speaking of lightning in a bottle, i’m not a big Will Oldham fan by any means but i’ve always loved the feeling of this Palace Music record, a kind of a perfect ramshackle energy
also more people need to hear those Nina Nastasia albums he produced. really great stuff
Duped again!!!
Another RIP there
I totally ditched out on one of their shows because I was just interested in the opener. Found a boot of the whole show later and kicked myself for doing that.
not just one day, but one take!
“Farewell Transmission” must be one of the most heroic recording moments of all time, because I called in people that were not already scheduled to be in the band and I was like, “Oh, now we’re going to have a violin player, and we’re going to have an extra singer.” I called out all of these things, much like a conductor does – and trust me, I’m not a conductor. I’m the break man. I will not fuck you up if I am the break man, I just don’t want to move anymore.
We put, I think, about 12 people in a room and recorded that song live, completely live, and unrehearsed. I showed ‘em the chord progression, they had no idea when it would end, and we just cut it. Steve [Albini] did a beautiful job. I noticed that at one point when it was a little too loud or a little too soft he came and opened a door to make it work, because it was just an ambient recording. When you hear that song kick off everybody knows it, and what’s so disturbing to me is the way that I ended it is I was dictating to the band and Steve—I go “Listen. Listen. Listen.” And then at one point they all stop. It’s great.
from Jason Molina — Faster Times interview
imo the more impressive thing is that it was unrehearsed. like, not to discount the feat, but getting something in one take is ime not uncommon. if people know what they’re doing and you don’t get it on the first take, second at a push, you’re probably not getting it that day. but that’s if people know what they’re doing!
It’s an absolute convergence of a song, just so weighty and cosmic and pure.
I try not to be this type of person but in Albini’s case I don’t know how you can ignore his history, except that prior to his death a lot of people seemed to be unaware of just how avowed his pederastry was and how extensive his associations with child pornographers were.
That Medium article is written by a transphobe who desires to link transness to pederasty. So. This isn’t disputing that Steve Albini said these things, or defending him, just that maybe we should be suspicious of the propagandist motives of someone who thinks that trans people are mentally-diseased child molesters.
I didn’t know about anything else they’ve written when I posted it. I’ll remove the link because I don’t want to give them hits.
As far as I know nothing about Albini’s statements and activities is misrepresented in the blogpost. It’s all been out there for a while, for instance here’s somebody else commenting on it a year ago. The thing about him buying CP in Germany is from the Big Black tour diary, which was posted upstream in the thread.
yeah it’s like one of the first few entries and it kind of has the effect of a jump scare
i think you should at least read the peter sotos wikipedia entry because whatever you think about it (i’m not particularly familiar, seems weird) that reddit post is not good faith either
Joshua Ryne Goldberg (born May 14, 1995) is an American internet troll,[1] convicted of attempting a bombing on the 14th anniversary of the September 11 attacks[2] while posing as an Islamic terrorist affiliated with ISIS.
um, wow, now that’s transgressive art
To me, these things are all of a piece with gen x edgelord culture, though more extreme than we are used to. I don’t think Steve was actually a pedophile but he loved to talk about the most disgusting things as if he was into them throughout the 80s and early 90s, half schtick and half fascination with the ugliness of humanity. He specifically talked about Pure here:
It’s hard for me to articulate, but there’s a friend of mine, Peter Sotos, who’s written extensively about abuse and murder and things of that nature. A lot of his writing is extremely difficult to read. It’s repellent. You’re brought into the mind of a sadist, pretty convincingly. And I feel like that experience, reading that stuff, is shocking to your core in the way that the horrors of the reality of those things should be.
Whereas this sort of Nancy Grace “bombshell tonight in the child murders of” — that sort of show-business softening of the impact of it, sort of turning it into a fucking board game, and turning it into a police procedural where there are heroes and villains and you’re rooting for people… That whole thing has turned these horrible, monstrous, atrocious things into just another kind of soap opera. That stuff is embarrassing for our culture. There’s something about using that as a vehicle for commerce, as the product that you sell — these existential horrors — and using that as a trinket to get people into a commercial stream. There’s something repellent to me about that.
totally respect anyone who doesn’t fuck with him because of those things, but he still has my respect despite those things, in part because he grew past doing this kind of shit and genuinely became the least shitty white guy in the music industry.
I’ve dismissed artists for less than the things he wrote, but most people don’t turn around and say, ‘you know what, the way I behaved sucked and i’m not going to double down on the follies of my youth’ and that does count for something for me, esp if it is backed up with a visible change in behavior and attitude
No disrespect but are you forgetting about a little someone I like to call Weird Al???
Ah shit, you’re right
the one thing the world is missing is a weird al album produced by albini
one of the highlights of albini’s posting
“More Egyptian but keep it in the pocket…” will never not make me laugh
I dunno I remember the Jerry Springer thread man I remember it all too well I can never listen to Weird Al again
What am I forgetting???
I am sorry it’s a little joke but also it’s true I may never be able to listen to him again…
