Steve Albini RIP

I’m actually saddened to report the dying of Steve Albini. Shellac had been making ready to tour their first album in a decade To All Trains, which is scheduled for launch subsequent week. Steve Albini was 61 years outdated.

Steve had been a superb good friend for many years because the mid eighties once I first heard from him after which met him on the primary Massive Black tour of the UK. Shortly after I took my band to Chicago and recorded our third album in his cellar. Steve was a terrific host and hilariously acidic however a real sweetheart. In recent times he mellowed however was by no means a pushover and stayed true to his beliefs as this interview I carried out with him lately underlines.

Massive Black had been the identical – they excavated the darkish coronary heart of America musically and lyrically reflecting it again with a sequence of brutal and sensible albums earlier than imploding.

Steve grew to become the world’s best sound recordist working with numerous bands invading famously Nirvana, Web page and Plant and lots of others. His trademark talent made bands explode dwell in your head and he captured the sonic imperfections making for the best sound recordings ever particularly on his personal band Shellac whose sequence of albums is probably rock music at its peak.

Shellac captured each nuance and each mixture of rock at its rhythmic greatest and the sound of these file is the most effective of any band ever sonically and intellectually exploring each chance of rock.

Other than his huge contribution musically Steve was a really nice particular person, a superb host and somebody who stayed true to his punk rock rules. He was deeply clever and a loyal good friend and I’ll miss his presence and his deep knowledge and compassion. He was a fellow traveller in a fucked up world and a superb spirit.