Steve Albini

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Steve Albini
Steve Albini playing guitar, wearing a black t-shirt and ripped blue jeans
Albini in 2007
Background information
Born(1962-07-22)July 22, 1962
Pasadena, California, U.S.
OriginMissoula, Montana, U.S.
DiedMay 7, 2024(2024-05-07) (aged 61)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Genres
Occupations
  • Singer-songwriter
  • musician
  • record producer
  • audio engineer
  • music journalist
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • guitar
  • bass
  • drums
Years active1981–2024
LabelsTouch and Go
Formerly of

Steve Albini (/ælˈbiːni/; July 22, 1962 – May 7, 2024) was an American musician and audio engineer who was a member of the influential post-hardcore and noise rock bands Big Black (1981–1987), Rapeman (1987–1989) and Shellac (1992–2024). He was the founder, owner, and principal engineer of the Chicago recording studio Electrical Audio and recorded thousands of records, for acts including Nirvana, the Pixies, the Breeders, PJ Harvey, the Jesus Lizard and Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.

Albini was born in Pasadena, California, and raised in Missoula, Montana. After discovering the Ramones as a teenager, he played in a number of punk bands. He earned a degree in journalism at Northwestern University, Illinois, and he wrote for local zines before moving to Chicago, where he immersed himself in the punk scene. He formed Big Black in 1981, and released two full-length albums: Atomizer (1986) and Songs About Fucking (1987). During this period he continued to write for zines, and was often critical of local punk scenes and the industry as a whole.

Following the dissolution of Big Black, Albini opened Electrical Audio and focused on engineering. In 1992, he formed the band Shellac with bassist Bob Weston and drummer Todd Trainer, with whom he released six albums.

Noted for his outspoken and blunt opinions, Albini was very critical of the way the music industry is constructed, which he viewed as exploitative of artists. He refused to take royalties on albums he worked on, operating on a fee-only basis.[1]

Early life[edit]

Black-and-white headshot of a young man with medium-length middle-parted hair, wearing a collarless button-up shirt
Albini, age 16, c. 1978–79,[2] at Hellgate High School in Missoula, Montana[3]

"[O]ne thing that I discovered that I think is unusual is that I had no stage anxiety. Coincidentally, around the same time I also realised that other people's opinions of me had no power over me. As long as what I was doing was honourable in my own mind, then I could do it comfortably, and if other people didn't get it or didn't agree with it, that was okay – that didn't have any effect on me. That's carried through to this day, because I still don't give a shit if I get judged."

—Albini on early performing experiences[4]

Albini was born in Pasadena, California, to Gina (née Martinelli) and Frank Addison Albini. On his birth certificate, the middle name section says "(None)" as his father refused to leave it blank.[5] His father was a wildfire researcher. He had two siblings.[3][6][7][8] In his youth, Albini's family moved often, before settling in the college town of Missoula, Montana, in 1974.[3] Albini was Italian American, and some of his family are from the Piedmont region of Northern Italy.[6]

While recovering from a broken leg, Albini began playing bass guitar and participated in bass lessons in high school for one week. He was introduced to the Ramones by a schoolmate on a field trip when he was 14 or 15. He felt it was the best music he had ever heard and bought every Ramones recording available to him, and credits his music career to hearing their first album.[3][9][10] He said, "I was baffled and thrilled by music like the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, Pere Ubu, Devo, and all those contemporaneous, inspirational punk bands without wanting to try to mimic them."[11]

During his teenage years, Albini played in bands including the Montana punk band Just Ducky, the Chicago band Small Irregular Pieces of Aluminum, and another band that record label Touch and Go/Quarterstick Records explained "he [Albini] is paying us not to mention".[12]

After graduating from Hellgate High School,[3] Albini moved to Evanston, Illinois, to attend college at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University where he earned a degree in journalism.[13] He said that he studied painting in college with Ed Paschke, someone he calls a brilliant educator and "one of the only people in college who actually taught me anything".[14]

