this equipment he uses and yet he gets the same fucking sound over and over. he buries the vocals, the guitars are trebly and the drums sound like oil cans.

-- smurfherder, Wednesday, 7 November 2007 06:04 (13 hours ago) Link

people get really retarded when they talk about albini. also, sometimes i think people haven't actually *listened* to that much stuff he's recorded since like the mid-90s.

Well, everything Albini records sounds like it was recorded by Albini.

yeah i hate shit that sounds like nina nastasia, mclusky, and whitehouse

also, i met him one time and he was super nice and chill.

He, and the rest of Shellac, are very funny live.

my sister got hit on the head by his guitar while he was tuning it at a Shellac show.

(accidentally, obv)

We agree to disagree. I've heard plenty of his recordings, less so over current years, I guess, because many of the acts don't interest me. I've heard Joanna Newsome and Nina Nastasia. And, yes, guilty as charged, I think In Utero sounds awful-- though I don't think Bob Rock is anybody's answer. I think that album has more to do with Cobain's very '80s-punk rock aesthetic that seemed to define music more for what it couldn't be than what it could, you know, those bogus punk ethos that made him feel like a sell-out.

Maybe I've just never forgiven him for Rid of Me, one of the few records I can't listen to because of the production. Flood was a godsend the next time around.

I may have overstated my case and it would be more productive to learn what recent productions he's done that you feel show his talents. Maybe I just have too many Jason Molina albums to judge correctly.

By all means, correct my error. I'm not being sarcastic either.

Matt H is OTM.

I think you might be missing my point.

-- John Justen, Wednesday, November 7, 2007 7:06 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

no i got your point wrt In Utero. i was just saying i think it sounds great, not really in response to what you said.

yanqui uxo goddammit, that is one of the best-produced albums i own and i do not care that you disagree

Oh ok. I didn't want to come across as all DUDE BOB ROCK IS THE MOST SMOKINEST PRODUCER EVER dude to ilm so i got skeered.

xpost

lol

i don't know to me the nina n. records are some of my very favorite of all time and show how sensitive a producer he is. they are gorgeous, just perfect sound to me. it's rare anymore to hear a folky artist recorded like they would have been in the early 70s, all analog and sensitively mastered, and nina to me is such a genius that those feel special to me in a way that not much from the last 10 years does.

The problem with the "all sounds the same" complaint is that he's already insistent about being a recordist/engineer, and not an actual "producer" -- once he takes the position that his job is just providing a transparent recording of what you're playing, the responsibility for sounding interesting/different gets shunted off to the band itself.

One side effect of this is that he of course winds up working with bands who don't want to use production to sound interesting/different -- they think their playing itself will cover that. Most of the time they're not exactly right; sometimes they really are.

also seems like if you're just recording and documenting the sounds in the room, you're at the mercy of the room. unless you determine which mics are going to bring out which tones...and then there's the whole lost spatial art with everything now being mastered at maximum volume.

It just always seems Albini's more fun to read in theory. He seems more hands-on in interviews with strong viewpoints and then in the studio like he's just the guy running cables and making sure the levels are ok. More mystifying to me was Kramer at ShimmyDisc, where it really sounded like he took a couple of mics, turned them on, spiked up the reverb and went home. Not that I'm advocating the Mitchell Froom, let me rearrange your music approach. Or the Schnapf and Rothrock tendency to give everyone that shuffle rhythm...

What works for one doesn't work for another. But I will give those Nina Nastasia albums further listens. I wasn't grabbed the first time, but when they do evoke strong reactions in people who listen to tons of music, well, that's reason enough for me to at least investigate...thanks.

low - 'things we lost in the fire' is a beautifully recorded and mixed album. i'm not usually one to obsess about how "natural" an instrument sounds, but the instruments on that album sound very natural - clean and clear. probably my favorite recording out of their fine catalog of musics.

albini seems sort of "transparent" to me, esp. in later years. the sounds are very natural, so they don't necessarily make material that needs something extra better, or make a bad band better (you should hear some stuff recorded by local or no-name bands that he's done)...so the stuff i tend to love by him was just him documenting a great artist at work very naturally -- nina, jesus lizard, low, etc

hard to argue with the breeders' "pod"

Steve Albini : What Are The Best/Worst Albums He's Engineered?

I basically still agree with the stuff I say on this thread, though I should add that I've also liked stuff he's done in the past few years with Red Swan, Neurosis, Gogol Bordello, and Zeni Geva (plus Living Things and Cordelia's Dad, who I mention on that thread.)

I can't imagine the songs on Surfer Rosa sounding any better with a different producer.

best: that bush record
worst: everything else

-- strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 22 July 2003 21:42 (4 years ago) Link

i didn't know jess was an albini hater! or i guess i did cuz i posted in that thread but i forgot

that sound of young america sounds vaguely annoying in that way everything on npr is.

That Living Things record is kinda badass.

Also, Albini gave big props to Bill Withers' Carnegie Hall album a few years ago in Mojo. It's too bad that he has such a reputation that I have to even say "I don't think he was kidding," but I don't think he was kidding and as another Withers appreciator I really, really liked reading that.

