STEVE ALBINI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fa05wFS0q8

pic.twitter.com/VEMRnGTzsK

— 💜💜🎀 ɮɨɢ ɮǟʟʟօօռ ǟɖʋɛռȶʊʀɛ🎀 💜💜 (@NickPinkerton) May 8, 2024

Shocking. Just read the interview in the Wire and then saw the news.

it'd be a shock regardless but this happening in the middle of a press cycle for the new Shellac album/tour is hitting me

i'm just stunned. this was a guy who was still very present in the scene and he is just gone in a heartbeat

indeed. hard to listen to this now -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj04MDHq4UY

and this -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=malJUMz2A9Y

listen

I just cranked Heartbeat really loud

this brings back the feeling of loss when John Peel died - such a force for so much music for so long, and assumed there was longer to go.

Well said. https://t.co/qrzccMzVTk

— LOW (@lowtheband) May 8, 2024

it's honestly hard to think of many equivalent figures who are left

xp

Aw man, my friend Emily had just interviewed him for that Wire story, posted something about what a sweet person he was to interact with.

PSF: Who's the most replaceable member of Shellac?
Steve Albini: OK, so in the Shellac death pool, who do you think is going to go first?
Bob Weston: Maybe I'll flip a coin...Steve's the one who's already had a heart attack, so he's most likely to die!
SA: Todd, you don't eat enough, so your heart might explode one of these days.
BW: I have genetic heart disease.
SA: But I've already had a heart attack.
Todd Trainer: I'm sure I had a heart attack in Scotland.
SA: You need to eat more!
PSF: Have you really had a heart attack?
SA: Yes, I had a heart attack when I was twenty-five. I had a viral infection of the pericardium.
BW: He had some worms in his heart.
SA: I had the dropsy! I had consumption!
BW: We slipped some pills in his food, and it cleared right up.
TT: If Steve goes first, Bob and I are in for some royalties.

https://www.furious.com/perfect/shellac.html

😞

been blasting this one in tribute:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3GGzIP7sU0
Pop Negatif Wastad - Kerosene

Aliases: A Skinny Bespectacled Guy, Arden Geist, Buck Naked (4), Ding Rollski, Don Moist, Engineer (8), Fluss, Frank Francisco, Harry Schnell, King Barbecue, Lenard Johns, Mr. Billiards, Reggie Stiggs, Robert Earl Hughes, Some Fuckin' Derd Niffer, Terry Fuckwit, The Li'l Weed, The Proprietor, Torso Man, Whodini (2)

he will always be some fuckin' derd niffer to me

Should poll those aliases

Fluss was Steve Albini's cat, who died at age 23 in 2003, whom he routinely credited to his own production work as a joke.

Variations: Fluss, World Famous Record Producer And Rocket Scientist

Shame that Fluss, World Famous Record Producer And Rocket Scientist produced one of the horrible ones. Bad Fluss!

The way John faced his mortality was inspirational. When my time comes, I hope I can follow his example. I hope when I die I go like John, embroiled in the middle of things, surrounded by people I love, doing the things that matter most. I hope I leave a mountain of shit unfinished, that I have a pan on the stove, a phone call waiting and a pencil in my hand. I hope I'm man enough to be thinking about tomorrow.

For all of us, the living, the dying and the someday dying, John Grabski III, you are a hero.

-steve albini

Listening to Labradford's Fixed::Context right now and wondering if Albini had anything to say about working with them and found this from labradford poll

i want to love the first song on Mi Media Naranja but the high-frequency tone drives me absolutely INSANE. i feel like an old man but it seriously ruins the song for me. at first i thought it was some sort of mistake or weird pressing issue but apparently they did it on purpose?

It's on purpose. I actually asked Steve Albini in person about it once (he engineered Fixed::Context, where a high pitched thing shows up again in the song 'David'). He shrugged and said 'those guys liked adding weird sounds.'

― Poliopolice, Wednesday, March 4, 2015 8:25 PM (nine years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_Uz6BO8QO0

Esben and the Witch - "The Jungle". My favorite piece of later-day Albini engineering. It is hard to imagine this post-rock build-up working without the drum sound, and the way each element has a turn in the foreground as it starts, yet it maintains the tone of a live performance. Also, the way the Sketches-of-Spain trumpet appears halfway through, and is mixed in the middle-ground, mournful but out of reach. Eventually all the elements dart around the synth gurgles, and come together for a metallic crescendo. So much to balance, while still maintaining the sound of a power trio + guests.

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

Idk why this one popped into my head but I had a listen through this record for the first time in ages last night, fun French post-hardcore troika, kinda bare bones, you can see why they chose Steve to engineer the record.

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

Cranked SUNN O))) Life Metal this evening and although not my absolute favourite of theirs you can sense the love with which that huge sound was wrestled to tape. Amazing to hear tiny elements suspended in perfect clarity against the tectonic drones.

xp love that Sloy album, a friend gave it to me years ago and it still rocks!

Letter to Nirvana

https://x.com/Nirvana/status/1788363101068509223

Fucking legend.

Anyone knows if there is an Albini only version of Newsom’s Y’s? Not a fan of Van Dyke Parks arrangements for it.

That letter is amazing

Yeah I know he had a certain animosity about working with them but huge respect for doing it without compromising his morals.

goddammit. pic.twitter.com/zhjXgERq1q

— apr-y-l (@aprylhm) May 9, 2024

I need to watch that whole episode

with Anthony Bourdain

I thought I'd seen every No Reservations but I don't remember the Chicago episode at all

at first i thought it was editing, but he goes into that huge sandwich for a bite or two and then follows it with some ice cream. that's some true midwest shit.

I was worried for a moment that was from the bad Chicago episode but it's from the good one. In the bad one, he also eats dinner with Mancow

Bourdain, that is. I doubt Albini would have ever been anywhere near Mancow

Had no idea he lived in my neighborhood. Was reading his Grub Street Diet and he mentioned buying pork shoulder at the grocery store I go to every week.

Here 'tis -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lZoLBU1egw

Ahhh, it's Parts Unknown. Completely forgot that it wasn't always No Reservations.

Saw Orchid last night in Brooklyn and their intro was having everyone listen to "Prayer to God" in the dark. It was kind of amazing but also made me sad.