STEVE ALBINI

yes, and i would trust he's entirely sincere there, but i do think bands come to him expecting a certain quality of sound

the room i long to have a glimpse of - the ultimate room - is the room they recorded exile on main st in. it sounds like the most amazing room you could possibly hang out in imo.

Except for maybe the swastikas that were allegedly carved/formed into the air vent registers, yeah.

you'd choose a certain barber wouldn't you

my aesthetic complaints about albini are definitely in large part a post hoc rationalisation of a strong personal dislike

re: jazz and hip hop, idk who he’s worked with, but I’ve seen him in action on the electrical audio forums talking shit about ornette coleman, calling him a charlatan and his music bullshit, and dismissing jazz musicianship in general as hackwork in ways that made it clear he doesn’t have a clue what it is or how it works. I’ve seen him dismiss hip hop as beyond contempt. he is regularly gross about women and music made by or deemed to be for them. this alternative personality he cultivates in interviews as a thoughtful open minded lefty feminist dude, whose approach to music is purely technical, is transparent but it seems to work

you can say this is all irrelevant if the music is good. but I’m sick of him being held up as a hero by people who would cancel anyone else for a small amount of the shit he’s said and done over the years

you can say this is all irrelevant if the music is good. but I’m sick of him being held up as a hero by people who would cancel anyone else for a small amount of the shit he’s said and done over the years

― Left, Monday, November 30, 2020 3:04 PM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

we're not talking about his music though, or do people who record with him have to be cancelled too?

I always think about all the hundreds of bands he records who are coming to chicago and asking him to do stuff that 20 engineers in their own hometowns could do, but are coming to him bc they want to have a record recorded by the famous guy. Which is not his fault of course, but still idk, its hard for me to take his "i'm just a regular ol Workin Jumpsuit Guy" thing straight when he obviously knows that a huge percentage of his job is just to have the name Steve Albini.

asking him to do stuff that 20 engineers in their own hometowns could do

citation fucking required

ok how many dozens of clips would you like me to embed of random albini-produced flat-sounding punk bands over the last 20 years that sound like they could have been recorded anywhere by anyone

rather than that, post something produced by anyone else that sounds like albini

xxxp I like some artists and albums he’s been involved with. idk i’d just like to see him being called out more and praised less bc there’s a wealth of material for the former

I love the idea of Rid of Me opening with this Leno intro, from the performance that won over Costello:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBZoL8wpZzU

I always think about all the hundreds of bands he records who are coming to chicago and asking him to do stuff that 20 engineers in their own hometowns could do, but are coming to him bc they want to have a record recorded by the famous guy. Which is not his fault of course, but still idk, its hard for me to take his "i'm just a regular ol Workin Jumpsuit Guy" thing straight when he obviously knows that a huge percentage of his job is just to have the name Steve Albini.

― turn the jawhatthefuckever on (One Eye Open), Monday, November 30, 2020 3:20 PM (thirty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this from the interview seems to acknowledge that imo:

"So you can by doing a little forensic investigation on their music and an honest conversation, you can usually figure out what they’re actually asking for when they ask to sound like the Jesus Lizard or Nirvana or whatever. And it’s normally something quantifiable."

the real takeaway here: pj harvey is the greatest.

otm

rather than that, post something produced by anyone else that sounds like albini

This is a really good question! The first thing that pops to mind is, I dunno, Led Zeppelin or something, but those albums sound so much better than his, even 50 years later. Then again, those albums sound better than almost anyone's albums, too.

rather than that, post something produced by anyone else that sounds like albini

close but the guitars aren't quite there imo

I always thought Jawbreaker's Bivouac sounded more stereotypically "albini-sound" (big thundering drums, loud guitars, low vocals) than 24-hour (and also that 24-hour sounded awful),
but the official engineer for that record is Albini's cat.

post something produced by anyone else that sounds like albini

Tim Mac who did a lot of Amphetamine Reptile stuff like Cows, Halo of Flies, Janitor Joe, Babes in Toyland was similar to the classic Albini Jesus Lizard zone but not nearly as good

close but the guitars aren't quite there imo

That is an excellent example of a precursor to the Albini drum sound and close enough for me on all other fronts.

Technical
Ben Fenner – engineer

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/benfenner

quite the cv

Just looked him up — he worked with Bowie on Outside, did a bunch of things with Steve Hackett...and was an (the?) engineer on Elvis Costello’s All This Useless Beauty. It’s all a rich tapestry.

