Let’s discuss any and all music here. Got a new artist who’s rocking your boat that you want to talk about? Post a video! Found out about that unearthed Coltrane album that has the jazz freak in you losing your mind? Lay it out for us! Have a theory about what your favorite band might do for their next album? Let’s hear it! Anything and everything music-related goes here.
On Tuesday May 7, Steve Albini died of a heart attack in his recording studio at the age of 61. As a musician, Albini was the driving force behind numerous bands including Big Black and Shellac, and as a recording engineer (Albini eschewed the word “producer”) captured the sound of countless artists that have influenced and shaped music as we know it today – in his words, “The recording part is the part that matters to me—that I’m making a document that records a piece of our culture, the life’s work of the musicians that are hiring me…I take that part very seriously. I want the music to outlive all of us.”
Albini was also respected for his stance on questioning music industry standards, never taking royalties on the records he recorded – including, famously, Nirvana’s In Utero, which went on to sell 15 million copies. While Albini also had a reputation as being prickly – and as a bit of an “edgelord” for some of his band names, song titles and comments he made earlier in his career – in later years he repeatedly apologized at length for his past behavior, stating that in spite of his intent at the time, “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.”
Anyway, I imagine there are few among us who haven’t been impacted by Albini’s work in one way or another, through his own musical endeavors and/or the countless albums that he helped capture for all time. Please feel free to leave your thoughts down below.
As always, any and all music-related posts are welcome. Have fun, and rock out with yr guac out!