all i can feel is indignation, how is something like this allowed to happen

last decade i went to Primavera a few years in a row and i always made sure to catch Shellac, even if "bigger" names were playing at the same time. always so special, and i guess i always took it for granted that i'd see them again...

sparky wrote: Wed May 08, 2024 11:57 pmA half-composed letter to him lies useless in my head suggesting he compile his writing, all of it, seen and unseen. I wish someone would do this.

yes!

sending love to everyone, i'm not on here as often anymore but i second everyone's feelings about the impact this place and steve have had

FM member Rimbaud III here. Like so many of us, I've been lucky enough to befriend so many of you in the flesh and across other channels. Life-long friends, who in the twenty years since I joined have shared in so much of my life, as I have theirs. The gigs and beers were one thing, but we've seen marriages, births, divorce and death. The shit that life throws at you, and real friends follow you through. You've always been there, and there has always been love.

That's entirely on Steve. The music, both his and the work he helped to bring to us all, is a monumental legacy in and of itself. It's what brought us together in the first place. But for me, a man on the furthest periphery of his world, it's the friends I've made because of him that will be his most significant gift.

I would have been watching Shellac for the fifth time soon, and I wish I could have told him this to his face.

Love and condolences to you all, friends and family.

I only met Steve a handful of times. We talked about the history of Torlex the Snakesking while he was manning the grill at the Hideout Block Party. We chatted briefly at a Shellac show in Missoula during the brief stint that I lived in MT. I sold him a dBx 165A compressor, and the EA check that was sent as payment had this fantastic clipart image of a billiard player in the top corner. That image is burned in my memory.

Over the years, I benefited immensely from his knowledge and, maybe more importantly, his willingness to share that knowledge, and it made me a better engineer as a result. When I was in recording school at MTSU in 2004, he gave a lecture/Q&A session to a packed house, and held court for nearly 2 hours. I found a recording of that lecture last night and watched it again. Then I realized that he was younger in that video then than I am now. You can't help but think about your own mortality in situations like this.

RIP FM steve

Heard the news last night, and - like everyone else on the thread - it's been playing on my mind. Some thoughts...

Unlike many on here, I never interacted with Steve personally. I did see all three of the bands he fronted (in the case of Shellac, five times). Would have loved to record at EA if the opportunity had ever arisen. Have an unfortunate tenancy to noodle on things for too long, sometimes to the detriment of the final result. I have a feeling he'd have stood for none of that nonsense, and quite rightly so.

I suspect he'd have disliked the notion that he had a signature sound, as his ethos was always to facilitate bands in capturing the sound THEY wanted. Nonetheless, I'm confident that I could usually have spotted one of his recordings - even the ones he wasn't credited on - mainly due to the unique way in which he mic'd up drums and didn't push vocals to the forefront of the mix. Also respected the extraordinary generosity of spirit with which he shared his knowledge with anyone who wanted to know - an approach that went against many name industry producers who regarded their recording techniques as trade secrets for fear of being emulated.

I also gained further respect for him due to the 2020 interview in which he admitted to feeling embsrassment and some remorse for many of the provocateurish things he said and did when he was younger. Growing and learning are signs of maturity that most of us acquire IRL - but sadly so many musicians are far too egocentric to acknowledge their past mistakes I'm public.

My heart goes out to Heather, to Steve's family, and of course to the staff at Electrical Audio. However much of a loss Steve's death feels to us forum members, it goes without saying that it must be hundreds of times worse for them.

R.I.P.

This is super fucked and feels unreal. We saw him a month or two ago and he had the nicest smile when we walked in.

I fucking hate this shit so much.

Love to Heather and all of his dearest friends and family.

I am not good at these things but feel like this is the proper place to grieve with all of you, some strangers who would be instant friends.