In the Chicago area, Albini was active as a writer in local zines including Matter, and later Boston's Forced Exposure, covering the then-nascent punk rock scene, and gained a reputation for the iconoclastic nature of his articles. About the same time, he began recording musicians and engineered his first album in 1981.[15] He co-managed Ruthless Records (Chicago) with John Kezdy of the Effigies and Jon Babbin (Criminal IQ Records). According to Albini, he maintained a "straight job" for five years until 1987, working in a photography studio as a photograph retouch artist.[16]

Performing career[edit]

Flyer on letter-sized paper with spray-painted black text over a yellow background.
A flyer designed by Albini for a show with Big Black, Urge Overkill, and Squirrel Bait at the Jockey Club in Newport, Kentucky on May 26, 1985

1981–1987: Big Black[edit]

Albini formed Big Black in 1981 while he was a student at NU, and recorded their debut EP Lungs on Ruthless Records (Chicago).[17] He played all of the instruments on Lungs except the saxophone, played by his friend John Bohnen. The Bulldozer (1983) EP followed on Ruthless and Fever Records.[12]

Jeff Pezzati and Santiago Durango, of Chicago band Naked Raygun, and live drummer Pat Byrne joined shortly after, and the band—along with a Roland TR-606 drum machine, released the 1984 EP Racer-X after touring and signing a contract with the Homestead Records business. Pezzati was replaced on bass by Dave Riley, with whom the group recorded their debut full-length album Atomizer (1986). The "Il Duce" recording was eventually finished with Riley as bassist; the band also released The Hammer Party while signed to Homestead, which was a compilation of the Lungs and Bulldozer EPs.[12]

Big Black signed to Touch and Go Records in late 1985/early 1986, and released the EP Headache and the 7-inch single Heartbeat.[12] That year, the live album Sound of Impact was released on the Not/Blast First label. In the accompanying booklet Albini cited bands such as Ramones, The Birthday Party, The Stooges, Suicide, SPK, Minor Threat, Whitehouse, Link Wray, Pere Ubu, Chrome, Rudimentary Peni, The 4-Skins, Throbbing Gristle, Skrewdriver, the Ex, Minimal Man, U.S. Chaos, Gang Green, Tommi Stumpff, Swans and Bad Brains.[18]

In 1987, Big Black released the album Songs About Fucking and the single "He's a Whore / The Model", both on Touch and Go.[12] Big Black disbanded shortly after a period of extensive touring that year. Durango enrolled in law school and became a lawyer.[12]

1987–1988: Rapeman[edit]

Albini formed Rapeman in 1987. The band consisted of Albini (vocals, guitar), Rey Washam (drums), and David Wm. Sims (bass). Both Washam and Sims were previously members of Scratch Acid. The band was named after a Japanese comic book. They broke up after the release of two 7-inch singles, "Hated Chinee b/w Marmoset" (1988) and "Inki's Butt Crack b/w Song Number One" (1989), the EP Budd (1988), and the Two Nuns and a Pack Mule album, also released in 1988 on Touch and Go.

In a 2020 interview, Albini expressed regret for the name of the band, saying that he didn't feel he had been "held to account for being in a band called Rapeman." He added that "it was a flippant choice", calling it unconscionable and indefensible. He likened it to getting a bad tattoo.[19]

1992–2024: Shellac[edit]

Albini formed Shellac in 1992,[20] with bandmates Bob Weston (formerly of Volcano Suns) and Todd Trainer (of Rifle Sport, Breaking Circus and Brick Layer Cake). They initially released three EPs: The Rude Gesture: A Pictorial History (1993), Uranus (1993) and The Bird Is the Most Popular Finger (1994). The first two EP releases were on Touch and Go, while the third EP was a Drag City label release.[citation needed]

Two years after formation, the Japanese label NUX Organization released the Japan-exclusive live album Live in Tokyo, followed by five studio albums: At Action Park (1994), Terraform (1998), 1000 Hurts (2000), Excellent Italian Greyhound (2007) and Dude Incredible (2014). All of Shellac's studio albums were released on vinyl as well as CD. Albini died on May 7, 2024, ten days before the release of Shellac's sixth album, To All Trains.[21]

Recording career[edit]

For a chronological list of Albini's recording work, see Steve Albini discography § As an audio engineer.

