Steve Albini
RAJ
tenacious local 7,779 Posts
The Nirvana thread piqued my interest in recording engineer Steve Albini. I really love the raw basement like quality he adds to recordings. Recommend some Albini faves?
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Some friends of mine in a band called Ferocious Fucking Teeth just recorded with him recently (they've yet to release the recordings). Even after producing countless classics he still keeps his prices low enough so that unknown/unsigned bands can afford to record with him.
Kim Deal is pretty into the sound side of things too. She records using the All Wave approach, which she and Albini came up with after this was released. So basically, no computers or digital components at any point in the process, even when it comes to post production, mixing and mastering.
Breeders Digest poast about All Wave recording
More recently, you can't fuck with his work on Joanna Newsom "Ys".
Also - check out the website for Albini's recording studio http://www.electrical.com/
That's one of he worst records I've listened to in the last decade.
He is especially awesome at recording drums.
Munchkin Music to be listened to in Mom's basement suroounded by cats....lots of them.
b/w
She'd rip out Vashti Bunyan's trachea in a twee gang fight
http://www.discogs.com/Steven-Lance-Ledbetter-Organ-Fans/release/2764201
Only because Vashti's about 70 now.
yes. that is an incredible sounding record.
all the shellac albums sound great, as does Rapeman's "Two Nuns and a Pack Mule"-- i guess he's pretty picky about how his own bands sound. the guitars he plays are the definition of crunchy sound, imo.
i was pleasantly surprised by this recently, having never listened to scout niblet before:
cosign on Pod too. I'm kind of a geek for anything coming out of EA recordings. The stockpile of 2" tape at that studio must be huge.
I've heard this, too. He's got a rep as a really difficult collaborator, but everything I've heard just makes him sound kind of like a nice enough shut-in. Someone I've talked to from Guided by Voices said that after every song Steve would say, substituting for particulars, "That sounds like [Cheap Trick, the Kinks, whatever]," in an utter deadpan; the band would say, "Is that good?"; and Steve would say, "It's not bad or good. It's just true."
Also I saw Naked Raygun years ago and Jeff Pezzati told me that Steve had a problem with fireworks, like a genuine pyrotechnical compulsion. If he has fireworks apparently he cannot, cannot, cannot avoid lighting them. Allegedly.