His comment abour reading/playing scrabble while doing takes was pretty interesting. On the handful of recorsing experiences I've had, esp during the mixing process, yr ears def get fried intensely listening to play backs over and over.
I recorded with Steve recently and he was reading Peter Morris's "A Game of Inches", an inside baseball history. And I can attest that he always noticed if someone flubbed a part or whatever.
― chr1sb3singer, Thursday, 10 May 2012 15:17 (eleven years ago) link
"Albini said she eats nothing but potatoes"stuff like this is pretty interesting! (to me, anyway) i liked his description of KK Null's natto feast. ian mackaye seems really touchy when people ask about his eating habits, though.
― Philip Nunez, Thursday, 10 May 2012 17:07 (eleven years ago) link
i hadn't see him express regret about the pixies comments before
― Bandersnatch Cumberbund (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 10 May 2012 17:49 (eleven years ago) link
he was sort of apologetic in a recent tape op interview too. albini, so mellow.
― tylerw, Thursday, 10 May 2012 17:54 (eleven years ago) link
what's weird is that i always thought he was fucking around in the first place. like meaningless shit talk for laughs, you know? the fact that he describes it now as mean-spirited sincerity, rather than straight-up trolling, is a bit disappointing.
― 10. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” – Tom Cruise (contenderizer), Thursday, 10 May 2012 17:54 (eleven years ago) link
I always figured he was serious, pixies don't seem like his thing
― Bandersnatch Cumberbund (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 10 May 2012 17:56 (eleven years ago) link
yeah, i guess not. he did good work for them, though, and they helped put one another on the map.
― 10. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” – Tom Cruise (contenderizer), Thursday, 10 May 2012 17:58 (eleven years ago) link
yeah i dunno, that album sounds great but i expect the pixies were going places either way and i think steve would have done just fine either way....also shit is like almost 30 years ago, it must be weird to be held to all these things you said that long ago
sometimes ILXor & my little dog loutallica partner chr1s b just got back from recording w/steve and sounds like it was the best experience ever, basically
― Bandersnatch Cumberbund (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 10 May 2012 18:00 (eleven years ago) link
sweet!re; the pixies, whenever i read interviews with him now, it seems like it's beside the point for him whether he likes the bands he's recording or not. also, he's got a long-running working relationship w/ kim deal it seems, they must like each other personally.
― tylerw, Thursday, 10 May 2012 18:06 (eleven years ago) link
It was! He even said something nice about our band in the Reddit! Ha!
― chr1sb3singer, Thursday, 10 May 2012 18:07 (eleven years ago) link
It was not better then making "Little Dog" fwiw, that experience was way more honest
― chr1sb3singer, Thursday, 10 May 2012 18:08 (eleven years ago) link
read him say somewhere (believe it was in the 33 1/3 Spiderland book) that he's regretful about some of his behavior in the early recording days. mentioned Surfer Rosa and Tweez as examples of albums he kind of arrogantly imposed his "vision" upon instead of giving the band what they wanted. also, he was doing pranky/creepy things like mic'ing break room conversations.
― circa1916, Thursday, 10 May 2012 18:08 (eleven years ago) link
xp as good as albini is, i don't think he's ever created a whole new planetary system w/ one of his recordings.
― tylerw, Thursday, 10 May 2012 18:09 (eleven years ago) link
― chr1sb3singer, Thursday, May 10, 2012 1:08 PM (53 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
i mean, EA is a nice studio, but he can't duplicate my signature "Um Jammer Lammy promotional Fernandez travel guitar plugged direct into outdated ProTools" guitar sound
― Bandersnatch Cumberbund (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 10 May 2012 18:10 (eleven years ago) link
thanks for that link markers, I'm loving this
I learned to make records by being in punk rock bands, and those bands weren't interested in anybody else's opinion on their music, and actively resisted anybody trying to press the point. I started out making records that way and just carried on.