I was a kid in Kankakee who loved recording and had to borrow much of the equipment I used to record house shows. I had heard or read an interview with Steve where they talked about his studio in a house, the ultimate dream for me - somehow now in my 40s I made that dream come true because of him. I just looked up the number for the studio and called and somehow he answered the phone and talked to me for 20 minutes about recording, things to try, cheap microphones to look for. Eventually this turned into regular email correspondence, a few bands I was involved with recording with him, and realizing that no matter where I was in the world for recording arts - people knew his name and his work. People knew his work *ethic*. I've always held his advice to answer the fucking studio phone in high esteem. I answer the phone, I answer every email...

We also recently missed Mark Rubel, another incredibly generous and humble professional engineer. Its no secret that many of us out here have done our best to emulate the success and trajectory of these folks with varying degrees of acumen. If we couldn't be half the engineer they were then at least we could adopt their work ethic, curiosity, and dedication to recording.

Yesterday when I found out, I had to work in the morning and take my kid to a doctors appointment in the afternoon. I couldn't cry, I didn't get emotional. I am still in absolute denial that this is real despite every sign that it is. I am grateful for the time we spent together but even more so as so many of you have expressed - the people I have met through association with Steve, the studio, this forum, PRFTribute, the music he made are some of the finest motherfuckers to walk the planet. Eternally grateful for all of you here.

dB

steve wrote:

TheMilford wrote: Here's my favorite:

Sprawling on the fringes of the city...

Allow me to reduce that to haiku:

Suburban Ontarian
visits Toronto
Buildings! People! And Weed!

Salut! you invigorating, sometimes confounding, always interesting, boundlessly generous-in-spirit, stubborn (but yielding where it counts) bastard.
And thank you for everything.

Much love and solidarity to everyone here.
Sincere condolences to his partner, friends, bandmates and colleagues at EA.

I have not been on the PRF in several years, but I thought of this place as a second home during a pretty tough time in my life. FM steve's occasional posts and responses to threads I posted in were a big reason why. He was smart and gifted and great and I cannot believe he is gone.

My sincere condolences and wishes for support to all those who knew him better, were family, were in contact with him personally.

RIP steve.

Long time, no see.

I'm not sure anyone will remember me - I lurked more than I posted, and even that was a long-ass time ago - but it's academic, especially given the circumstances.

I've been a music-obsessed nerd for the vast majority of my life. Looking at my record collection now, there's no one individual who has had a greater impact thereupon than Steve Albini - not just in terms of the albums and EPs he made with Big Black, Rapeman, and Shellac, but also in terms of the ones he recorded for PJ Harvey, Pixies, Joanna Newsom, High on Fire, Mogwai, Jarvis Cocker, Nirvana, Slint, The Jesus Lizard, and countless others besides.

In addition, Steve acted as a beacon of integrity and intelligence in an industry that's all too often lacking in both.

He wasn't afraid to have a reckoning with his 'edgelord' past, own up to the mistakes he'd made, and keep striving to be a better person.

My personal interactions with him were limited to public discussions on the old forum, plus the odd email here and there, but he always seemed like a thoroughly good guy.

Rest easy, Steve - you left this world a better place than it was when you entered it, and none of us can ask for a finer legacy than that. Thanks for everything.

To Bob, Todd, PRF members old and new alike, and everyone else who knew and loved Steve - my thoughts are with you all.

This whole situation fucking sucks.

prowler wrote: Thu May 09, 2024 6:32 am

sparky wrote: Wed May 08, 2024 11:57 pmA half-composed letter to him lies useless in my head suggesting he compile his writing, all of it, seen and unseen. I wish someone would do this.

yes!

I had the idea of making a Steve Albini Archive website to collect all the knowledge he's shared over the years. Videos, interviews, technical descriptions of recording setups, gear, anecdotes, funny/insightful quotes, etc. All user submitted, anything goes.

Often times, I'll be doing a deep dive on some album that he's recorded, trying to suss out little technical details. There'll be a link to an interview or a video or something, and the link will be from some long-deleted website, the information essentially lost to time.

This forum certainly serves this function, in part, but a lot of fan communities create Wikia pages devoted to collecting as much information as possible on their subject of interest. BoCPages, for the group Boards Of Canada, is a fantastic example of this.

I'm a software developer by trade, and I'd be willing to sink some real time and effort into this if there was enough interest.