Albini became widely known as a producer after recording the 1988 Pixies album Surfer Rosa.[22] According to the Rolling Stone journalist Rob Sheffield, Abini gave the album a "raw room-tone live crunch, especially the heavy drums and slashing guitars".[22]

Albini disliked the term "producer" and preferred to receive no credit on album sleeves or notes.[23] When credited, he preferred the term "recording engineer".[24] Stereogum's Tom Breihan stated in 2012: "Even though he's [Albini] been an outspoken opponent of the major-label system (and of other underground-rock heroes), he's known to work with just about anyone who requests his service."[25]

In 2004, Albini estimated that he had engineered 1,500 records, mostly by underground musicians.[15] By 2018, his estimate had increased to several thousand.[26] Artists that Albini worked with include Nirvana,[27] the Breeders, Godspeed You! Black Emperor,[28] Mogwai, the Jesus Lizard, Don Caballero, PJ Harvey, the Wedding Present, Joanna Newsom, Superchunk, Low, Dirty Three, Jawbreaker, Neurosis,[29] Cloud Nothings, Bush,[25] Chevelle,[30] Jimmy Page and Robert Plant (as Page and Plant),[31] Helmet,[32] Fred Schneider,[33] the Stooges,[34] Owls,[35] Manic Street Preachers,[36] Jarvis Cocker,[37] the Cribs,[38] the Fleshtones,[39] Nina Nastasia,[40] the Frames,[41] the Membranes,[42] Cheap Trick,[43] Motorpsycho,[44] Slint,[45] mclusky,[46] Labradford,[47] Veruca Salt,[48] Zao,[49] the Auteurs,[50] Spare Snare,[51], and Foxy Shazam.[52]

After the release of Schneider's album Just Fred, the Vinyl District's Joseph Neff wrote "The reality is that when enlisted by the big leagues, Albini took his job just as seriously as when he was assisting on the debut recording from a bunch of aspiring unknowns."[33]

Methodology[edit]

Albini in 2008

In Albini's opinion, putting producers in charge of recording sessions often destroys records, while the role of the recording engineer is to solve problems in capturing the sound of the musicians, not to threaten the artists' control over their product.[15] Albini's recordings have been analyzed by writers such as Michael Azerrad. In Azerrad's 2001 book Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981–1991, Azerrad describes Albini's work on the Pixies album Surfer Rosa: "The recordings were both very basic and very exacting: Albini used few special effects; got an aggressive, often violent guitar sound; and made sure the rhythm section slammed as one."[53]: 344 

Steve Von Till of Neurosis recorded several albums with Albini and in 2013 said: "He is the best damn engineer in the world, I believe. He's very traditional, there's no tricks, there's no fix it later. There's only an extremely high fidelity approach towards capturing a natural performance in a room".[54] Stereogum described his recording sound as "open, dry, claustrophobic, brutally honest".[55]

Production influences[edit]

A key influence on Albini was the English producer John Loder, who came to prominence in the late 1970s with a reputation for recording albums quickly and inexpensively, but nonetheless with distinctive qualities and a sensitivity towards a band's sound and aesthetic.[56]

Albini mentioned an admiration for ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax.[16] Among his peers, Albini praised his frequent collaborator (and Shellac bandmate) Bob Weston, as well as Brian Paulson and Matt Barnhart, among others.[16]

Nirvana and In Utero[edit]

Main article: In Utero

In 1993, Nirvana hired Albini for their third album, In Utero.[57] Albini dismissed Nirvana as "R.E.M. with a fuzzbox" and "an unremarkable version of the Seattle sound". However, he accepted the job because he felt sorry for them, perceiving them as "the same sort of people as all the small-fry bands I deal with", at the mercy of their record company.[58] Cobain said he chose Albini because he had produced two of his favorite records, Surfer Rosa (1988) by the Pixies and Pod (1990) by the Breeders. Cobain wanted to use Albini's technique of capturing the natural ambience of a room via the placement of several microphones, something previous Nirvana producers had been averse to trying.[59]