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 10 May 2012 18:14 (eleven years ago) link
and actively resisted anybody trying to press the point
press what point...they don't like punk or noisy stuff, so what
what exactly is there to resist, I wonder
― Master of Treacle, Sunday, 13 May 2012 04:26 (eleven years ago) link
resist engineers making bad brains sound like foghat, which apparently was going on a lot at the time.(this is apparently still going on)
― Philip Nunez, Sunday, 13 May 2012 06:15 (eleven years ago) link
i can't imagine steve really respecting anyone who didn't have a chip on their shoulder
― 10. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” – Tom Cruise (contenderizer), Sunday, 13 May 2012 06:15 (eleven years ago) link
I think one reason Albini has mellowed is that at just about 50 he's made it over the sell-out hump. That is, he's secure enough and successful enough that at the stage many of his peers must be scrambling to support the second half of their careers/lives, he doesn't need to hustle. He's made it this far without doing anything stupid, he's in a committed pseudo-marriage, he's got a good business, a good reputation, and he's done it all (cue the music) his way. I'd be pretty sanguine, too.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 13 May 2012 12:16 (eleven years ago) link
surfer rosa & tweez, albums that would not be as good as they are if albini hadn't imposed his vision on them - I would think that this might cause him to question the aesthetic he arrived at ("hands off") tbh
― cosi fan whitford (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Sunday, 13 May 2012 12:25 (eleven years ago) link
I dunno, as a sort of aesthete I can imagine him finding flaws in things that "work" because they deviate from his standard.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 13 May 2012 12:33 (eleven years ago) link
Josh, can you elucidate on his 'pseudo' marriage? Intrigued.
― Dick Move's Wardrobe (MaresNest), Sunday, 13 May 2012 13:00 (eleven years ago) link
Oh, nothing special. He's just been in a committed, very long term relationship with someone who he is not married to. But she is practically his wife, common-law stylee.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 13 May 2012 13:01 (eleven years ago) link
But what it boils down to is I actually think marriage matters. I actually think being married to somebody is important. And doing it out of some sense of momentum or nonchalant sort of obligation seems silly to me. It's the sort of thing that you should undertake quite seriously. And I don't think it's the hallmark of a relationship that it's "marriage-worthy." I think relationships can exist inside or outside of marriage, and I feel like the marriage can -- the wedding can occur at any point in a marriage as far as I'm concerned, you know? And if you gave people the option, everybody would ask for one of those really good fifty-year marriages. That's the kind of marriage everybody wants; they want one of them grow-old-together marriages. But you can't order 'em like that. You get a marriage and then you wake up fifty years later and realize you got one of the good ones. And I just see that as a continuous process, and I don't see any real rush to have a ceremony. I feel like the ceremony can happen anywhere along the line.
― fit and working again, Sunday, 13 May 2012 15:06 (eleven years ago) link
From interview with Mark Prindle.
― fit and working again, Sunday, 13 May 2012 15:07 (eleven years ago) link
(Quite sure they're married since that interview.)
― caro's johnson (Eazy), Sunday, 13 May 2012 15:25 (eleven years ago) link
2009, I guess:
http://d3j5vwomefv46c.cloudfront.net/photos/large/27986101.jpg?key=16001200&Expires=1336930159&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIYVGSUJFNRFZBBTA&Signature=Wxlr~qY0xOo1wuORIOkLg4nkt9gZQUR-lIAMO-rlw4X8E~OjwPiOgGZmxM2bpuA94gfCs8jS57AN04M772luEklx1oDvO5zLNbTK-p2AFq6mcYVXMZtxeZCciVMb-tsIlSL-GmXt1DP8DFwqjaWhN9KDNMu-6BooEm6YJqiYl8g_
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 13 May 2012 17:13 (eleven years ago) link
The interesting thing afaic is his repeated insistence to "make music for yourself, not for others" which is some strange dogma that I can't comprehend
This is 100% true gospel dogma whatever you want to call it. You HAVE to make music for yourself. I mean it's kind of a selfish thing and kind of an ego trip but so is getting in front of a group of people and saying "Stand right there and watch me make these sounds for an hour!" At the end of the day, the only audience you have is you. Your popularity will go in waves, there will be shows where you are playing and nobody gives a shit, or nobody shows up, and you have to be able to deal with it. And if you are not making music for yourself then at that moment you will feel a psychic shock of worthlessness and you may as well just be working in an office, at least you'll be making some decent money.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, 13 May 2012 17:27 (eleven years ago) link
Super looking forward to those interviews, btw! Thanks for the link.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, 13 May 2012 17:28 (eleven years ago) link
adam otm, all you can really do is trust your gut and hope a few other people have somewhat similar guts
― some dude, Sunday, 13 May 2012 17:30 (eleven years ago) link
i love that photo.he looks sooo happy.he played the game his way, and he got what he wanted.lucky b*stard.re the cancer post : well, i could not read it for a few days for obvious reasons, but yesterday i did, and i'm glad.our situation was very different, but still, was wonderfully open and honest.
