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.
Re: Requiescat FM Steve
152I 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
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
Re: Requiescat FM Steve
153steve 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.
Re: Requiescat FM Steve
154I 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.
My sincere condolences and wishes for support to all those who knew him better, were family, were in contact with him personally.
RIP steve.
Re: Requiescat FM Steve
155Long 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.
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.
Re: Requiescat FM Steve
156I 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.
Re: Requiescat FM Steve
157I want to quote every post and say "yes, exactly that" but we'd be here forever.
We get to our destination, she pops the cd out, and printed right on it: "Produced by Steve Albini".
Sometime after that, it's a Saturday afternoon and I'm trying to take a nap, but I can't cause my roommate is cranking the tunes in the living room. All I can hear through the wall is the low end of the bass drum but I think "that sure sounds like a bass drum recorded by Steve Albini". Later I ask what he was listening to: "oh that was an outtake from In Utero"
There's lots of records that sound good on a boombox, but lots of those records sound considerably less good when you listen to them under the operating room lights in a mastering room. You don't need me to tell you that Steve's records sound fucking amazing in a mastering room and everywhere else. In my opinion his work stands apart from literally everyone else.
I never met him but he was a huge influence on me as an engineer and as a musician. But far more than that, he was an shining example of How To Be, and I'm so, so thankful to have had him as a role model.
My favorite Shellac song has always been "Ghosts" and that title is making me a little sadder than I already am.
Many years ago, my girlfriend picks me up in her car. She's listening to The Wedding Present. I've never heard them. 20 seconds in I say "damn, this sounds really good!" 10 seconds after that I say "this sounds like Steve Albini recorded it." Girlfriend gives me a seriously dubious eyebrow and says "you can listen to something for 30 seconds and know who recorded it?" I replied "I can when it's Steve."HeavenIsInYrBeard wrote: Thu May 09, 2024 8:17 am I'm confident that I could usually have spotted one of his recordings
We get to our destination, she pops the cd out, and printed right on it: "Produced by Steve Albini".
Sometime after that, it's a Saturday afternoon and I'm trying to take a nap, but I can't cause my roommate is cranking the tunes in the living room. All I can hear through the wall is the low end of the bass drum but I think "that sure sounds like a bass drum recorded by Steve Albini". Later I ask what he was listening to: "oh that was an outtake from In Utero"
There's lots of records that sound good on a boombox, but lots of those records sound considerably less good when you listen to them under the operating room lights in a mastering room. You don't need me to tell you that Steve's records sound fucking amazing in a mastering room and everywhere else. In my opinion his work stands apart from literally everyone else.
I never met him but he was a huge influence on me as an engineer and as a musician. But far more than that, he was an shining example of How To Be, and I'm so, so thankful to have had him as a role model.
My favorite Shellac song has always been "Ghosts" and that title is making me a little sadder than I already am.
Re: Requiescat FM Steve
158re: archive, some recommendations for the vault of lore:
- Paean to billiards in a skateboarding magazine
https://killingtechnology.wordpress.com ... liards.jpg - Paean to record stores and farmers markets
https://noisyheadspace.files.wordpress. ... 2009.webp - Paean to studio cat and fellow engineer:
https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/l7lxcd8p997.png
Re: Requiescat FM Steve
159Lots of us here are also software engineers. Perhaps we could open source it.Fogbeak wrote: Thu May 09, 2024 10:15 amI 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.
Re: Requiescat FM Steve
160The above scenario is exactly how I got to the old PRF and how I became a part of this place. But for me it was the Stooges record The Weirdness.MoreSpaceEcho wrote: Thu May 09, 2024 11:07 am I want to quote every post and say "yes, exactly that" but we'd be here forever.
Many years ago, my girlfriend picks me up in her car. She's listening to The Wedding Present. I've never heard them. 20 seconds in I say "damn, this sounds really good!" 10 seconds after that I say "this sounds like Steve Albini recorded it." Girlfriend gives me a seriously dubious eyebrow and says "you can listen to something for 30 seconds and know who recorded it?" I replied "I can when it's Steve."HeavenIsInYrBeard wrote: Thu May 09, 2024 8:17 am I'm confident that I could usually have spotted one of his recordings