At Albini's recommendation, Nirvana went to Pachyderm Studios in Minnesota to record the album. Albini chose the studio in part due to its isolation, hoping to keep representatives of Nirvana's record label, DGC Records, away. Recording was completed in six days; Cobain had anticipated disagreements with Albini, whom he had heard "was supposedly this sexist jerk", but called the process "the easiest recording we've ever done, hands down".[58]

Once the label and management heard the resulting recording, they were displeased with it. The members of Nirvana had mixed feelings as well: Cobain said afterward that the first time he played it at home, "I got no emotion from it", and considered re-recording the songs with more radio-friendly production.[60] However, a month later, having listened to it more and played it for friends, he felt that it was "exactly the kind of record I would buy as a fan".[58] The band did collectively decide that the vocals and bass were too low in the mix. They asked Albini to remix the album, but he refused, as he was happy with the results and feared that the process would lead to "a spiral of recriminations and remixes" among himself, the band and the record company.[61] During the remastering process, engineer Bob Ludwig raised the volume of the vocals and sharpened the bass guitar sound.[58] Additionally, R.E.M. producer Scott Litt was brought in to remix several of the songs.[58] The final album was a critical and commercial success, and remains strongly associated with Albini, despite Albini's contention that the finished album "doesn't sound all that much like the record that was made".[62] Asked about In Utero in 2004, Albini stated that the record label was responsible for the difficulties that marred the trajectory of the album.[15] Albini said In Utero made him unpopular with major record labels, and he faced problems finding work in the year following.[63]

Electrical Audio[edit]

Albini bought Electrical Audio, his personal recording studio, in 1995.[56][61] Due to a lack of privacy for Albini and his wife he moved to the studio. Albini's former studio was in their house, eventually taking over almost all the rooms, with the exception of the bedroom.[61] Before Electrical Audio, Albini had a studio in the basement of another personal residence. Musician Robbie Fulks recalls the hassle of "running up two flights of stairs all the time from the tracking room" to communicate with Albini.[16]

Albini did not receive royalties for anything he recorded or mixed at his own facility, unlike many other engineer/record producers with his experience and prominence. At Electrical Audio in 2004, Albini earned a daily fee of US$750 for engineering work, and drew a salary of US$24,000 a year. Azerrad referred to Albini's rates in 2001 as among the most affordable for a world-class recording studio.[53] After the completion of the studio's construction, Albini initially charged only for his time, allowing his friends or musicians he respected—who were willing to engineer their own recording sessions and purchase their own magnetic tape—to use his studio for free.[53][page needed] In a 2004 lecture, Albini said that he always deals with bands directly at Electrical Audio, and answers the phone himself in the studio.[15]

Musical influences[edit]

Albini mentioned his liking for "good guitar", saying "good noise is like orgasm". He commented: "Anybody can play notes. There's no trick. What is a trick and a good one is to make a guitar do things that don't sound like a guitar at all. The point here is stretching the boundaries."[64] Albini praised guitarists including Andy Gill of Gang of Four, Rowland S. Howard of Birthday Party, John McKay of Siouxsie and the Banshees, Keith Levene of Public Image Ltd, Steve Diggle and Pete Shelley of Buzzcocks, Ron Asheton of the Stooges, Paul Fox of the Ruts, Greg Ginn of Black Flag, Lyle Preslar of Minor Threat, John McGeoch of Magazine and the Banshees, and Tom Verlaine of Television.[64]

Albini praised Andy Gill's guitar tone on Gang of Four's Entertainment! and said "[he] makes six strings produce more beautiful, broken noise than anybody". He praised John McKay for his work on Siouxsie and the Banshees's The Scream, saying "only now people are trying to copy it, and even now nobody understands how that guitar player got all that pointless noise to stick together as songs". Albini cited Ron Asheton: "he made great squealy death noise feedback". He also described John McGeoch's guitar playing as "great choral swells, great scratches and buzzes, [and] great dissonant noise". He admired Tom Verlaine for his ability to "twist almost any conceivable sound out of a guitar."[64]

