STEVE ALBINI

''Maybe GYBE should try writing songs. I mean, if Mogwai can do it...''

they are not v good at it callum.

um, he's not just a recording engineer sundar. shellac, rapeman and big black were/are good rock bands.

oh... don't forget the record buttons! and those level knobs! oh shit... and the pan knob!

(really tho... all respect due...)
m.

I'm just wondering, I mean, I like some of Albini's stuff as a guitarist, and I certainly own no shortage of Albini-produced/recorded/engineered alb's, but I buy those to hear the band, not the Bean.

I mean, I wouldn't eat burnt fries just because they were made with PEI spuds.

Skronk!

sundar you are needed on those threads about Pop processes and performers.....
It looks like you'd be on the 'Pop Personalities! They're GrrrrrrrrATE!' side of things, since there's an implication from the above that the engineering/musician thing should be just be a backroom work-like function? Or have I just misinterpreted a joke?
(I'm not having a go here - I'm genuinely curious....)

you're kidding, right? his are the dryest drums i can think of.

oh no it's INDIE!

been reading the luke haines book where he speaks fondly about steve albini (and NO ONE ELSE at all ever), which got me thinking about that 2+2 thread where albini answered a bunch of questions about his career. i read all through it a few years back and im sure he spoke about luke haines/auteurs but i can't find it on there, any ilxors remember?

Albini and gf do a lot of work for charity, talk about it, are hampered by US postal service

that is so fucking inspiring

not the post office security crap, albini's secret santa thing

TO THE ONE TRUE SANTA ABOVE, THIS IS MY etc.

that is an awesome thing to do. Silly postal service.

The couple contacted U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., who told them he would look into the post office's policy change. But after talking to postal officials, Davis decided he agreed with the policy change.

"Better to be safe than sorry, that what my momma used to tell us," Davis said. "You can't be too protective."

Well... Yes, you can.

That distinctive metallic chingety-ching guitar sound that Albini gets on 'Kerosene' etc... from now on I will only ever hear that as the sound of badly-mic'ed sleigh bells.

aw that's a real nice thing steve.

er, I thought Albini was a jerk. CONFUSING

i met him once when shellac played my friend's wedding and he was super nice and polite, even talked with their parents and everything.

Line-up for next week's Letters to Santa benefit in Chicago. Second City has about 200 seats, so it's a nice, intimate place to see bands. I saw Shellac there at 3 a.m. a few years ago, for an audience of about 50; saw Tweedy, Robbie Fulks, and Jason Molina as well. The Blisters is Tweedy's kid's band--maybe 12 years old, now.

Again. Again. Again.
24 hours of improvisation and music.
Second City ETC
1608 N Wells St Chicago, IL
All-ages
$15 for entire 24 hours
Tickets available at the door only.
Tuesday December 15 6pm through Wednesday December 16 6pm
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=146133034046&ref=ts
Auction items, raffle prizes, music and funny

Confirmed Special Guests
7pm Jeff Tweedy
10pm Robbie Fulks
Midnight Asssscat with Horatio Sanz & Matt Walsh with Chicago Guests
3am Flash Mob Marching Band
6am Bonnie Prince Billy
Noon Nina Nastasia
2pm The Mountain Goats
4:30pm The Blisters

haha, Shellac plays weddings? wow. but yeah, it seems like Albini likes (or liked) being provocative, but most people who work with him seem to love the guy.

yeah basically my friends are super fans and his wife to be just emailed bob weston i think and ended up chatting with them about it...they basically had to pay enough to cover the opening touring band's room & board (had a band from NZ on the shellac tour) but anyway it worked out with their schedule and it was really fun, my old band got to open...

they played most of "la grange" and about 30 second of "shout at the devil" wish i recorded that set

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/9109/stevealbini02dx3.jpg

Steve Albini's cookery blog..

http://mariobatalivoice.blogspot.com/

he will always be some fuckin' derd niffer to me

Should poll those aliases

Fluss was Steve Albini's cat, who died at age 23 in 2003, whom he routinely credited to his own production work as a joke.

Variations: Fluss, World Famous Record Producer And Rocket Scientist

Shame that Fluss, World Famous Record Producer And Rocket Scientist produced one of the horrible ones. Bad Fluss!

The way John faced his mortality was inspirational. When my time comes, I hope I can follow his example. I hope when I die I go like John, embroiled in the middle of things, surrounded by people I love, doing the things that matter most. I hope I leave a mountain of shit unfinished, that I have a pan on the stove, a phone call waiting and a pencil in my hand. I hope I'm man enough to be thinking about tomorrow.

For all of us, the living, the dying and the someday dying, John Grabski III, you are a hero.

-steve albini

Listening to Labradford's Fixed::Context right now and wondering if Albini had anything to say about working with them and found this from labradford poll

i want to love the first song on Mi Media Naranja but the high-frequency tone drives me absolutely INSANE. i feel like an old man but it seriously ruins the song for me. at first i thought it was some sort of mistake or weird pressing issue but apparently they did it on purpose?

It's on purpose. I actually asked Steve Albini in person about it once (he engineered Fixed::Context, where a high pitched thing shows up again in the song 'David'). He shrugged and said 'those guys liked adding weird sounds.'

― Poliopolice, Wednesday, March 4, 2015 8:25 PM (nine years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_Uz6BO8QO0

Esben and the Witch - "The Jungle". My favorite piece of later-day Albini engineering. It is hard to imagine this post-rock build-up working without the drum sound, and the way each element has a turn in the foreground as it starts, yet it maintains the tone of a live performance. Also, the way the Sketches-of-Spain trumpet appears halfway through, and is mixed in the middle-ground, mournful but out of reach. Eventually all the elements dart around the synth gurgles, and come together for a metallic crescendo. So much to balance, while still maintaining the sound of a power trio + guests.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAWmOoVJvIU

Idk why this one popped into my head but I had a listen through this record for the first time in ages last night, fun French post-hardcore troika, kinda bare bones, you can see why they chose Steve to engineer the record.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWOlnglKDcI

Cranked SUNN O))) Life Metal this evening and although not my absolute favourite of theirs you can sense the love with which that huge sound was wrestled to tape. Amazing to hear tiny elements suspended in perfect clarity against the tectonic drones.

xp love that Sloy album, a friend gave it to me years ago and it still rocks!

Letter to Nirvana

https://x.com/Nirvana/status/1788363101068509223

Fucking legend.

Anyone knows if there is an Albini only version of Newsom’s Y’s? Not a fan of Van Dyke Parks arrangements for it.

That letter is amazing

Yeah I know he had a certain animosity about working with them but huge respect for doing it without compromising his morals.

goddammit. pic.twitter.com/zhjXgERq1q

— apr-y-l (@aprylhm) May 9, 2024

I need to watch that whole episode

with Anthony Bourdain

I thought I'd seen every No Reservations but I don't remember the Chicago episode at all

at first i thought it was editing, but he goes into that huge sandwich for a bite or two and then follows it with some ice cream. that's some true midwest shit.

I was worried for a moment that was from the bad Chicago episode but it's from the good one. In the bad one, he also eats dinner with Mancow

Bourdain, that is. I doubt Albini would have ever been anywhere near Mancow

Had no idea he lived in my neighborhood. Was reading his Grub Street Diet and he mentioned buying pork shoulder at the grocery store I go to every week.

Here 'tis -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lZoLBU1egw

Ahhh, it's Parts Unknown. Completely forgot that it wasn't always No Reservations.

Saw Orchid last night in Brooklyn and their intro was having everyone listen to "Prayer to God" in the dark. It was kind of amazing but also made me sad.