Post by trashcanman on Sept 21, 2016 20:29:20 GMT 2
While reading the book "Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground" -which is just an absolute must read for anybody who has any interest whatsoever in alternative rock or punk- I encountered the character of Steve Albini and may have found my doppelganger. Dude's comments look like things I would write and one look at him screams "nerd". Then again, I was never in a badass band and I sure as hell haven't produced any classic albums by rock legends. So basically, if I had any talent and was born ten years or so earlier, his life could have been my life.
Having heard of him by reputation for years, I first saw Albini on the Foo Fighters' Sonic Highways documentary series in which they visited his Chicago studio, where albums like In Utero and Surfer Rosa were produced. He's also worked with the likes of Cheap Trick, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, Manic Street Preachers, the Breeders, Fugazi, the Stooges, and literally hundreds more. I was really impressed with the guy's integrity in refusing to take a percentage of the artists' work (even knowing his work with Nirvana was going to sell millions) and his commitment to the music and only the music.
He's like me in the sense that he says blunt things to deliberately provoke people in hopes of making them think. He just does not give a single fuck. After his legendary industrial outfit Big Black, his next band was named Rapeman. The music was great, but nobody wanted to hear it because of the ironic name and he refused to change it on principle. One interviewee in the book claimed he would have been king of Europe if he'd named his band anything else. Albini claims that he's only highlighting harsh reality and that while other people keep skeletons in their closets, he prefers to send them out to greet the guests at the door. That attitude's just refreshing as hell.
Anyways, he's obviously a huge supporter of music as an independent art form (even going so far as to badmouth his friends in Sonic Youth for choosing to be a moderately successful mainstream band instead of the greatest indie band) and has written some really great manifestos on his (and others') experiences that every single music fan should really check out to get an unusually frank perspective on the music industry from somebody who's been there and done that. And these were written in the early '90s, mind you, back when good music was still being pursued by major labels. So imagine how much worse it's gotten since.
The first is an article he wrote for The Baffler where he not only lays out the tactics major labels use to convince young bands to sign their lives away, but goes so far as to do the actual math to show how unfairly distributed the profits are.
web.archive.org/web/20061115070529/http://www.thebaffler.com/albiniexcerpt.html
Having read about Minor Threat in that book, I'm enraged (but not shocked) that a former member of that band is such an industry slimebag. Turns out Ian Mackaye was the only member who was the real deal, which is exactly why they didn't last.
The second is a letter he wrote to Nirvana where he outlines his own policies and opinions on the title of "record producer" and it's just a great read and again offers a ton of insight into both the man and the industry he works for.
www.lettersofnote.com/2013/09/ill-rap-your-head-with-ratchet.html
One thing I noted here was that's the third or so time I've seen him go after Al Jourgensen of Ministry by name. In the book, he was noted as threatening to feed him his own testicles and then sew his mouth shit if he made a certain band he produced sound "1/10th as wimpy as Ministry", which is funny for several reasons, not the least of which is Big Black and Ministry are not so far off musically in my experience. I thought he might be joking, but apparently Ministry's early stuff was less thrashy and more dancy so it may have made sense at the time. A little more research shows that Jourgensen used to work as a record store Albini frequented and was actually the guy who introduced him to punk rock in the first place, so there's clearly some personal history there we're not aware of.
Anyways two great and insightful reads from a rare kindred spirit for me who actually managed to make something of himself in the music industry through sheer force of will. Now I'll close this out properly by watching the man in his heyday.
Having heard of him by reputation for years, I first saw Albini on the Foo Fighters' Sonic Highways documentary series in which they visited his Chicago studio, where albums like In Utero and Surfer Rosa were produced. He's also worked with the likes of Cheap Trick, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, Manic Street Preachers, the Breeders, Fugazi, the Stooges, and literally hundreds more. I was really impressed with the guy's integrity in refusing to take a percentage of the artists' work (even knowing his work with Nirvana was going to sell millions) and his commitment to the music and only the music.
He's like me in the sense that he says blunt things to deliberately provoke people in hopes of making them think. He just does not give a single fuck. After his legendary industrial outfit Big Black, his next band was named Rapeman. The music was great, but nobody wanted to hear it because of the ironic name and he refused to change it on principle. One interviewee in the book claimed he would have been king of Europe if he'd named his band anything else. Albini claims that he's only highlighting harsh reality and that while other people keep skeletons in their closets, he prefers to send them out to greet the guests at the door. That attitude's just refreshing as hell.
Anyways, he's obviously a huge supporter of music as an independent art form (even going so far as to badmouth his friends in Sonic Youth for choosing to be a moderately successful mainstream band instead of the greatest indie band) and has written some really great manifestos on his (and others') experiences that every single music fan should really check out to get an unusually frank perspective on the music industry from somebody who's been there and done that. And these were written in the early '90s, mind you, back when good music was still being pursued by major labels. So imagine how much worse it's gotten since.
The first is an article he wrote for The Baffler where he not only lays out the tactics major labels use to convince young bands to sign their lives away, but goes so far as to do the actual math to show how unfairly distributed the profits are.
web.archive.org/web/20061115070529/http://www.thebaffler.com/albiniexcerpt.html
Having read about Minor Threat in that book, I'm enraged (but not shocked) that a former member of that band is such an industry slimebag. Turns out Ian Mackaye was the only member who was the real deal, which is exactly why they didn't last.
The second is a letter he wrote to Nirvana where he outlines his own policies and opinions on the title of "record producer" and it's just a great read and again offers a ton of insight into both the man and the industry he works for.
www.lettersofnote.com/2013/09/ill-rap-your-head-with-ratchet.html
One thing I noted here was that's the third or so time I've seen him go after Al Jourgensen of Ministry by name. In the book, he was noted as threatening to feed him his own testicles and then sew his mouth shit if he made a certain band he produced sound "1/10th as wimpy as Ministry", which is funny for several reasons, not the least of which is Big Black and Ministry are not so far off musically in my experience. I thought he might be joking, but apparently Ministry's early stuff was less thrashy and more dancy so it may have made sense at the time. A little more research shows that Jourgensen used to work as a record store Albini frequented and was actually the guy who introduced him to punk rock in the first place, so there's clearly some personal history there we're not aware of.
Anyways two great and insightful reads from a rare kindred spirit for me who actually managed to make something of himself in the music industry through sheer force of will. Now I'll close this out properly by watching the man in his heyday.
