STEVE ALBINI

yeah rid of me is good not bad. elvis costello here is, as has been the case once or twice in the past, wrong about what constitutes good production for a rock and roll record

fwiw i was not arguing that albini is a bad producer upthread, hes clearly got a stack of classics to stand on. just that he clearly works with a certain number of bands obviously that dont ask very much of him, and hes happy to oblige. Which, whatever, great, everybody gets what they want, he always talks about what a journeyman he is. I dont think its a challop to confess that yes I've heard a large number of mediocre records over the last several decades that i wouldnt have guessed were albini joints if i hadnt seen his name on the sleeve. he has access to a great and unique sound, but i also dont think that he unmistakably imbues it into every record that he hits record on.

re:racial stuff its not even up for debate that albini is a longtime habitual user of certain words that are not ok in polite company, both in "ironic badboy" context and "i was just quoting what that rapper said" context, up to the present day

Albini had a pretty gross rant about running into Odd Future a few years ago at a festival.

Then there was the thing where an electronic musician asked for sample permission and he sent a screed about electronic music after 1979 that the guy used as marketing material. Not racialized there IIRC but aggressively stupid as screeds go.

to me, steve albini not liking rap or electronic music and being kind of an asshole is cool. he’s a curmudgeonly and a purist, it’s completely in character. who cares?

what a guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuOGBe5XW_U

the purism thing is the kind of shit wankers like simon reynolds were praising morrissey for when they knew openly defending his racism would be a bad look

even lester bangs had stopped defending this kind of shit before albini became a thing

Costello described something that happens to me at least once a year: he saw a live performance (in this case PJ Harvey on The Tonight Show) and then was disappointed by the official recording.

Been experiencing this back to being blown away by X doing a quiet, simple “See How We Are” on MTV’s The Cutting Edge and excitedly buying the LP and hearing a song that would never have reached my heart because of how it was arranged and recorded.

Some of this can be the engineering, but there’s also the collage of takes and layers, and the difference between a live performance with an audience and the performances in the studio, and the mixing and finessing. My favorite Shellac recording is the Live at the BBC “The End of Radio”: it has the high-wire performance of a single take in front of a massive audience. PJ on Leno (posted above) has that same energy and simplicity.

Wondering what Costello might think of the sound on Zeni Geva's "Total Castration".

great band

tbf there is nothing on earth better than PJ's Leno's performance

maybe the Albini PJ album can be the one that finally turns me into a fan

be sure to turn it up

Starless and Bible Black levels of dynamic range

Speaking of which, I've always sort of loosely thought of this Bill Reiflin album as King Crimson produced by Albini:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Siba1wuCaS0

that is sweet, never heard of him

relistened to rid of me, it is the best album ever, particularly the "dry" -> "me-jane" section

ha yeah i listened to it a couple times yesterday and it's hilarious that "exhibit A" for the prosecution is a fucking amazing classic rock album

In my case, I love the sound of Dry, the album, best. I love the *songs* on Rid, but it's the sound of the record that keeps me from playing then that often, even though I don't think it sounds terrible or anything. I have to be in the right mood. For sure it's the most likely of her formative works my family would probably tell me to turn off, lol.

ups, Rieflin, who died last year I think, was most recently R.E.M's drummer and in the most current lineups of King Crimson. He was also in Ministry, among other industrial projects. I have no idea how he hooked up with Robert Fripp, but the solo albums he put out with Fripp and Trey Gunn in the band are pretty awesome.

ah interesting, i don't know a whole lot about king crimson post-discipline probably why i don't know him, sounds like a pro's pro for sure

Rieflin was still with KC when I saw them in July 2017. Given the number of health problems he had, only revealed at the time of his obituary, plus the death of his wife before him, that fact kind of astonishes me.

Found this Q interview from 1994 where Elvis Costello's comments are not exactly in agreement with his more recent comments about the album:

"The atmosphere of it is great but I had no idea what she was singing about and do you know what? I don't care. I'm not the right age. From what I could gather, it seemed to be a lot about blood and fucking. But I don't need to pore over it like someone who identifies directly with her. I don't want to be one of these middle-aged guys who turns up with the baseball hat on the wrong way round."

"Q: Have you heard anyone who's made you fear for your job?

I don't think anyone would want my job (laughs). PJ Harvey I really liked for the sound and the overall commitment. I loved Björk's album. To me it sounded like a dance album arranged for a jazz quartet. I've always liked her voice though. I remember going to see her with The Sugarcubes and your man with the trumpet was shouting his fucking head off. I was like, Shuddup! I can't hear her sing! Lyrically, I liked Aimee Mann's record. She has that ability, like Chris Difford, to draw you into her world through sheer attention to detail. To me, it's very reassuring that three of the albums I've liked most are by women. The guys are just boring at the moment, the young guys more boring than anyone."

i love the sound of this album albini is obviously such a creep cancelling is not a real thing

Genuinely charmed by people trying to "out" me regarding stuff that had print runs in the tens of thousands, bands that toured the world, stuff that was already reported on by Pitchfork... whatever. I am not afforded the luxury of secret shame, guys. Knock yourselves out.

