Mastodawn

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/aug/15/the-evolution-of-steve-albini-if-the-dumbest-person-is-on-your-side-youre-on-the-wrong-side

Page and Plant were not pals from the scene, nor were they familiar with Albini’s entire deal. (The members of Led Zeppelin were not keeping track of internecine conflicts in the punk world, no.) They were celebrities, legacy rock stars who would fly to Morocco at the weekend just because they could.

“This was the first time that I was obviously hired by somebody,” Albini recalled. “They would have felt no compunction whatsoever about firing me on the spot if I disappointed them for some reason. That was heavy, realising that. So I did everything I could to avoid disappointing them.”

The evolution of Steve Albini: ‘If the dumbest person is on your side, you’re on the wrong side’

The long read: Steve Albini was long synonymous with the indie underground, playing in revered bands and recording albums by the Pixies, PJ Harvey and Nirvana. He also often seemed determined to offend as many people as possible. What led him to reassess his past?

The Guardian

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/postscript/the-beautiful-rawness-of-steve-albini

“Albini never made an album that seemed as though it were happening somewhere else, at some other time. These were not fixed and polished documents. Everything he worked on felt raw, urgent, instantaneous, live; it was always occurring for the first time, just then, just for you.”

“The creation and consumption of music serves no plain biological purpose—how utterly reasonless and inexplicable that we do this at all! How beautiful!” writes Amanda Petrusich.

“So I did everything I could to avoid disappointing them.”

stephen ryner jr. 🦉May 18, 2024

“Kurt had wanted the Pixies' Surfer Rosa and Breeders' Pod sound which Albini had engineered.” — YouTube comment checks out

@nuthatch Thanks for linking that Petrusich article. She articulates so much of what I’ve been thinking and feeling about the dude. Even before he died that new MONO single has been making me burst into tears, because just listening to it I can actually hear how much Albini really loved that band, and he put it all into the care and attention he gave to how he recorded them.

@nuthatch He narrates the Page/Plant experience in a bit more detail in this video; the Guardian article was the first time I can remember hearing that he took that job to help keep himself and Electrical solvent (from an offhand remark in the video about his usual working hours, I can’t help wondering if sleep deprivation contributed to his heart condition) https://youtu.be/8zJjTlKlVGQ?feature=shared

Steve Albini talks about recording Robert Plant and Jimmy Page Remastered Audio HD 720p

YouTube

@nuthatch Gone way way way too soon. He was still doing some of his very best work. The new MONO single is incredible; I bet the album (due in June) will rule. There’s a new Shellac album out *next week*. I keep watching videos of him being interviewed or there’s a lot where he’s just talking about studio technique and I could listen to him all day. Such an amazing mind, an engineer’s engineer and a true artist, deep thinker, and principled gentleman. Such a loss.

@tym I was really surprised at his passing so young, I’m just catching up. Making a list of albums to listen to I missed the first time around.

@nuthatch Yeah it’s shocking and sad. Young and sudden, only four years older than I am. (and spooky for me personally because my dad also died of a sudden cardiac infarction at the same age, also in the first week of May, although that was many years ago now)

And might I suggest the untitled 1994 Slint EP with “Glenn” and “Rhoda” and Jawbreaker’s _24 Hour Revenge Therapy_ if you don’t know them already.