STEVE, I WANNA SAY THANK YOU, FOR ALL YOU'VE DONE FOR ME

“Steve, I wanna say thank you, for all you’ve done for me.” 

That line is from the song “Aloha Steve and Dano,” by the goddamn mighty Radio Birdman. It’s about Hawaii Five-O, but over the course of the past week, my brain has repurposed that particular lyric, because Steve Albini died unexpectedly on May 07, 2024. I never met the man, and yet I owe him so much. 

I first heard Big Black sometime in high school. Up to that point, I only knew Albini as the outspoken recording engineer that helmed Nirvana’s In Utero, but after reading about the band in some random music publication, I bought a copy of their second and final album, Songs About Fucking. 

I was not ready for that shit.

Songs About Fucking was caustic on a level that my teenage mind couldn’t even begin to comprehend. Listening to it kinda felt like your brain was being scrubbed with steel wool. The feeling was not a pleasant one, and I sold the CD after letting it languish on my shelf for a while. 

I came around on Big Black eventually (oddly enough, I prefer their first album, Atomizer, which is way gnarlier sounding), but Big Black wasn’t the only game changing band Albini was a part of. Not long after my first uncomfortable dalliance with the infamous Chicago trio, I came across a review of At Action Park, the debut album from Albini’s then-new project Shellac, and decided to give it another go. Shellac was a much easier pill for me to swallow and I found myself listening to it often, as I still do to this day. 

Shellac ended up being the Albini project that stuck with me the most. Something about their minimalistic yet abrasive approach to heavy rock really struck a chord and was a refreshing respite from the metal and punk that dominated my listening. Albini’s genius as a musician became readily apparent in much the same way his genius as a recording engineer had become apparent when I listened to albums like the aforementioned In Utero, or The Jesus Lizard’s Liar.

Songs About Fucking (even though I didn’t like it back then) and At Action Park both played an extremely important role in opening me up to underground music. Indeed, those initial brain-mangling listens ultimately prepared me for the likes of Naked City, Merzbow, Melt-Banana, Wolf Eyes, Abruptum, Today is the Day and all sorts of far-out shit. I didn’t fully realize it at the time, but Albini’s music went a long way towards molding me into a lover of all things noisy and angular. 

Albini passed away just a little over a week before the release of To All Trains, Shellac’s first album in a decade. While I’m utterly devastated by the loss of an artist that was so significant in shaping way I listen to and think about music, I can’t help but look forward to what is sure to be one last dose of brilliance from him. It’s going to be a bittersweet listen, to say the very least. 

I’m terrible at ending these things, so I’m just gonna end it by paraphrasing the way I started it. Thank you Steve, for all you’ve done for me and for thousands (millions?) of others. See you in Valhalla.