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/

This has really made me think more about what it might mean to own something a famous person once owned and I'm definitely coming down on realizing that's pretty meaningless to me. I don't know if that makes me an outlier or what. Just like... seeing Dylan's Chronicles and Please Kill Me book there for $100 each. I know both are really easy to find in almost every used bookstore I visit and both aren't hard to find new. So, for me, I just don't get excited to pay three figures just because Albini touched the book. Obviously if it was a used instrument or like a rare demo pressing or something, then I get the collector fuss. But it's just hard for me to get excited to buy a common as fuck items for insane prices just because so and so held it.

(Obviously, yes, I'm aware this is a fundraising thing for his estate more than anything else. I'm not knocking that at all, and godspeed to anyone excited about this stuff. I'm just realizing owning something just because a famous person owned it doesn't move the needle for me in the least.)

yep, that was my feeling when I saw a copy of Deep Purple's "Machne Head" for $40

If you're famous, you should autograph all your possessions. Even the most mundane things. "Own Elvis Costello's can opener! Signed!"

Everyone who has ever owned that album got it as a gag birthday present.

i am living proof that that is not true :)

The Billy Joel thing?

Yes. At first I thought it was referring to the shitty metalcore band, which would have been just about as surprising for Albini to own.

If you're famous, you should autograph all your possessions. Even the most mundane things. "Own Elvis Costello's can opener! Signed!"

― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson), Friday, May 23, 2025 9:17 AM

TANGENT!

you don't have to be famous to do this! i once found a gambit of 70s funk+80s hiphop vinyl at a charity shop. about 15-20 pieces total and all of them had "KEITH JACKSON" written in big red block letters across every cover. right in the middle, too! that was where i found 3 feet high and rising on lp in 1999. so keith jackson is kind of famous, if only to me personally.

Carolina Soul was in charge of auctioning off Chick Corea’s collection and I was mighty tempted to grab Chick’s copy of Bob Seger for four bucks just to contemplate the intersection of our three worlds. Forgot to grab it after the paycheck went through.

When David Roback’s estate put a bunch of gear up for sale there were old Mackie mixers and cheap early ‘90s digital effects boxes. All for a premium over non-fame touched but like $250 vs. $150. That stuff would have been cool to own - record or book owned by a famous person IDGI.

Keith Jackson was just doing something tons of people did back then; you gotta write your name on your records so when you take them to a party they don't get lost/claimed by someone else. My mum's copy of In The Court Of The Crimson King took this even further, she lists her school class number alongside her name... can't have some jealous early prog schoolids stealing her KC.

Reminds me that the best version of this sort of distribution of an estate, was that when you bought some of those big Go Betweens box sets, you got a book from Grant McLennan's personal library included. I am guessing Grant used to lend a lot of books and wanted to make sure he got them book, as that has 'Grant McLennan 82' printed inside the front page.

Lee Ranaldo is selling some SY gear via Reverb, and a lot of is a bunch of old toot, knackered amps and outboard gear that he admits he doesn't even know if they're still working, not a great look.

Sounds like the type of things SY should just donate to the Rock HOF Museum or the Smithsonian, especially if the gear was known to have been used on some key recording. If it's not playable, it would be no loss to have it behind glass.

I wonder if that copy of The Mentally Ill 7-inch is the one Nardwuar gave him.

Reminds me of the Lou Reed exhibit, where they displayed his record collection with a rotation of special items of note. One was an advance copy of Flaming Pie personally sent by McCartney with a signed letter from Paul and Linda. There wasn't any shrink-wrap so I presumed Lou had listened to it, but I remember thinking "man, would be awkward if it was still sealed in plastic and Paul came in one day and was like 'Hey!"

We are participating in this year's Open House Chicago on Sunday, October 19 (only, not on Saturday 10/18). We will be giving short tours led by studio staff in roughly 15-20 minute increments from 10am to 5pm. This is your opportunity to see the studio if you are not a prospective client or recording professional!

You do NOT need to RSVP or contact us ahead of time, just arrive at the studio at the time that's convenient for you, and if there is demand, we will be lining folks up along the sidewalk as a queue.

Hope to see you there (here)!

(This is from Electric Audio)

That's great. Open House Chicago is one of our favorite events of the year.

*Electrical

FACS - "Wish Defense" is really the perfect album to be the last thing he ever recorded. It's an encapsulation of his values, a really amazing band with amazing songs who can play their material well in the studio, huge unfettered drums, massive dubby bass, atmospheric sheet metal guitar, a cavernous sense of space. it's a fitting cap end to his career as a recording engineer.

Yeah, not to mention it being a Chicago band to underscore his long commitment to the city and local artists.

totally, Brian Case definitely being a fellow traveller and from the same scene/era

Saw FACS open up for Swervedriver, and without knowing they recorded with Albini turned to my friend right after and said that was the most Albini thing ever.

Damn that's a sick bill

The second-last(?) Steve Albini recording session coming out end of November. Mint Mile, a band led by Tim Midyett from Silkworm, releasing andwhichstray.

https://mintmile.bandcamp.com/album/andwhichstray

In the release notes, Midyett writes, “Steve and I both flew back to Chicago from different locations on Sunday, May 5th. Two days later, Steve was dead from heart failure.” Albini recorded an album in the south of France, flew home, started work almost immediately on the FACS LP, then died over the course of a few days.

The annual Letters to Santa night is live-streaming now. Tweedy, Fred Armisen, others.

Also, on a separate note, good story on how an unreleased Jason Molina song ended up on the new Mint Mile album (SA's second-to-last recording session).