― mark e, Sunday, 13 May 2012 17:52 (eleven years ago) link
I always read about him talking shit about the Pixies but ive never really read any of those old interviews. Does anyone have any links? I'm pretty curious, all the interviews i can find are more recent.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, 13 May 2012 18:40 (eleven years ago) link
http://michaeldempster.com/post/1256694678
http://www.dementlieu.com/users/obik/arc/other/kreuzen_fe10.html
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, 13 May 2012 18:47 (eleven years ago) link
In the 1960s and '70s, the left began to recognize that internal political debate was being hampered by crippling "revolutionary" circumspectness -- couching every "he" as a "he or she," Referring to mankind as "humankind," trying to be inclusive in every way to everyone. It was ridiculous -- to the left -- and so the phrase "political correctness" was coined to make fun of this awkward, stilted, revolution-speak language. So, when someone would speak normally, and one of the forbidden language forms or pronouns was used, someone else -- as a joke -- would chime in with "that's not P.C." It was a way for the Left to make fun of itself in a way that it needed to and deserved. Most importantly, it recognizes overtly that the trivia that dogmatists might criticize are unimportant. It was a joke that made a moderate, sensible point of critique within the Left. The Right took hold of the term, using it to ridicule earnest attempts to make discourse more civil or policy more responsible, painting them with the same brush as the myopic, dogmatic revolution-speak it was originally intended to make light jest of. It is now assumed by the general public that this notion of "politically correct" speech was a serious one, and that the left tried to impose it on others, and that it is an example of the Left overreaching in social areas. This is patent bullshit, and I am disgusted that nobody who wasn't around at the time recognizes it. Using the term reinforces the success of this right-wing propaganda move, and I hate it. I hate orchestrated right-wing propaganda moves.
So, when someone would speak normally, and one of the forbidden language forms or pronouns was used, someone else -- as a joke -- would chime in with "that's not P.C."
It was a way for the Left to make fun of itself in a way that it needed to and deserved. Most importantly, it recognizes overtly that the trivia that dogmatists might criticize are unimportant. It was a joke that made a moderate, sensible point of critique within the Left.
The Right took hold of the term, using it to ridicule earnest attempts to make discourse more civil or policy more responsible, painting them with the same brush as the myopic, dogmatic revolution-speak it was originally intended to make light jest of.
It is now assumed by the general public that this notion of "politically correct" speech was a serious one, and that the left tried to impose it on others, and that it is an example of the Left overreaching in social areas. This is patent bullshit, and I am disgusted that nobody who wasn't around at the time recognizes it. Using the term reinforces the success of this right-wing propaganda move, and I hate it.
I hate orchestrated right-wing propaganda moves.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, 13 May 2012 19:06 (eleven years ago) link
I love the Shellac song "Ghosts". Did anything in particular inspire it or is there anything interesting about it you can share with us?
Just had the idea that if you could conjure ghosts it would be a pretty terrible power. Like you could just make somebody dead and a ghost just like that. Or take a regular dead person and make him a restless specter forced to roam the earth forever. And if the person with that power was a little girl, just amusing herself by making ghosts like she was making paper dolls or whatever. How cute and also horrible that would be. And then what kind of people would she do that to? Maybe a historical figure she learned about in school or another kid from the neighborhood or somebody from TV...
^^^love this, probably my fav shellac lyrics and i appreciate the insight
― call all destroyer, Sunday, 13 May 2012 22:30 (eleven years ago) link
― cosi fan whitford (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Sunday, May 13, 2012 8:25 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
this is sort of interesting to me--i think steve is still imposing his vision tbh, you can recognize his recordings instantly. maybe it's more like these days you know what you're getting if you record with him?
