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Steve Albini has died

pitchfork.com

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Re: Steve Albini has died

#61

Post by boomskats »

ilamont wrote: post #3

Hard 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…

Another one for your list: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35410662

RIP Steve. What a legend.

Re: Steve Albini has died

#63

Post by snorkel »

Way too soon! He recently did an interview with Dave and Krist from Nirvana about the 30th anniversary of In Utero. They described recording prank phone calls during the recording sessions.

Re: Steve Albini has died

#65

Post by breput »

beezlebroxxxxxx wrote: post #45
breput wrote: 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…

He actually came around later in life on being the harshest critic and also addressed the "producer role" in this[0] article:

"As he kept working, making hundreds of records across many more sessions, Albini became more comfortable stepping aside. Experiences like the Plant and Page record reminded him he was just a cog, there to enable someone else’s expression. These days, once Albini has agreed to record an artist, he begins by asking them to state their expectations, what bands they’re into, how they’d like to sound, how they’ve been disappointed in previous sessions. (The process is not unlike starting with a new therapist.)"

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/aug/15/the-evolution-...

Re: Steve Albini has died

#66

Post by fnordlord »

quickthrowman wrote: post #5

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…

I've always counted Prayer to God up there in my "best songs ever" list.

What a huge bummer and loss.

Re: Steve Albini has died

#68

Post by leetcrew »

beezlebroxxxxxx wrote: post #45
breput wrote: 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…

steve certainly didn't hold back his contempt for the concept of a "producer", but I don't read him as disagreeing they have significant influence over the finished product. if anything, that's the core of his objection: someone other than "the artist" diluting the work, and hence why he asked to be credited as "recording engineer", if at all. the irony is that, despite his insistent denial, everyone else seems to think there is a signature "albini sound".

what has changed since he wrote that piece is that the concept of "the artist" has been heavily blurred by mainstream music that predominantly features synthesized instruments. if I'm singing words written by one person to a melody written by second over a track composed of thousands of different samples sent through various filters by a third, who is "the artist"?

Re: Steve Albini has died

#69

Post by evjan »

droptablemain wrote: post #35

One of the most fascinating men that worked in music production/recording. If you aren't familiar with him and his various idiosyncrasies, I highly recommend giving this a watch/listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKEzHie9tAI&ab_channel=SAEAu... In my personal list of top 10 albums of all time, Albini recorded six of them. I say "recorded" instead of "produced" because this is more akin to his style: set up micro…

Oh wow, I'm only 5 minutes in and he's already said so much cool stuff that resonates with me around neomania, timelessness/the lindy effect etc (I've read too much Taleb recently). Thanks for the link!
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