KEXP (kexp.org) radio is playing a lot of his catalog right now. Listen in if you want to hear the impact of his work.
Steve Albini has died
51–60 of 191 posts
Re: Steve Albini has died
#52I knew (of) him first and best for the essay "Some of your friends are probably already this fucked" (aka "The problem with music") which I was introduced to at about the point in my life where some friends are in bands and a few of them try to go commercial, but fortunately these particular friends had all read The Manual† and this essay by Albini.
† https://www.amazon.co.uk/MANUAL-How-Have-Number-Easy/dp/1899...
Re: Steve Albini has died
#53Oh 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…
What are you using to generate album.json?
Re: Steve Albini has died
#54Oh wow, shit. My one story: A band I was in at the time recorded drums at Electrical Audio in 2010 (I think) and I was the drummer. Albini was not involved in the project and though he was around, we didn't see him much. I would wear this really bad t-shirt with the sleeves cut off to keep cool while playing. As Albini passed by me one time, he looked at me and _very_ sarcastically said, "Don't worry, you look great"…
Hahah, that's amazing
Re: Steve Albini has died
#55Interview with him just a few weeks ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOWP_laIXAs
(ps. that entire channel is brilliant)
Re: Steve Albini has died
#56Oh wow, shit. My one story: A band I was in at the time recorded drums at Electrical Audio in 2010 (I think) and I was the drummer. Albini was not involved in the project and though he was around, we didn't see him much. I would wear this really bad t-shirt with the sleeves cut off to keep cool while playing. As Albini passed by me one time, he looked at me and _very_ sarcastically said, "Don't worry, you look great"…
Steve wore a lot of shitty tshirts too, it may not have been entirely sarcastic.
Re: Steve Albini has died
#57[dead]
Re: Steve Albini has died
#58A lot of the bigger name albums he engineered were ones I listened to and loved before knowing that he was a common thread between them (or even who he was in general), but one that I gave a listen to specifically because he engineered it was an album called Stella by a band named Uzeda. I had never heard of them before, but it was wonderful! All the words that often describe his sound (and also his music) apply here. In fact, I believe Uzeda is often compared to Shellac, which seems apt. I highly recommend it, if folks are looking for a good lesser-known album he worked on.
Re: Steve Albini has died
#59Alongside “paid like a plumber” and “already this fucked”, I would like to see added the following wisdom:
I think of music as something that I'm willing to work 40 hours a week or more to support, like a wife and family, right? Music to me is that important. It's so important that I don't expect it to make a living for me. I expect that I will have to work a normal, regular job like a regular person in order to have the luxury of being able to play music.
He goes on to say this allows him to create without pressure or resentment, only pure joy.
https://www.tumblr.com/machinery/44307870770/the-other-bands...
Re: Steve Albini has died
#60Hard to overstate Albini's influence, both as a musician and producer. Big Black? No one was doing stuff like that in the mid-80s. His production on PJ Harvey's Rid of Me took her compositions to a new level. He also produced a lot of very fine albums in the 80s and 90s by the Pixies (Surfer Rosa), Nirvana (In Utero) and various albums by The Jesus Lizard, Superchunk, and others. Yes, he was cantankerous. Marched to…
Surfer Rosa was probably the most influential album on my musical life.
Albini also has an excellent Nardwuar interview: