STEVE ALBINI

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.

I love veronica moser (seriously one of my favorite posters on here) but his whole "racism qua racism" jab thrown at Albini, bearing in mind the reason for this revive is a quote from Elvis Costello, someone on record saying perhaps the most vile racist shit you can possibly conjure in regard to James Brown & Ray Charles... to me just sitting there like a monstrous elephant in the room.

(sincere apologies if I've misgendered veronica moser as well)

it's just funny that i feel like every so often this discussion comes up and we have to re-litigate the facts--steve worked on "spiderland," steve worked on the nina nastasia records, steve worked on magnolia electric co., steve worked on "rid of me," steve worked on almost the entire skwm discography, steve worked on all the joanna newsom stuff, steve worked on 50 great-sounding records you've never heard before--so we can shed the criticism of a cranky boomer like elvis costello.

Al is it possible that two nerdy rockist white dudes might both be racist even if they disagree with each other about some unrelated shit

xpost For sure. But Costello's specific cranky boomer criticism - re: Rid of Me - just happens to be the most commonly made across the board (studio pun!) criticism of Albini.

What was his specific criticism? All I got was "it sounds like shit" and "that guy doesn't know anything about production".

yeah i've never been clear on the specific issue people have with "rid of me" which in general sounds like steve alibini recording a power trio

xpost Just meant re that specific album. I can only assume Costello, like most people, at most only knows Albini's most high profile projects, one of which in this case just happened to be with an artist Costello really likes, who he thinks was done a disservice by the production, which is not a unique thought.

I think the general criticism is that the trademark Albini Wall of Womph sort of steamrolls over PJs songs. Which was totally her call to make. I honestly find criticism of the album a little overblown, even my own, but there's little question it was designed to be a confrontational.

This Year's Model sounds a bit albiniesque — spare, a lot of drum detail.

But bright! I'm kind of fascinated by Nick Lowe as producer. That's how he got the nickname 'basher," because he would just bash things out.

yeah rid of me is good not bad. elvis costello here is, as has been the case once or twice in the past, wrong about what constitutes good production for a rock and roll record

fwiw i was not arguing that albini is a bad producer upthread, hes clearly got a stack of classics to stand on. just that he clearly works with a certain number of bands obviously that dont ask very much of him, and hes happy to oblige. Which, whatever, great, everybody gets what they want, he always talks about what a journeyman he is. I dont think its a challop to confess that yes I've heard a large number of mediocre records over the last several decades that i wouldnt have guessed were albini joints if i hadnt seen his name on the sleeve. he has access to a great and unique sound, but i also dont think that he unmistakably imbues it into every record that he hits record on.

re:racial stuff its not even up for debate that albini is a longtime habitual user of certain words that are not ok in polite company, both in "ironic badboy" context and "i was just quoting what that rapper said" context, up to the present day

Albini had a pretty gross rant about running into Odd Future a few years ago at a festival.

Then there was the thing where an electronic musician asked for sample permission and he sent a screed about electronic music after 1979 that the guy used as marketing material. Not racialized there IIRC but aggressively stupid as screeds go.

to me, steve albini not liking rap or electronic music and being kind of an asshole is cool. he’s a curmudgeonly and a purist, it’s completely in character. who cares?

what a guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuOGBe5XW_U

the purism thing is the kind of shit wankers like simon reynolds were praising morrissey for when they knew openly defending his racism would be a bad look

even lester bangs had stopped defending this kind of shit before albini became a thing

Costello described something that happens to me at least once a year: he saw a live performance (in this case PJ Harvey on The Tonight Show) and then was disappointed by the official recording.

Been experiencing this back to being blown away by X doing a quiet, simple “See How We Are” on MTV’s The Cutting Edge and excitedly buying the LP and hearing a song that would never have reached my heart because of how it was arranged and recorded.

Some of this can be the engineering, but there’s also the collage of takes and layers, and the difference between a live performance with an audience and the performances in the studio, and the mixing and finessing. My favorite Shellac recording is the Live at the BBC “The End of Radio”: it has the high-wire performance of a single take in front of a massive audience. PJ on Leno (posted above) has that same energy and simplicity.

Wondering what Costello might think of the sound on Zeni Geva's "Total Castration".

great band

tbf there is nothing on earth better than PJ's Leno's performance

maybe the Albini PJ album can be the one that finally turns me into a fan

be sure to turn it up

Starless and Bible Black levels of dynamic range

Speaking of which, I've always sort of loosely thought of this Bill Reiflin album as King Crimson produced by Albini:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Siba1wuCaS0

that is sweet, never heard of him

relistened to rid of me, it is the best album ever, particularly the "dry" -> "me-jane" section

ha yeah i listened to it a couple times yesterday and it's hilarious that "exhibit A" for the prosecution is a fucking amazing classic rock album

In my case, I love the sound of Dry, the album, best. I love the *songs* on Rid, but it's the sound of the record that keeps me from playing then that often, even though I don't think it sounds terrible or anything. I have to be in the right mood. For sure it's the most likely of her formative works my family would probably tell me to turn off, lol.

ups, Rieflin, who died last year I think, was most recently R.E.M's drummer and in the most current lineups of King Crimson. He was also in Ministry, among other industrial projects. I have no idea how he hooked up with Robert Fripp, but the solo albums he put out with Fripp and Trey Gunn in the band are pretty awesome.

ah interesting, i don't know a whole lot about king crimson post-discipline probably why i don't know him, sounds like a pro's pro for sure

Rieflin was still with KC when I saw them in July 2017. Given the number of health problems he had, only revealed at the time of his obituary, plus the death of his wife before him, that fact kind of astonishes me.

Found this Q interview from 1994 where Elvis Costello's comments are not exactly in agreement with his more recent comments about the album:

"The atmosphere of it is great but I had no idea what she was singing about and do you know what? I don't care. I'm not the right age. From what I could gather, it seemed to be a lot about blood and fucking. But I don't need to pore over it like someone who identifies directly with her. I don't want to be one of these middle-aged guys who turns up with the baseball hat on the wrong way round."

"Q: Have you heard anyone who's made you fear for your job?

I don't think anyone would want my job (laughs). PJ Harvey I really liked for the sound and the overall commitment. I loved Björk's album. To me it sounded like a dance album arranged for a jazz quartet. I've always liked her voice though. I remember going to see her with The Sugarcubes and your man with the trumpet was shouting his fucking head off. I was like, Shuddup! I can't hear her sing! Lyrically, I liked Aimee Mann's record. She has that ability, like Chris Difford, to draw you into her world through sheer attention to detail. To me, it's very reassuring that three of the albums I've liked most are by women. The guys are just boring at the moment, the young guys more boring than anyone."

i love the sound of this album albini is obviously such a creep cancelling is not a real thing

Genuinely charmed by people trying to "out" me regarding stuff that had print runs in the tens of thousands, bands that toured the world, stuff that was already reported on by Pitchfork... whatever. I am not afforded the luxury of secret shame, guys. Knock yourselves out.

— steve albini (@electricalWSOP) October 12, 2021

a thread

I certainly have some 'splainin to do, and am not shy about any of it. A lot of things I said and did from an ignorant position of comfort and privilege are clearly awful and I regret them. It's nobody's obligation to overlook that, and I do feel an obligation to redeem myself...

— steve albini (@electricalWSOP) October 12, 2021

I'm overdue for a conversation about my role in inspiring "edgelord" shit. Believe me, I've met my share of punishers at gigs and I sympathize with anybody who isn't me but still had to suffer them.

— steve albini (@electricalWSOP) October 12, 2021

Good for him.

About time!!

I disagree this is a problem or ridiculous. People of privilege expecting not to have to take ownership of their own words and actions, like fucking grownups, that's ridiculous. These were formative experiences for me, and owning the embarrassment of them is *my* responsibility.

— steve albini (@electricalWSOP) October 12, 2021