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Steve Albini has died

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Re: Steve Albini has died

#72
post #63

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.

I've never really paid all that much attention to producers, but 61, it still hits too close to home. I'm not that far behind. It kind of freaks me out that I'm hitting 60 soon.

Re: Steve Albini has died

#74

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…

Also, what is this jqmusic executable with the jq style query?

Re: Steve Albini has died

#75
Shellac of North America - Wingwalker.

Time was, I could move my arms like a bird Fly!

She was a wingwalker Pitgirl of the sky

[Verse] And now I got an engine A big perverted engine It runs on strength of will Who could deny me the right to fly? You know, it's my art When I form my body in the shape of a plane...

[Chorus] I'm a plane! I'm a plane! I'm a plane! I'm a plane!

[Verse] Now I got an airframe A big perverted airframe You know, It's my art When I disguise my body in the shape of a plane [Chorus] I'm a plane! (I'm a plane!) I'm a plane! (I'm a plane!) I'm a plane! (I'm a plane!) I'm a plane! (I'm a plane!)

[Outro]

(Look at me, look at me - I'm a plane! Look at me, I'm a plane! Look at me!)

And the plane becomes a metaphor for my life And as I suffer for it Like I'm insane, as it says... So she suffers under the weight of my plane You know? It's my art! When I disguise my body in the shape of a plane...

Plane! (Plane!)

RIP Steve.

Re: Steve Albini has died

#76
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Also, what is this jqmusic executable with the jq style query?

Just a jq wrapper that adds -e and includes some functions

  $ cat ~/bin/jqmusic
  #!/usr/bin/env bash
  
  exec jq -e "${@:1:$(($#-2))}" "include \"music\"; ${@: -2:1}" "${@: -1}" >/dev/null 2>&1
  $ cat ~/.jq/music.jq
  def year: .released | match("[0-9]{4}").string | tonumber;
  def has_genre(str): .genres.primary | any(. == str);
  def match_genre(regexp): .genres.primary | any(match(regexp));
Together with https://git.sr.ht/~q3cpma/rymscrap to get the actual JSON.

Re: Steve Albini has died

#77
In my mind, Albini holds a plain speaking American slot besides Hunter S. Thompson, for the similarity of these remarks:

  "I imagine a trench, about four feet wide and five feet deep, maybe
  sixty yards long, filled with runny, decaying shit." - Steve Albini

  "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long
   plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die
   like dogs. There's also a negative side.". - Hunter S Thompson
When you're good, and you know it, not because people tell you or shower you with praise, but because it comes from love, from the heart, then you know there's nobody whose ass you have to kiss.

Steve Albini was an exceptionally competent and emotionally generous person who spoke about the industry as the wide-eyed boy saw the Emperor's "New Clothes". Not bitter or superior or excoriating, just casually pointing out the truth; that it's a stinking corrupt pile of shit that deserves to die. Wish there were more Steve Albinis in the tech world, confident going their own way and not sucking up to big-tech pedlars of digital dross.

Time for some Pixies...

Sad loss. RIP.

Re: Steve Albini has died

#80
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…

I can really recommend Songs About Fucking by Big Black. Especially their dope version of Kraftwerk's Das Model.
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