Not very Albini-esque artists necessarily! But I found an interview where he talks about the need for clarity in sound so there's something shared there

in Spin mag in 1986, the mag's first piece re: Big Black, which was by John Leland, contained a jeremiad from SA re: "horrible beatbox rap." it may not evince racism qua racism, but Albini very clearly has a view of music in which anything straying from punk/hardcore/amerindie practices is pandering, false crap…it was very commonplace for me to encounter attitudes in the albini-adjacent Louisville scene that any african american popular music was false show biz shit antithetical to true punk-rock purism…

@ imago, I LOVE that song you posted-- that, to me, is Albini's production in its best context

I generally think Albini is "the best person for the job" for only about 20% of the albums he's worked on. Nina Nastasia is, to my mind, not in that 20%, not that it's bad, but I don't think it's the right union. PJ Harvey might not be, either, but I'm really glad they made that one record together (and am glad they haven't worked together again). He's "the best" for Jesus Lizard and Neurosis and Cheer Accident, no question. On the Taylor Swift thread, somebody was theorizing about a her recording with Albini and I cannot imagine that'd result in anything positive.

I don't know how Nina's records could be any better

he obviously makes her comfortable making music which is more important than anything production wise, though I think the production is perfect too

He's "the best" for Jesus Lizard and Neurosis and Cheer Accident, no question

emboldened, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and add GY!BE to this

xp yeah count me in as a fan of the sound of those Nastasia records, in particular the one w/Jim White

I’m not sure it has the typical Albini-sound, but I’ve always loved the engineering/production for Magnolia Electric Co.. I think he’s mentioned wanting to work with Neil Young and I always use that album as a reference for what I’d imagine would come out of recording Neil.

I think it's funny that Led Zeppelin was put up as a counterpoint because Albini produced a Page and Plant album and it sounded good, but also wouldn't be mistaken for Zep.

It's actually his production for Harvey, Nastasia, Breeders, Electrelane and Esben & the Witch that I like the best of his work, more than the Lizardy stuff. (Four or five records among my fav of all time in there). I like hearing some croak and grain in those singers' voices, at odds with the way those singing registers and melodies are usually captured. As I said on some other thread, I'd love to hear him record La Luz. Along those lines, Goat Girl do sound like they've already recorded with him

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

Producer, I think, was Dan Carey

Blessed Black Wings is fantastic, and I wish more metal was recorded that way, but I'm also glad they never worked together again.

also just wanna say extremely good call on "Destroyer", I could immediately recall the drum sound and it totally makes sense

O God yeah Axes is so good both as an art-rock album and production-wise

I’m not sure it has the typical Albini-sound, but I’ve always loved the engineering/production for _Magnolia Electric Co._. I think he’s mentioned wanting to work with Neil Young and I always use that album as a reference for what I’d imagine would come out of recording Neil.

Albany

end transmission off magnolia electric co is godlike

I believe albini just started recording that take when the band thought they were doing a rehearsal take

silkworm is probably his best musical relationship

Wow the sound on the Kinks song

Hunh, it just occurred to me that that Kinks song was one of the first hard rock songs on the radio that really got me.

would you say it really got you now

Cheer-Accident track v cool.

I hate youtube quality but listening to a very familiar song (to me) that he re-recorded you can immediately identify his "sound":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Es-bGRYkj4

(please someone post a better quality version of this if possible)

been following this thread all day and can't come up with anything to say other than imagine having 30+ years of evidence in front of you and arguing that steve albini isn't good at making records

I didn’t hear much difference between high on fire records which brings up the idea that maybe we’ve got this backwards — albini isn’t the extravagant one you get that bargain producers could easily emulate, but rather albini is the bargain producer you get instead of some other big shot.

I don't know if anyone is really arguing that Steve Albini is not good at making records. It's telling that as far as I can tell "Rid of Me" is the only work in that 30+ year career that some people second guess. It's just a particularly high profile exception. He does, however, generally have a sound, and that sound is not good for every project, which is probably true for many producers.

electrical audio/albini super cheap for a world class studio

https://electricalaudio.com/booking-rates

I don't know if anyone is really arguing that Steve Albini is not good at making records.

Elvis Costello seems to be.