STEVE ALBINI

well there wasn't a whole lot more to do online in the 90s

Albini was on the chugchanga-l mailing list in ‘94-‘95 as I recall

90s abini usenet group, thems is stern vibes

"trying to find out more about what people think about this music"

Doesn't sound like Albini to me.

Albini--known for seeking out feedback on his productions from randos

to what end would a person have lied about that. the '90s!

I for one have never heard of an adult lying to a younger person on the internet about who they are and attempting to build rapport by asking them questions about their interests, in the ‘90s

this happened to me in 1995 but with Phil Rudd of AC/DC

When I was working in a record store in London during the 90s a chatty customer said that he was Jonathan Richman, and that he was shortly going to be doing a gig with Hawkwind.

That's interesting b/c someone was impersonating Richman more recently, even booking shows in his name I think (here in the US)... it made the news

Let Me Google That For Me: https://www.theolympian.com/news/local/article253810488.html

I just imagined Hawkwind opening for Richman and made me think of the notion of mega acts supporting JR. Missy Elliot, U2, Pink Floyd...

Pink Floyd opening for Jonathan Richman: stunning light show/psychedelic opener ends and house lights come on, JR walks onto stage with his acoustinc and explains to the manager why the air conditioner has to be turned off ("it's too noisy"). Launches into "I'm a Little Dinosaur." Lighters fill the air.

Maybe the closest JR and Hawkwind came to sharing a stage:

Sex Pistols played to one of the biggest crowds of the weekend at the second day of the Barcelona leg of the Summercase Festival last night (July 19).

The UK punk veterans played an extended, cover-packed set that climaxed with unique takes on Hawkwind‘s ‘Silver Machine’ and Jonathan Richman‘s ‘Roadrunner’.

lol

reading the SST records biography and had a quick chuckle at Albini's fairly OTM description on the Hüsker Dü crew:

Greg looks like he stepped out of GQ, with cropped hair, trimmed mustache and muscular build; Grant could replace anybody in Motorhead (maybe two people in Motorhead); and Bob looks like a St. Paul gas station attendant after a hard day's work.

In case anyone missed it back-when, here is a great story of a writer coming across an email address that turns out belongs to Eddie Van Halen, which sets in motion a long mostly epistolary friendship:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/eddie-van-halen-secret-friendship-emails-1367678/

Why was that guy emailing addresses he found on LexisNexis? Kinda weird…

Relatedly, I saw this on Threads today… don’t know who the guy is, but I guess it’s plausible enough.

wait eddie van halen is dead?!

Quick, nobody mention Prince or Bowie either.

Bowie was another early internet user who quite happily chatted to people on obscure boards about music, art etc

Why was that guy emailing addresses he found on LexisNexis? Kinda weird…

Sending emails like this has become something of a pastime, an exercise in nostalgia when the drudgery of my workday becomes too much to handle.

Good thing he didn’t discover posting on ILM I guess… never would’ve gotten the story!

Electrical Audio had a forum where Albini was a regular poster, would not be remotely surprising if he was frequenting music chat rooms or Usenet back in the day.

Advice from the font on mic'ing guitars
https://www.premierguitar.com/artists/guitarists/steve-albini-always-in-session

Interesting, thanks

Strings and Picks

-Ice picks with the points cut off
-D’Addario XLs (.012–.016–.020w–.028–.038–.048)

Electrical Audio had a forum where Albini was a regular poster

https://bsky.app/profile/electricalwsop.bsky.social/post/3kprvpyaqoh24

Finalizing Fall US tour dates and my frustration with with exorbitant ticket fees is at peak. It's like pulling teeth to have tickets available at face value, which we insist on. Being fair, some venues are fine and cooperative, but this whole practice should be illegal.

For the unfamiliar, venues typically contract a ticket agency to sell their tickets for them online, and sometimes these deals require all ticket sales to go through the agency. The agencies add ticket fees on top of the face value, and kick back a percentage of the fee to the venue.

In the best case, the fees are modest, a couple of bucks, and charging a premium for the convenience of online buying seems reasonable. In bigger markets the fees can amount to an extra 30% over face value, with the venue getting on the order of 1/3 of the fee kicked back.

This is preposterous on its face, tantamount to fraud and should not be tolerated by anybody. It persists because the fiction of "face value" allows negotiation of deals with bands that *look* fair, but contain a massive hidden payout to the venue or promoter. Booking agents are complicit in this...

Because the money doesn't come out of their end. Bands are often completely in the dark about these fees so as not to rile them up, and the "face value" of tickets is at an all-time high to begin with. It's a cozy one-hand-washes-the-other arrangement between them, a very close analog to merch fees.

In both cases, if you look at the deal on paper, the band may be receiving a reasonable percentage of the gig income and the agent gets their fee from that part, but there is a hidden cost born by the audience, unaccounted and ignored that is a naked money grab by the venue.

And in the most egregious cases, tickets bought at the box office are still padded with ticket surcharges and fees. They've taken to charging you for the privilege of buying a ticket. Exactly like charging you five bucks to unlock the pump before you buy gas.

Most bands are insulated from this situation by having booking agents as intermediaries. It's only bands that get into the granular detail of their shows that even know that there are ticket fees attached, much less that their "$25" ticket actually costs a fan $34.

Hey I know it's rough out there earning a living in the arts. I'm aware. I know venues are squeezed by agents for absurd guarantees and they're looking for a way to get over, trying to find an edge. I'm aware and that's bullshit too. But it's fraudulent and reprehensible and everybody should say so.

good post

John Fogerty and Bonnie Raitt tickets are currently over $200 for shows here that won't even happen for six months

Thread is currently pretty Albini-active. Someone asks:

what do you make of what the cure accomplished with ticketmaster? (www.vulture.com/2023/04/the-...) is this kind of pressure campaign even possible for indie acts that play midsize venues? does the fact that more big acts don't do what robert smith did just reflect negligence on their part?

Albini responds:

Like I said, it's an issue largely (intentionally) kept in the dark for the bands. Robert Smith took an interest and had influence because of his stature, but most bands don't know about the street price of their tickets, and by the time they find out it's too late to do anything.

It's plainly true that every line of every deal for every show is negotiable, but weeding through it all and getting venues to agree is a huge drag on time, energy and patience, and I totally get why most bands just abdicate/delegate it to their booking agencies. It sucks having to do it.

The major problem with booking agencies is they have no incentive to make deals efficient or transparent. They get a percentage of what the band gets paid, and cannot care about anything else on the page. If inefficient shadiness gets the band an extra grand, they get an extra $150 and that's great.

I’ve definitely ran into “the $25 ticket is really $34” this year at semi-indie venues (local promoters who book at multiple venues). After getting burned a few times, I just add it in now when considering going (which sucks).

The fees are one thing but something that really gets me is when venues are directly partnered with third party ticket brokers through the app I am forced to download to access venues, I have def been looking for tickets to "sold out" shows where the venue app has helpfully linked me to these brokers for "somewhat" greater than face value tickets, where is the oversight that keeps the venues honest?

enjoying Steve's gear nerd Youtube career

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxZwaqVBo-k

I love it that he calls them 'amplifiers' instead of 'amps'.

Nice to see this from Steve.

I am shocked by how excited I am for a new Shellac album.