The real problem is women who won’t say r***man, after all, as men have always been on the forefront of the struggle for women’s dignity in the music industry…
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I wondered if, when I was typing out my original comment on Albini’s passing, I’d soon find out about some other stuff he’d done that was shitty. : ) It’s a hazard to praise most anyone famous, no doubt. There’s almost always some part of their lives that was a mess. The few exceptions to this I can think of are even greater standouts because of their rarity.
I’d forgotten Albini’s association with that band, the name of which at least is edgelordy and is terrible. I haven’t heard any of their music, so I don’t know if it was good or not.
I do appreciate him for the stuff he did that was good and worth doing. And I think it’s fair, and perhaps more importantly simply accurate, to mention both. The good doesn’t excuse the bad, of course. It just, as usual, presents a complicated picture of a person.
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You know the first time I heard of Steve Albini the guy I was trying to leave without dying from it (my first 
) left the album for me as a gift. He wanted me to listen to one song. It was that song about wanting to kill two people who were cheating. Although I wasn’t so much cheating… he just refused to “allow” me to leave him and wanted me to believe he would kill me. I did believe it. People called me crazy. He didn’t kill me obviously but he did commit some major crimes that I have no involvement in other than being a lucky escapee from a mentally unstable abusive drug addict.
I… have had a complicated relationship with Albini’s music and his whole gestalt to say the least.
I mean that’s the nature of things that create both painful and pleasant memories though isn’t it?
For a variety of reasons I ended up wanting to understand the music instead of wanting to avoid it? Not always… just that time.
And I don’t regret it actually.
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Plenty of people have messy lives and manage to not write songs using the n-word if they’re white. Or have band names that invoke a violent sexual assault. Even lots of punk bands looking to shock the world managed to avoid that kind of shit and realize it was toxic, racist, misogynistic BS at the time. People made choices, egged on by their choice to hang around with other like-minded jock-type dudebros who ended up colonizing many punk scenes in the 80s. Unsurprisingly, it made such scenes into fucking battlegrounds as dudes like Albini sought to swing their dicks around to show just how cool and “outsider” they were…
But sure… it’s hard to deny his influence on “alternative” music in the 90s. No doubt. No one hear said otherwise, and in fact most of the posts here have been positive remembrances of his impact.
And I’m glad you got away from that shithead. Fuck him. I hope he’s fucking miserable being such violent jackass to you.
Yeah, exactly that. We should feel like we can engage if we want, and not be shouted down for not wanting to do so, either.
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Almost as if it’s possible to recognize and maybe even admire someone’s professional contributions, while also recognizing what an asshole they were.
I guess nuance is hard.
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Fame is a kind of power.
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Reading these comments, I can’t help but feel that they offer an inaccurate and incomplete comprehension of Albini’s character and his place as a human being in the last 20+ years. Speculations about his negative attributes are asserted with such authority but without seemingly knowing the fuller story, resulting in misrepresentations that perpetuate a shallow caricature. But the real Albini was more complex — and (in my view) exceedingly inspiring.
The most interesting thing about Steve Albini was that he worked to evolve — both musically and (more importantly) as a human being — to become a better and more openhearted, responsible, kind person.
Yeah: in his youth, the dude could be a misanthropic nihilist jerk — sharpened by punk’s harder edges — who seemed to love nothing more than to provoke, to put (in his mind) a mirror to the hypocrisies of polite society. At times his rhetoric/shenanigans got excessive, sometimes indefensibly so.
But unlike so many obnoxious/toxic contrarian edgelords, he made the effort to grow beyond that in the years since and attempt to make amends as he could. As he stated later: “A lot of things I said and did from an ignorant position of comfort and privilege are clearly awful and I regret them.”
