Steve Albini dead from a heart attack at 61. Too soon.
I still have a visceral memory of Steve at a Big Black gig at (I think) Leeds Poly (UK). Dressed in black Levi's 501s and a white T-shirt -- super bright under the stage lights -- which became splattered with vivid red blood after he cut a finger on a guitar string.
reminded of one of the many reasons my partner is amazing: at the first american all tomorrow's parties in 2008, she beat #albini in a few hands of poker (& actually won some $$) at the all-night table without knowing who he was or that he was a professional world series of poker player. she says he was... poker-faced.
Young Steve #Albini at his grumpiest: "Three Pandering Sluts and Their Music-Press Stooge" (January 27, 1994), where he takes on Liz Phair, Urge Overkill and the Smashing Pumpkins via @hitsville's year-in-rock recap for the Chicago Reader.
My favorite dig is referring to Urge Overkill and Oingo Boingo as "Weiners in suits playing frat party rock."
In February 1995, The WaPo described #Albini as a “post-punk barbarian.” By Sept 2023, The Post called him an “era-defining alt-rock producer.”
He was prolific, telling the Free Press Houston in 2018 that he had worked on a “couple thousand” records.
One of those was in the late 1990s w/ #RobertPlant & #JimmyPage, to create their first release of new material since #LedZeppelin broke up in 1980.
He began the article with an image: “I imagine a trench, about four feet wide & five feet deep, maybe sixty yards long, filled with runny, decaying [excrement]. I imagine these people, some of them good friends, some of them barely acquaintances, at one end of this trench. I also imagine a faceless industry lackey at the other end, holding a fountain pen & a contract waiting to be signed.”
I came to know his name only later. But the music he helped bring into the world - that, for me, came to be the reference that I still compare all other music to.
The raw, aggressive sound. The clarity, purity, honesty.
Thank you for the music, Steve #Albini. Rest in peace. ✌️