I mean, you don't think he was kidding, do you?

I don't. He regularly gives it up for people who can really sing, and Withers is one.

Somewhere I've got an issue of a Hoboken magazine from 1983 or so, and Albini's very positive story on UB40 (not a joke) is something to behold.

High on Fire's Blessed Black Wings is probably my favorite album to come out in the last 5 years. He did that one.

The Neurosis albums Steve Albini recorded sound freaking great. There is serious dynamic range on some of those tunes.

that sound of young america sounds vaguely annoying in that way everything on npr is.

-- filthy dylan, Wednesday, November 7, 2007 11:01 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

The Sound of Young America is probably the MOST annoying thing on NPR.

cough cough prairie home companion cough

it's a tough call

Maybe I've just never forgiven him for Rid of Me, one of the few records I can't listen to because of the production.

?????????

are you kidding? that's one of my favorite production jobs, ever. i can't imagine a better way to record that album - all the levels seem so low, so you crank it up and then a couple minutes into "Rid of Me" it just knocks you upside the head with that guitar sound...

whoever mentioned Low- Things We Lost in the Fire upthread, OTM. excellent record, perfect production and probably Low's best (though i'd make a case for at least 5 of their 8 studio albums, as they're overall, probably, my favorite band going right now).

A friend of mine just played me a song without telling me what it was. I asked him, "Is this some latter-day Albinicore band?" He replied that it was the new Shellac.

He's said some prickish things and comes off prickly when suffering fools, but Albini is indeed, in person, a Nice Guy.

I used to think he was waging a personal war against the human voice, until I heard Nina Nastasia. He finally started putting all those fancy, vintage mics to good use!

super nice and chill

being a recordist/engineer, and not an actual "producer" -- once he takes the position that his job is just providing a transparent recording of what you're playing, the responsibility for sounding interesting/different gets shunted off to the band itself.

I'm neither a musician or engineer but this transparency argument is bogus, as if the guy turning the knobs & setting levels etc doesn't have any responsibility for how the finished recording sounds. seriously? come on.

That isn't what he's saying, actually. Modern engineering can be very artificial, his point is that he isn't interested in that sort of engineering.

how does one distinguish between "artificial" engineering and what? organic? "authentic" engineering.

maybe not a bogus arguement but a disengenuous one.

my point is any engineer is making choices and decisions that determine the end result. but maybe Im wrong.

no, it really isn't. It might not be an aspect you ascribe value to, but there is a distinction to be made.

In the extreme (although prevalent) case, "artificial" would encompass things like pitch correction, sample replacement programs like drumagogue, quantized beat correction, vocorded vocals, etc.

I think it's a argument that could definitely get the dreaded "rockist" appended to it, but it isn't an invalid argument at all.

xpost: yeah, i know where you're coming from. confession: my final philo undergrad project was a paper claiming that the aesthetics of music needed to be modified to incorporate the engineer, so I definitely agree with what you're saying. I just think Albini is saying something different that is more current music technology specific.

Yeah, I think there's something to that idea. Engineer as instrumentalist vs. engineer as documenter. Obviously any recording technique affects the sound of a band and it's all artificial and the distinction is epistemologically problematic and all that. But for practical purposes of what you hear, there's a big difference between the way Albini records a band and, say John McEntire, and the former comes much closer to trying to get what the band would sound like in the room with you.

He also wrote "The Problem With Music," which remains entertaining although perhaps less relevant today than when written.

possible irony: using drumagog with steve albini-recorded samples

Possible problem: I don't know what drumagog is.

sample replacement programs like

Wow, I invoked your presence on the Internet.

Now do a dance. :)

'seriously, the best thing you could think of was "ben bass and beyond?"'

Unfortunately, "hstencil and beyond" was already taken.

From a few days back:

http://www.gq.com/blogs/the-q/2010/09/steve-albini.html

How would you describe your fashion?
I think fashion is repulsive. The whole idea that someone else can make clothing that is supposed to be in style and make other people look good is ridiculous. It sickens me to think that there is an industry that plays to the low self-esteem of the general public. I would like the fashion industry to collapse. I think it plays to the most superficial, most insecure parts of human nature. I hope GQ as a magazine fails. I hope that all of these people who make a living by looking pretty are eventually made destitute or forced to do something of substance. At least pornography has a function.

Read More http://www.gq.com/blogs/the-q/2010/09/steve-albini.html#ixzz11WGP5Nxb

lol

watched a doc on Netflix about sampling and wow this guy is a shitface

doubtlessly less repellent than your ilx persona fwiw

not worth much buddy!

Matt P, are you gunning for Post the funniest slam another ILXer has made about you

i'm in that frame of mind, yes, but fuck it, it's true! and if true zings at me have made me more self-aware it can work for anybody.

what steve do now?

so now you're aware that you're a shitface too, super. (fwiw I have no knowledge whatsoever of a "Matt P")

steve was the doc's go-to "musician who's vehemently against sampling". just really pissy and dismissive about it.

yeah, that sounds about right