Views[edit]

Music production[edit]

Albini was an advocate and enthusiast of analog recording, with many of his bands' releases featuring precise descriptions of equipment used in his recording and engineering in their liner notes. In a 1987 quote on the back cover of the CD version of Big Black's Songs About Fucking, he lambasted digital recording, saying that "[t]he future belongs to the analog loyalists. Fuck digital." He maintained his support, personally stating in a 2013 interview that using digital files as audio masters carries risks because files can be industrially mishandled or deliberately discarded.[65]

In the 1993 essay "The Problem with Music", he criticized the excessive use of equalizers and compression, which he described as making "everything sound like a beer commercial". He objected that words such as "punchy" and "warm" were meaningless, and wrote that producers and engineers who raise the vocals in the mix to make the music "sound more like the Beatles" were pandering to commercial interests.[66][67] In 2018, Albini said the reduction in the power of record labels over the preceding 25 years had reduced the prevalence of producers who are there only to exert artistic control over the recording. In contrast, he felt that digital recording created more freedom for people do productive work as engineers.[26]

Music industry[edit]

In 1993, Albini published a widely shared essay, "The Problem With Music", in The Baffler.[22] Albini argued that record companies exploit artists and illustrated how bands can remain in debt even after selling hundreds of thousands of albums.[22][66] He reaffirmed his stance in a 2004 presentation at Middle Tennessee State University.[15]

In November 2014, Albini delivered the keynote speech at the Face the Music conference in Melbourne, Australia, in which he discussed the evolution of the music industry over his career. He described the pre-internet corporate industry as "a system that ensured waste by rewarding the most profligate spendthrifts in a system specifically engineered to waste the band's money", which aimed to perpetuate its structures and business arrangements while preventing almost all but the biggest acts from earning a living. He contrasted it with the independent scene, which encouraged resourcefulness and established an alternative network of clubs, promoters, fanzines, DJs and labels, and whose greater efficiency allowed musicians to make a reasonable income.[68]

Albini (right) with Ani DiFranco and RZA at The New Yorker festival in September 2005

Asked about filesharing in June 2014, Albini said that while he did not believe it was the "best thing" for the music industry, he does not identify with the music industry. He considered "the community, the band, the musician" his peers, and was pleased that musicians can "get their music out to the world at no cost instantly".[50]

As part of the Face the Music speech, Albini noted that both the corporate and independent industry models had been damaged by filesharing. However, he praised the spread of free music as a "fantastic development", which allowed previously ignored music and bands to find an audience; the use of the internet as a distribution channel for music to be heard worldwide; and the increasing affordability of recording equipment, all of which allow bands to circumvent the traditional recording industry. Albini also argued that the increased availability of recorded music stimulates demand for live music, boosting artists' income.[68]

Journalism[edit]

From 1983 to 1986, Albini wrote for Matter, a new US music magazine that appeared at the time in Chicago.[69] He wrote in each issue a chronicle called "Tired of Ugly Fat?",[70] and contributed articles such as "Husker Du? Only Their Hairdresser Knows For Sure".[71] In 1994, Albini wrote a letter to the music critic Bill Wyman (not to be confused with rock musician Bill Wyman), which was published in the Chicago Reader, calling Wyman a "music press stooge" for having championed three Chicago-based music acts whom Albini labeled as "frauds": Liz Phair, the Smashing Pumpkins, and Urge Overkill.[72][73]

While in Australia in November 2014, Albini spoke with national radio station Double J and stated that, while the state of the music industry is healthy in his view, the industry of music journalism is in crisis. Albini used the example of the media spotlight that he received after criticizing Amanda Palmer for not paying her musicians after receiving over $1 million on Kickstarter to release her 2012 album Theatre Is Evil saying "I don't think I was wrong but I also don't think that it was that big of a deal." He described the music media as "superficial" and composed of "copy paste bullshit."[74]

