Steve Albini in memoriam

Just something I posted on Facebook earlier today that I figured I would also put here, because it really just seemed to merit my psychic energy. Ford Pier tells me in the comments there that the right way to do Shellac is to start with the first album and then follow their development: I might do that. He also thinks, with Mr. Yow, that Two Nuns and a Pack Mule is peak Albini. I'm bearing this in mind, but man that band name makes me squeamish. All the same, I'm glad he matured, glad he grew up: this is why it makes no sense to crucify people for things they did 20 or 30 years ago, because sometimes they aren't that person anymore. 

Excited to have Mr. Albini back in my life, musically, even if it has come at some cost. Commence FB post:

I hope this is not insensitive, but in terms of musical events of 2024, something really personally valuable to me, as a music fan, came out of Steve Albini's passing. I already had both Vic Bondi (who was most definitely not always on this page) and David Yow say good things about him in interviews, over the last few years -- Yow seemed particularly in awe of him, described him as a genius, while Bondi, who was on the record disparaging Albini in the past, gave him lots of credit for his later work and growth and was quite amelioratory, which I was glad to help put into the world. But it wasn't until Albini's unexpected passing this past May that I went back and read Albini himself reflecting on his own early work, which I had liked at the time when I too was young(er) and dumb(er), then decided was off-putting and problematic and swore off by the time I was 30. "Fists of Love," screw dat: I tried at various points to keep some of Albini's music in the house but there were always things that grossed me out, "immature edgelord horseshit, who needs it, meh." When he died, I had a bunch of albums he had produced, but maybe only one CD by a band I won't even name here, which I only bought (Two Nuns and a Pack Mule, we mean) because Yow loved it so much. Good record, but horrible band name -- I mostly kept it for the ZZ Top cover (which I had to admit ruled, but I never had a problem with how Albini SOUNDED, you know? Just what he said and wrote and his posturing).

 
Anyhow, reading Albini in 21st century interviews, which I did a bunch of on his passing, made it very very clear that Albini had grown up tons, and got me to do something I had never done before: I bought a Shellac record, To All Trains, which came out just after he died in May. And holy cripes, it's great. It may turn into my favourite album of 2024 -- I haven't gotten to the bottom of yet, nowhere close, but it's one of those deep, solid listens that you know is going to be exciting for years to come, like, say, late-phase Fugazi or something; you're not going to spin it every day, but it's not going to get boring, ever. My only complaint is the best kind of complaint you can have about an album: it's too short, I want more! Plus, having deliberately ignored them while Albini was alive, I had no idea that Shellac was also the band of Bob Weston, formerly of the Volcano Suns (a band I dearly love, fronted by Peter Prescott of Mission of Burma, also now in another band, Minibeast), so that doubles my excitement.

 
Anyhow, I'm not sure that there's any single figure in popular music I read about, thought about, talked about more than Steve Albini while *not actually listening to them*, you know? I have spent far more of my life not listening to Steve Albini than I have doin' the other thing. That may change now -- I think I need to explore some more Shellac, though I'm going to restrict myself to their recent work for now. And though it comes late in the game, RIP, Mr. Albini -- man of the year, I guess, tho' I'm sorry you aren't around to take in my saying so. I hope when you were around, you read my Yow interview where we talked about you -- that was some pretty fun stuff he said about your freakish ability to name the chemicals in sperm, and he talked about your poker playing a little, which I had paid no attention to (it's in a back issue of Big Takeover, for those who are curious). If other people are like me, it might actually be time to give the man a break and give the album a listen. It's real good!!! (PS, I just finished writing you into a grammar worksheet I'm preparing for my dayjob, illustrating restrictive and non-restrictive appositives, asking students to add commas where necessary to these sentences: "The producer of Nirvana’s album In Utero Steve Albini was also a member of the band Shellac. He ran the studio Electrical Audio in Chicago the city where he lived." Furthering your legacy one ESL student at a time!).