Word: steve
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Steve Albini has had a significant influence on rock music. He was in a band that influenced a lot of other bands. He produced lots of those bands. If you live in America, you've heard one of these bands. But Albini is a polarizing figure; not all agree that his influence is salutary. Most of this irritation stems from two things: his stringent demands for integrity in music and his own apparent violations of the edicts he lays down. Also, he's probably the most arrogant guy on the planet...
...didn't know that.) As a zine writer, Albini demanded "independence, self-determination, absolute total honesty and common sense" from bands and was always ready to write some off as sellouts. In 1982, he formed Big Black. Big Black is a band you've probably never heard of. Steve likes it this way. After a couple years of touring and a couple albums, Big Black broke up because too maybe people liked them. Meaning about 1,000 people. Steve's that kind...
...lyrics are pretty much unintelligible. It is a very good album. Its volume and distortion and proto-industrial sound and depressing, violent lyrics do not make it an easy listen; it's actually hard to believe that just two guitars, a bass, a drum machine and Steve's angry voice can make such a wonderful racket. This album is called Songs about Fucking. Steve's that kind...
...Steve's next band was equally impolitic; he named it Rapeman. Rapeman was quieter than Big Black, but this is relative. It had a human drummer, for one thing. Rapeman had only one album; it was named Two Nuns and a Pack Mule. The best song builds slowly from a single guitar and frequent silences; then it adds a bass line, then some white noise and then Steve's voice. The song is hypnotic, even lovely, but in typical Albini fashion, this song is called "Kim Gordon's Panties" and features classy lyrics like "If I had that to come...
...Rapeman fell apart in 1989, and Steve started to concentrate on producing other bands. But don't tell Steve that; he'll answer that he's a "recording engineer." Steve prefers this because he says his job could be done by anyone with the proper knowledge of equipment; he's a professional and not an artist in this capacity. Steve engineered albums for many bands, some of which were quite successful. And then, in 1993, Steve engineered In Utero for Nirvana. (This despite calling Nirvana a "wannabe Led Zeppelin" in 1991.) Steve became very popular and went on to engineer...