Albini frequently expressed a general dislike for pop music, and in a 2015 interview told 2SER Sydney that "pop music is for children and idiots".[75] He expressed a loathing for electronic dance music and the entire club scene to techno producer Oscar Powell in 2015, who quoted Albini in a billboard advert and music video for his track "Insomniac" which samples Albini; Powell found Albini's dismissal of the track to be ironic, considering that while Albini chose not to listen to it, Powell felt it bore more similarity to the early industrial music that Albini cited than popular EDM.[76]

Music festivals[edit]

Albini criticized music festivals for their corporatization of popular alternative music. In a 1993 interview, he said of Lollapalooza:

Lollapalooza is the worst example of corporate encroachment into what is supposed to be the underground. It is just a large scale marketing of bands that pretend to be alternative but are in reality just another facet of the mass cultural exploitation scheme. I have no appreciation or affection for those bands and I have no interest in that whole circle. If Lollapalooza had Jesus Lizard and the Melvins and Fugazi and Slint then you could make a case that it was actually people on the vanguard of music. What it really is is the most popular bands on MTV that are not heavy metal.[77]

Shellac notably does not play festivals, with the exception of Primavera Sound in Barcelona, where the band played every edition since 2006, except for 2007.[78][79] Shellac had to be convinced by Mogwai to play their curated edition of the now-defunct All Tomorrow's Parties (ATP) in 2001, which the band performed regularly at. Albini said, "They completely changed the festival game. Now the whole world has to operate under the knowledge that there are these cool, curated festivals where everyone is treated well and the experience is a generally pleasant one."[80]

We didn't like the cattle call nature of unrelated artists playing in an un-curated fashion. We established the precedent that we weren't gonna play festivals...Most festivals, there's a competition to get the biggest names as headliners, then everybody else was whoever was on tour, and then the bottom rungs were filled with payola spots where labels would pay to get people added to a bill. ATP was entirely curated. Somebody chose every single one of those bands because they thought they were awesome.[81]

After this, Shellac had a longstanding involvement with ATP and were often referred to as ATP's 'House Band'.[82][83] Shellac were the curators of ATP at Camber Sands, UK in 2002[84] and 2012,[85] co-curated in 2004[83] and also played at several other editions of the festival including its final UK holiday camp event in 2013.[82][86]

Poker[edit]

Albini was an avid poker player, particularly in mixed games. He won two World Series of Poker bracelets: in 2018, Albini finished first in a $1,500 Stud event for $105,629; and won a $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. event in 2022 for $196,089. His X profile's cover photo features a photo of a bracelet win. He described his relationship to the game in a 2022 PokerNews article: "Poker is one part of my life. So when I'm playing poker, I try to commit to it. I try to take it seriously. I try to make sure I devote the attention to it that it deserves as an occupation. But it's only part of my year. I only play tournaments at the World Series of Poker. I play cash games informally in Chicago. It's a part of my livelihood, but it's not my profession."[87]

Personal life and death[edit]

Albini was married to the film director Heather Whinna. They they lived in Chicago.[16] He avoided drugs and alcohol; his father was an alcoholic, which made him aware of his "own vulnerability to addiction."[88]

Albini died from a heart attack at his home in Chicago, on May 7, 2024, at the age of 61.[89] Tributes came from musicians including Joanna Newsom and the Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl.[90] Damon Locks, of the Black Monument Ensemble, wrote of Albini: "He was a human (and a punk icon) who did the work, evolved, and was in service to a larger idea. … I admire that he continued to evaluate and change over time. He had an ethos. He stood for something. He was a good guy..."[91]

Discography[edit]

