STEVE ALBINI

Auchtermuchty, to be precise.

Typical of the Proclaimers to come from a place with the most Scottish name ever.

... and the hometown of Jimmy Shand to boot! You couldn't make it up.

There are a lot of songs that are good songs that I don't want to hear and don't begrudge anyone else digging.

Thought the proper title was “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)”

Maybe he was thinking of Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles” (and only likes half of it)

Once in the late 80s/early 90s a friend and I were walking by The Bottom Line and there was a huge line around the block to get in. We asked who was playing and they told us in what I assumed at the time were Irish accents but of course might have been Scottish “The Proclaimers!” I’m not sure if we even knew who that was at the time. My friend said to me “James Redd, from the size of that line I was sure it was going to be The Rolling Stones playing a secret show or something like that.”

I would queue 500 blocks

Alongside 500 Jocks.

Think the proclaimers are basically fine, but appreciate that if I were Scottish I would most likely find them unbearable

no true scotsman (could possibly dislike them)

is how i break it down to an extent

wonder how harry lauder would go down in 2023, guessing "poorly"

tbf too the Proclaimers twins are prob the biggest selling musicians who also somewhat resemble Steve Albini, facially

Birmingham City fans sing Harry Lauder at every game ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(Josh, what’s yr Bluesky handle?)

@joshinop I don't think there will be much excitement on there from me, but it's always nice to connect!

Proclaimers, Buddy Holly brings to mind the DLR quote "The reason the critics all like Elvis Costello better than me is because they all look like Elvis Costello."

500 miles is a great song. I liked it, then I made fun of it and now I’ve gone back around to liking it.

dlr
elvis costello
even the proclaimers
but esp buddy holly

alex, the question is "who are artists better than steve albini?"

Hmm. “500 Miles” sounding pretty good on this listen. Maybe I will try it at karaoke as a way to work on my comedy IRN-BRU accent.

Xpost Sorry, it was people Rivers Cuomo thinks he looks like.

lol

if you live in scotland 500 miles is akin to freebird or somesusch, although i'd take freebird over it in a second.

Do people yell out out “500 Miles!” at every gig by every band in Scotland?

of course.

Every band in Scotland plays it.

Then a haggis walks backwards on the stage while a kilted piper plays

wpm

I prefer “500/20 Miles” myself

500 Miles is brilliant and it's still not one of my favourite Proclaimers songs : )

FWIW I'm pleasantly surprised by his Specials love - I unconsciously (and unfairly) assumed Jamaican or JA-derived music would be off his remit somehow - but then I remembered didn't he also dig UB40 in the early 80s?

Which is the best Proclaimers song in your opinion?

Probably it's There's a Touch. Though I cannot conceive of it being up ilx's alley at all. Followed by Throw the 'R' Away.

What can I say, their Best Of MVs DVD was foundational stuff for me so it's partly a nostalgia thing but I never 'outgrow' such attractions. I'm quite happy to give some, if not all of the love that Folk Festival pop needs here.

Throw The 'R' Away for me

Based on his taste and his no-no list, I bet Steve is the ultimate "Cabaret Voltaire personally betrayed me after Red Mecca" guy

lololol

I know he did criticize 80s Wire.

I'm with James Redd. I wouldn't call it a favorite, but after listening to it a few times, "500 Miles" sounds like a pretty good single to me.

I listened to that whole album for the first time the other day, it was pretty solid.

That album even has its own POLL

Do you know what their most recent album is called?

He seemed to have kicked up a fuss today amongst Jeff Rosenstock fans

I'd tread lightly that's a tough bunch

for anyone who came here to see why people are upset and didn't expect a bunch of posts about the Proclaimers

Not often admitted, but merch cuts are 100% negotiable, to the extent that my bands over 40+ years have never, not once, ever paid them. When agents make deals, they don't care about ticket surcharges, merch cut or other leaks; they don't affect their cut. The band has to insist. https://t.co/EoX5fHiz5J

— steve albini (@electricalWSOP) September 5, 2023

Albini and Rosenstock ended up saying nice things about one another, but people were posting that German tour diary

When it’s not “venue sells,” how does a venue audit / collect? They won’t let you fold up the table until you show them your books and write them a check for 10% of the cash you took in?

Rosenstock correctly pointing out that Shellac (with a band leader whose day job isn’t Shellac) doesn’t necessarily play by the same rules as most bands.

Somebody asked him on Bluesky about recording Sunn O))) and his responses were interesting, so I'm pasting them here.

>>Have you done an interview where you discuss the technical aspects of recording SunnO)))? Such a crazy thing to try to capture.

>>It was hard! Rendering subtleties of texture at 130 dB is no joke, and they were discerning about every small detail. Very satisfying to have the playback sound convincing but a lot of work to get there.

>>But what did you do differently than other loud (but not as loud) sessions to capture those subtle textures?

>>It seems like I'm ducking the question but there's no shortcut. I listened to each of the amps, found a mic that suited each one, maintained phase and polarity between them, listened and adjusted on a per-song basis, sometimes swapping out the whole arsenal, used ambient sound judiciously...

>>Some mics I might have used at lower volume simply couldn't cope, some were surprisingly okay with it. It was not just the loudest thing ever recorded in the studio, it was the loudest thing I've ever witnessed. The whole building was vibrating and it's a pretty sturdy building.

>>Any particular standouts in the representing-high-volume dept (asking for myself)? I assume it would be unhealthy for most ribbon mics...

>>Unless a note hits the resonant frequency of the ribbon (typically quite low, but not impossible) modern ribbons (AEA, Beyer, Royer) can handle pretty high spl, and some shorter old school ribbons (RCA 74, BK5) do just fine as well. I know I used some but without my notes I have no idea which atm.

>>Is it even possible to evaluate the live sound with actual human ears? Or was it mostly about test recordings and iterating mic choice and placement?

>>Oh, the sound in the room, the live sound was what we were shooting for. Steve and Greg would spend quite some time dialing in a precise sound for each piece, and that was that. Loud or quiet, first task of an engineer is to listen to something and make a recording to recreate that sense memory.

Gibby f'n hates Steve Albini!

https://instagram.com/underdoser?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==

Anyone know what Steve said about the Buttholes recently?

probably mad about the disrespect shown here:

Been thinking about this picture of Steve Albini playing guitar while wearing an upside down Butthole Surfers t shirt. pic.twitter.com/tn1kWwJMS4

— Father Sean Misty (@seanieviola) October 6, 2019

He looks like Martin Starr in Freaks & Geeks.