— steve albini (@electricalWSOP) October 12, 2021

a thread

I certainly have some 'splainin to do, and am not shy about any of it. A lot of things I said and did from an ignorant position of comfort and privilege are clearly awful and I regret them. It's nobody's obligation to overlook that, and I do feel an obligation to redeem myself...

— steve albini (@electricalWSOP) October 12, 2021

I'm overdue for a conversation about my role in inspiring "edgelord" shit. Believe me, I've met my share of punishers at gigs and I sympathize with anybody who isn't me but still had to suffer them.

— steve albini (@electricalWSOP) October 12, 2021

Good for him.

About time!!

I disagree this is a problem or ridiculous. People of privilege expecting not to have to take ownership of their own words and actions, like fucking grownups, that's ridiculous. These were formative experiences for me, and owning the embarrassment of them is *my* responsibility.

— steve albini (@electricalWSOP) October 12, 2021

Wow

i couldn't find what this was in response to. who out there thinks they are some amazing detective who has uncovered unknown Albini nastiness?

Good question

Zoomer: "Songs About What-ing?"

i appreciate the context he includes there, not to excuse, but to explain. these types of discussions seem to usually occur with no context at all and this one probably will too but that is about as clear-eyed a statement as possible.

Good for him; I know at least a dozen white dudes who were awkward, ignorant music nerd proto-edgelords 20 or 30 years ago who said all kinds of vile shit punching downward at people less privileged than them, and I know for sure (or feel pretty confident) that the majority of them see the world in a much different way now and are lucky that the things they said no longer follow them around because they were never captured in print or on video.

The ones who doubled down on it though...

re: what this was in response to — random responses to this:

It's not hard to reconcile that Dave Chappelle, once he got rich enough to be comfortable for life, reverted to ideas suited to people who feel entitled to certainty and comfort in their notion of the world, including their perception of others. You know, regular asshole stuff.

— steve albini (@electricalWSOP) October 8, 2021

About time!!

fwiw I have seen several wokebini instances in recent years - this interview from February is good

Lol the post eazy highlighted definitely changes the context of this

He seems like an ok guy now, so much so that I overlook his penchant to tweet about poker (which would normally warrant an immediate unfollow).

Never really been a fan, but this is an excellent tweet

I disagree this is a problem or ridiculous. People of privilege expecting not to have to take ownership of their own words and actions, like fucking grownups, that's ridiculous. These were formative experiences for me, and owning the embarrassment of them is *my* responsibility.

— steve albini (@electricalWSOP) October 12, 2021

Albini has always (or long as I can remember) been an OK guy, as far as I know. And I forgive him the poker tweets because he's good at it! (And cooking, too.) Either way, he has of course never been shy about speaking his mind. What's relatively new is that he seems willing to preemptively speak his mind and participate in the (more) public discourse, not as a reactionary talking head good for a quote but as a leader of sorts.

well the next thing he can do is admit that, part and parcel to his status as king Edgelord, his attitudes about music other than his vaunted indie and punk were hideously bigoted… specifically his comments re: hip-hop to John Leland in Spin in '85 or '86… and he can also say he's sorry for referring to VH as "the Halen," as one would refer to Priest or Maiden, in his capacity as the cub reporter for whichever Montana newspaper it was…

I bet he was a little asshole in kindergarten too

I enjoy some of the edgelord-era Albini stuff, not the things vm is referring to there, more the scathing takedowns of bands like Pixies or whatever. I know that's not what he was referring to in those tweets. More just the withering, yes-they-are-as-lame-as-you-imagined type stuff, which, even though he has apologized profusely for it, still seems like it was probably right otm:

Their willingness to be 'guided' by their manager, their record company and their producers is unparalleled. Never have I seen four cows more anxious to be led around by their nose rings

I wonder if his music tastes have changed much or does he just listen to The Mentally Ill and MX-80 Sound?

I wonder if his music tastes have changed much or does he just listen to The Mentally Ill and MX-80 Sound?

― Maresn3st, Wednesday, October 13, 2021 8:20 AM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

He likes Leather Nun too

The tweets by Todd Trainer's drummer are pretty consistent with my interactions with him off & on for last twenty-ish yrs

Sorry he's Todd's *guitar player*, I forget Todd plays drums cuz he's the frontman

and he can also say he's sorry for referring to VH as "the Halen,"

Have heard this said "in the wild", so giving Albini a pass on that one.
I once crossed a (v.small) picket line of protestors outside a R@peman gig in London, sorry all.

it is a deeply shameful band name and
i do not care if it's from a comic
i do not care if it was the 80s
i do not care that the project didn't last very long
i do not care that he apparently apologized in april 2020 on some random podcast about it

i have yet to see evidence of understanding of exactly how bad it is