― call all destroyer, Sunday, 13 May 2012 22:31 (eleven years ago) link
i think he's just more inclined to slip his vision in through the back door when no one's looking
― 10. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” – Tom Cruise (contenderizer), Sunday, 13 May 2012 22:37 (eleven years ago) link
It's a little like the Dogme 95 folks not imposing their vision with recorded music, fake lights, etc.--when of course you can spot a Dogme 95 movie from a block away.
― caro's johnson (Eazy), Sunday, 13 May 2012 23:05 (eleven years ago) link
to be honest i can't hear any sonic difference between surfer rosa and doolittle -- maybe it's the MP3s?the stooges album sounded like a regular high-gloss rock album.
― Philip Nunez, Sunday, 13 May 2012 23:13 (eleven years ago) link
In a way yeah he seems more like an engineer, someone who knows how to get a good sound and use the right mics. He says thats lots of times producers are responsible for you know, hiring a saxophone or crafting the arrangement or basically co-writing the song as recording. On Surfer he suggested a tempo change and pushed for the in-studio sounds ("You effing die!") but you get the sense he thinks of his job as simply getting the best sonic representation of a song/band. This is why he doesn't take royalties, I'm sure with his work ethic, if he was laying down synth patterns and extra instruments and stuff, he'd want credit.
The difference is between scaled-down multi-track analog and like a far more expensive 24-channel digital system. If you can't tell the difference then I'd say he did a pretty terrific job!
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Monday, 14 May 2012 03:08 (eleven years ago) link
it also matters a lot who mixes the record and who they're answering to/who they feel their obligation is to (label vs. artist vs. themselves vs. idk "posterity" or something) -- mix is 1) an entirely different discipline from recording/engineering and 2) absolutely as important as the recording itself. I don't know who mixed those Pixies records but that'd be where I'd look most for differences.
― cosi fan whitford (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Monday, 14 May 2012 03:18 (eleven years ago) link
surfer rosa was all albini. doolittle was a gil norton production but some other dude mixed it
― our love will change the world (electricsound), Monday, 14 May 2012 03:21 (eleven years ago) link
http://thequietus.com/articles/13250-steve-albini-interview-rapeman-shellac
The most amazing thing is that he says he tried to get Bill Withers to play ATP...BILL WITHERS!!...The guy has gone up a billion fold in my estimations...just too bizarre...my mind has been blown...
― The Pastiche Liberation Front (sonnyboy), Monday, 2 September 2013 22:18 (ten years ago) link
http://m.imgur.com/a/p0tKn
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 26 September 2013 17:16 (ten years ago) link
^^^Must read bit o' epistolary history.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 26 September 2013 17:18 (ten years ago) link
I heard about Albini's admiration of Bill Withers several years back. It makes sense, with Withers' mostly stripped-down production (at least on early albums), his down-to-earth demeanor, posing for the covers with his lunchbox on break from work. There's also a great story in the James Brown book about how Brown was having a diva fit on a small plane on the way to the Rumble In The Jungle concert in Zaire, until Withers pulled a gigantic hunting knife on Brown to tell him to STFU. Badass!
― Fastnbulbous, Thursday, 26 September 2013 17:27 (ten years ago) link
his description of the overwrought nature of bad recording processes reminds me a little too painfully of a recording I made, where we somehow turned what we thought was great material into a mediocre record by (1) the engineer not really getting our live sound and (2) way too much drawn out tinkering and rejiggering
― #fomo that's the motto (Hurting 2), Thursday, 26 September 2013 17:46 (ten years ago) link
awesome letter. so much respect for albini, especially that last bit about the money.
― Z S, Thursday, 26 September 2013 19:35 (ten years ago) link
https://twitter.com/beaunoise/status/383268011169181697
― congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 26 September 2013 19:37 (ten years ago) link
There's likely a bit of an underlying sales-tactic angle to all that though, don't you think?
xpost
― Evan, Thursday, 26 September 2013 19:38 (ten years ago) link