UKH

Pretty shocked to hear of the death of Steve Albini at the tender age of 61.

He recorded a great many of my favourite albums from Pixies to Joanna Newsom. Uncompromising and honest, his abrasive nature mellowed over the years and I've enjoyed listening to various interviews and talks with him over the years.

In reply to pasbury:

No! I saw Big Black a couple of times, and Rapeman - what an experience those gigs were! The cliché "we won't see his like again" is probably true in Steve Albini's case.

In reply to pasbury:

No!

That’s ruined my day. I heard Colombian Necktie on the John Peel show and bought Songs About F**king the next day. Never saw BB live but did see Rapeman, 45 mins or so of incredibly tightly played abrasive noise with lots of confrontation from Albini. 

There was recent article/interview with him where he contextualises and expresses regret for his more extreme outbursts of provocation. He came across extremely well, which didn’t surprise me.

Oddly my gym listening Spotify book right now is Michael Azzerad’s ‘Our band could be your life,’ and Big Black are up next.

RIP to one of the figureheads of my musical upbringing.

In reply to 65:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/aug/15/the-evolution-of-steve-albini...

In reply to pasbury:

Very sad. Loved Albini's work, and enjoyed his polemics and straight talking. His music was astonishing at times. Wingwalker by Shellac for example is amazing - the mix of sensitivity and power. And Pigpile by Big Black has to be amongst the very best live albums - even better than the studio originals - unrelentingly ferocious.  

RIP - The guy who invented fire.

In reply to pasbury:

That’s sad. The story of Nevermind and how he came to produce it is as Mesmeric today as it was when it happened. In Rock family tree terms he’s influenced an unbelievable amount of equally influential artists. I doubt we will see the likes of him again.
I blagged guest list for Shellac at The Fleece a few years back and the guy was just amazing; equally abrasive and endearing in equal measure both on and off stage. 

In reply to 65:

I'll be listening to Kerosene from Atomizer and digging out the couple of Shellac albums I own.

Yes I immediately remembered this too. It showed a maturity that I can aspire to live up to.

I also thought of his 'don't sell out or can't work for you' letter to Nirvana when asked to record In Utero.

I've been meaning to get that for years.

In reply to pasbury:

One of the all time greats and influential on a deep level on rock music from the past 40 years. Will be sorely missed.

On the note of "our band could be your life". Would strongly recommend. Went to an amazing gig at the Brudenell in Leeds about 15 years back of various local bands each picking a different artist from the book to do a cover set for. Blacklisters did Big Black and put on an absolute belter.

In reply to pasbury:

Seminal is a word that's banded about an awful lot. Spot on with Kerosene.

In reply to pasbury:

He also produced my favourite Wedding Present album (and therefore I suppose one of my favourite albums full stop): Seamonsters. 
RIP

In reply to pasbury:

Also sad to hear that, innovative producer who made records with some of my favourite bands. He had a distinctive style, never over produced, kinda pure and crisp, but hard, especially with the Punk stuff.

In reply to pasbury:

The Baffler have made his great essay 'The Problem with Music' free to read:

https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-problem-with-music

I first read it in their anthology Commodify Your Dissent (1997), and despite that book being one of the best collections of cultural criticism I've ever read, Albini's essay stood out a mile.

In reply to aln:

This is from the letter to Nirvana that I mentioned above, about what they should pay him; 

"5: Dough. I explained this to Kurt but I thought I’d better reiterate it here. I do not want and will not take a royalty on any record I record. No points. Period. I think paying a royalty to a producer or engineer is ethically indefensible. The band write the songs. The band play the music. It’s the band’s fans who buy the records. The band is responsible for whether it’s a great record or a horrible record. Royalties belong to the band.

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 f**king way I would ever take that much money. I wouldn’t be able to sleep."

Gives a measure of him. I really recommend reading the whole thing. 

It's a cliché to mention that he didn't consider himself a producer but a recording engineer. An expert in microphone choice and setup. And all the rest of it.

In reply to pasbury:

Great stuff.

In reply to pasbury:

From Molina for Steve...a different tempo...

youtube.com/watch?v=eWVcBaAy4A4&

In reply to pencilled in:

Am I being ignorant? I thought Butch Vig produced Nevermind and the late Steve Albini produced In Utero.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Anecdote is correctly attributed to Steve, but album was indeed In Utero. 

In reply to pasbury:

I am predicting that he will be cremated. I will leave the punchline to you.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

f&&k me I meant that, sorry. Multitasking. Again.