RIP Steve Albini | Whatever

Pitchfork introduced that Steve Albini, indie music producer and basic gadfly to the music business, has died of a coronary heart assault at 61 years outdated. In the event you had been between 13 and 33 years outdated within the 80s and 90s and dug what was then often known as “various” music, then he in all probability had his hand in a few of your favourite music out of your favourite bands, together with from Nirvana, PJ Harvey and the Pixies. He additionally fronted his personal bands, considered one of which, Shellac, apparently has a brand new album popping out subsequent week.

I knew Albini extraordinarily tangentially, in that we each frolicked on Bluesky and had some back-and-forth there. It was enjoyable to see somebody who truly had a major function within the tradition I and others of my era participated in hanging out, taking pictures the shit, and making observations each on the music business and the tradition basically. Albini was identified to present unvarnished opinions on the business he labored in (his essay “The Drawback With Music” is a basic piece about how the music business principally sucked for each band in it), and he was additionally remarkably self-observant about being a white dude within the tradition, what that allow him get away with when he was youthful, and the way he wanted to personal that previous and work on the place he was now. As of late, that’s not nothing.

So, anyway, this actually sucks and as a music lover, I’m unhappy about this. Additionally, as somebody who chatted him up on-line just a few occasions and loved his posts in any other case, I’m additionally unhappy. As I famous on Bluesky, that is very very like listening to that your neighbor has unexpectedly handed. It’s simply that on this case, the neighbor additionally was a fucking big in his subject. What a legacy he will get to be a part of.

— JS