Main article: Steve Albini discography

Selected publications[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ McGovern, Kyle (September 26, 2013). "Read Steve Albini's Four-Page Proposal to Produce Nirvana's 'In Utero'". Spin. Archived from the original on April 26, 2018. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
  2. ^ Hellgate yearbook staff (1979). Halberd. Vol. 14. Missoula, Montana: Hellgate High School. Retrieved May 8, 2024 – via the Montana History Portal.
  3. ^ a b c d e Thorn, Jesse (December 6, 2007). "Podcast: Live in Chicago: Steve Albini" (Podcast). Bullseye with Jesse Thorn. Archived from the original on July 23, 2012. Retrieved January 11, 2014.
  4. ^ Brannigan, Paul (January 25, 2021). "Steve Albini: "I realised that other people's opinions had no power over me… I still don't give a sh*t if I get judged"". Features. Kerrang!. ISSN 0262-6624. Retrieved May 9, 2024.
  5. ^ Jannot, Mark (April 5, 2019). "From 1994: Steve Albini and the Life of the Iconoclast". Chicago Magazine. Archived from the original on May 8, 2024. Retrieved December 4, 2023.
  6. ^ a b Albini, Steve (May 30, 2011). "Strozzapreti-Gemelli with Tomato, Shallot and Mint". Mario Batali Voice. Archived from the original (Blog) on September 25, 2016. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
  7. ^ Kovacs Henderson, Andrea (2009). American men & women of science: a biographical directory of today's leaders in physical, biological, and related sciences (eBook) (26th ed.). Detroit: Gale. p. 71. ISBN 9781414457260. Archived from the original on May 8, 2024. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
  8. ^ Shatkin, Elina (January 24, 2012). "Steve Albini Has A Food Blog". LA Weekly. Archived from the original on December 27, 2013. Retrieved August 25, 2013.
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  12. ^ a b c d e f "Big Black". Touch and Go/Quarterstick Records. 2014. Archived from the original on January 8, 2010. Retrieved May 18, 2014.
  13. ^ "Staff & Friends – Steve Albini". Electrical Audio. Archived from the original on March 31, 2016. Retrieved June 21, 2015.
  14. ^ Carlson, Jen (September 28, 2011). "Nirvana Producer Steve Albini Tells Us How He Really Feels About NYC". Gothamist. Archived from the original on March 9, 2017. Retrieved June 21, 2015.
  15. ^ a b c d e f Young, Andrew (March 12, 2004). "Steve Albini". Lecture at Middle Tennessee State University. Archived from the original (Originally published in MTSU Sidelines, March 16, 2004. This is the unedited final draft of the story, with unpublished material.) on April 10, 2016. Retrieved January 11, 2014. Records became more and more produced, and more and more layers of more abstract sounds were added
  16. ^ a b c d e Margasak, Peter (January 6, 2014). "Artist on Artist: Robbie Fulks talks to Steve Albini". Chicago Reader. Archived from the original on January 9, 2014. Retrieved June 21, 2015.
  17. ^ Cress, Jim (January 1, 1983). "Big Black: No Grey". Dementlieu. Archived from the original (Matter (zine)) on September 27, 2007. Retrieved January 11, 2014. Taken from Matter, Vol. 1, No. 1, January 1983. Possibly the first print Big Black received?
  18. ^ "Sound of Impact". dementlieu.com. Obik Anti. 2002. Archived from the original on June 4, 2014. Retrieved May 18, 2014.
  19. ^ "Ep150: Steve Albini (Shellac, Big Black, Rapeman)". radioneutron.com. Conan Neutron's Protonic Reversal. April 3, 2020. Archived from the original on June 7, 2020. Retrieved May 7, 2020.
  20. ^ Christe, Ian (2008). "The Hard Golden Tone of Shellac: An Interview with Steve Albini". Crawdaddy! – Wolfgang's Vault. Archived from the original on February 9, 2009. Retrieved January 11, 2014. Originally published in Warp, 1994
  21. ^ Curto, Justin (May 8, 2024). "Steve Albini, Underground Rock Legend, Dead at 61". Vulture. Retrieved May 10, 2024.
  22. ^ a b c d Sheffield, Rob (May 9, 2024). "The unstoppable noise that was Steve Albini". Rolling Stone. Retrieved May 11, 2024.
  23. ^ Heylin, Clinton (1992). The Penguin book of rock & roll writing (1st ed.). London, UK: Penguin Group. ISBN 9780670845590. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
  24. ^ Herman, Maureen (May 13, 2014). "Who Cares What Steve Albini Thinks? You Probably Do". BoingBoing.net. Archived from the original on July 8, 2015. Retrieved May 19, 2014.
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