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Steve Albini has died

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141–150 of 191 posts

Re: Steve Albini has died

#141
post #17

"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." [0] https://news.lettersofnote.com/p/nirvana

It's fascinating how in certain genres producers have elevated themselves, rightly in my opinion, to positions that are almost equal to the artists they're recording. In pop and hip-hop, people really care about who produced what, often because the producer has an enormous role in the overall sound of the music. Those producers would probably disagree with Albini right away. It's less a thing when you're dealing with…

Those (hip-hop) producers are musician-songwriters. They’re more in the Brill Building/Phil Spector mode.

Steve Albini recorded the songs you brought in with you. Just a different thing.

Re: Steve Albini has died

#143

We all agree that Jawbreaker's "24 Hour Revenge Therapy" was his best production work, right?

I think you can make a case for “Things We Lost In The Fire” by Low extremely easily; or for “After Murder Park” by the Auteurs. As a recording engineer he had a lot more range than people gave him credit for, largely because his own music was so abrasive.

Re: Steve Albini has died

#144
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's apologized at length for his edgy band names, song names, and zine takes which happed in his early 20s. https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/steve-albini-counsel-cul...

Yes, he evolved! But that work (fwiw more the actual lyrics than the band name itself) still is part of a legacy.

You discovered that people make mistakes. Congratulations

Re: Steve Albini has died

#145
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, he evolved! But that work (fwiw more the actual lyrics than the band name itself) still is part of a legacy.

You discovered that people make mistakes. Congratulations

Sigh. I think it’s possible to look at public figures and both see how they are praiseworthy, perhaps corrected errors, and still had impacts with their “mistakes.” I always hope that on HN there’s room for nuance, not just like sarcastic comments implying that a critique was one-dimensional and ill intentioned.

Re: Steve Albini has died

#146
post #110

This is one of those threads where you may discover people you haven't seen for a zillion years are on Hacker News. And though I never knew him well, he was nice to me on the occasions I had to interact with him, though you know, there's also a kind of unapologetic misogynistic arrogance in his musical catalogue (umm, Rapeman?) that his legacy will need to contend with.

Rapeman was a completely ironic and funny name because the band was these scrawny, autistic, nerdy dudes that were the antithesis of rapey culture, at least superficially. And he did regret it for a variety of reasons which I believe he was bullied into but w/e as it wasn’t that important.

Re: Steve Albini has died

#148

Oh man, that’s terrible! I was waiting to hear when the next Shellac tour was going to be taking place, as they’ve got an album coming out next week. I’m a huge, huge fan of Big Black, Rapeman, Shellac, and Steve Albini’s production (Nirvana’s In Utero, Pixies’ Surfer Rosa, Jesus Lizard’s discography, PJ Harvey’s Rid of Me, Brainiac’s Hissing Prigs in Static Couture, Songs:Ohia’s Magnolia Electric Company, plus hundr…

His very close-miked sound still containing a tasteful (i.e. light) amount of reverb is such a recognizable signature... A true legend, and big coincidence since I discovered yet another of his production a week ago: Zeni Geva's last three LPs. Almost as important as the ubiquitous Dan Swano in my collection: $ find -L ~/Music -type f -name album.json -exec jqmusic '.credits | has("Steve Albini")' {} \; -print | awk…

Zeni Geva deserves more credit, great to see them mentioned. You probably know Neurosis and Melt Banana but those might also be up your alley.

Other noteworthy Albini-engineered bands for me: Oxbow, Low, Whitehouse, Labradford, Burning Witch, Godspeed's U.X.O album. Peter Sotos' Buyer's Market is one of the most insane albums I've ever had the displeasure to listen to, and Albini apparently produced it, although I don't hear any obvious influence.

Re: Steve Albini has died

#150

We all agree that Jawbreaker's "24 Hour Revenge Therapy" was his best production work, right?

Oh my god. I had no idea he produced that. That record is of monumental importance to one of my dearest friends, and hooked me on early Emo in a way that Rites of Spring never could. Going to listen again and try to detect the invisible hand of Albini. What stands out to you about the production?

The listed producer, “Flus” was Albini’s cat. That’s how punk Blake and the gang were - didn’t even list their indie-famous producer on their most popular album. Punk as fuck.

As to why, it’s a fantastic example of what Albini did best - it sounds like a real band, raw and live, both melodic and rough around the edges. The guitar sound, iconic, but in the service of the songs. There’s a kind of efficiency to the album - like, no wasted fat, audio gimmick, etc… the Alpinist of punk, bring nothing you don’t need.

Can’t wait for someone to generate a version of Nevermind with the production of 24 Hour…

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