Fuck You Steve Albini

This death pissed me off. I’m still fucking angry about it. Steve Albini was only 16 years older than me. There is no reason his fucking ass should have died of a heart attack. None.

This was a guy who clung onto his principles, was outspoken about them and never wavered. He once said that pop music was for children and idiots. So he hurt some feelings along the way. Our generation never had any to begin with anyway.

I loved his bands Big Black, Rapeman and Shellac. I loved the records he helped engineer: PJ Harvey’s Rid of Me, The Breeders’ Pod, Slint’s Tweez, Ut’s Griller, Jesus Lizard’s Head, Nirvana’s In Utero, Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s Yanqui U.X.O. And there are probably a lot more where he was uncredited.

I first saw him live with Shellac back on Super Bowl Sunday January 28, 2001 with Fatkid. A bunch of us were going to go down to Disneyland to take advantage of the short lines due to the Super Bowl (which was false false false.) But Fatkid and I got wind that Shellac were going to play a morning show at the Knitting Factory. We got tickets to that show and ended up meeting everyone else down in Disney. To date, this was the only show where there were Krispy Kreme donuts for all to partake (I remember the donuts being free, but I could be wrong.)

I need to keep remembering that there is a way to live without succumbing to the evils of banal capitalism, to demand excellence and to not settle for whatever is popular. And fuck Steely Dan.