He got married to a person who opened his eyes to the difficult realities of the world for people besides him, and beyond the myopia of his limited perspective; he began to face down his own insecurities that drove him to such negative provocations; he learned the true plight of those who were less privileged than himself; he opened himself to compassion, generosity of spirit, and a sense of grace; he held himself accountable for his past deeds. “It’s been a project I’ve undertaken piecemeal as I’ve matured, evolved and learned over time,” he said.
He could still be hard-edged/profane in his communication, of course — that’s just who he was. But his musings became more considered and open to broader wisdom. (A favorite Albini quote: “In a lot of ways, we spend our last 50 years getting over our first 12.”)
As a person who once mocked political idealists, he grew to be an outspoken progressive — advocating for labor power, feminism, trans/queer rights, care for impoverished/underrepresented communities, antifascism, etc. Just take a look at his Xitter feed.
Some of those sentiments resulted in direct action in which he helped communities in need. Above all, he became an increasingly caring, friendly, helpful presence to folks, especially musicians; many would come to pay tribute to these attributes after his death (such as Joanna Newsome’s heartfelt homage to Albini during a recent live show). Here in Chicago, where he was very approachable, we could plainly see this evolution.
That, to me, is the real tragedy of his sudden death. Despite bouts of not-so-great choices many years ago, we lost a singular iconoclast whose later outspoken progressive advocacy, ethical fortitude, artistic vision, and common decency leaves a void, and will be missed by many. In my view, despite some truly crappy choices in his past, he made a hell of a lot more positive impact — both in music and as a human being — than negative.
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Also: given Albini’s remarkable eloquence and capability to powerfully articulate his thinking with uncommon erudition and verve — he’ll always remain among punk rock’s greatest writers — here are excerpts from an excellent interview in Mel Magazine (which I can’t seem to link here, my apologies) that illustrate the above points from the source himself:
“Within our circles, within the music scene, within the musical underground, a lot of cultural problems were deemed already solved — meaning, you didn’t care if your friends were queer. Of course women had an equal place, an equal role to play in our circles. The music scene was broadly inclusive. So for us, we felt like those problems had been solved. And that was an ignorant perception.
“That’s the way a lot of straight white guys think of the world — they think that it requires an active hatred on your part to be prejudiced, bigoted or to be a participant in white supremacy. The notion is that if you’re not actively doing something to oppress somebody, then you’re not part of the problem. As opposed to quietly enjoying all of the privilege that’s been bestowed on you by generations of this dominance.
“That was the fundamental failure of my perception. It’s been a process of enlightenment for me to realize and accept that my very status as a white guy in America is the product of institutional prejudices, that I’ve enjoyed the benefits of them, passively and actively. And I’m responsible for accepting my role in the patriarchy, and in white supremacy, and in the subjugation and abuse of minorities of all kinds.
“The absence of being targeted is an element of privilege. And then you look around and you see, like, ‘Oh, here’s my friend and there are people who hate him. They hate him for these traits that he has and I don’t.’ Those things dawn slowly on me. And I feel shame that it took me into my adulthood to recognize that…
“In our circles, nothing was off limits. So, it took a while for me to appreciate that using abusive language in a joking fashion was still using abusive language. And it was genuinely shocking when I realized that there were people in the music underground who weren’t playing when they were using language like that and who weren’t kindred spirits. They were, in fact, awful, and only masquerading as intellectuals. That was one of many wake-up moments…
“If I realize that I’ve been being cruel, I need to stop — not just for the other person’s benefit, but because I’m responsible for my own behavior… I was a cruder person back then. We’re all sort of stumbling through things… It’s worth it to interrogate yourself and try to figure out why you’re doing things the way you are.
“It’s easy to create window dressing. It’s difficult to change your behavior.”
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Velcome, new comrade.
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Wait. Joanna Newsom is back playing?
Don’t bury the lede here!
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Here ya go…
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2015 album and several dates on LA only.
Well it’s a start. Maybe she’s getting a start into new material?
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That’s some good stuff. It sure seems that those who knew him best are the sorriest to see him gone.
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