Steve Albini (1962-2024)
On Wednesday, May 8, 2024, I saw a post on Instagram by Pitchfork announcing the death of recording engineer and musician Steve Albini. The announcement was so shocking for a few reasons: he was only 61 years old, and Shellac’s sixth record would be released by Touch and Go Records the following week. Albini recorded many albums that I love (PJ Harvey’s Rid of Me, Pixies’ Come on Pilgrim, The Jesus Lizard’s Goat, The Wedding Present’s Seamonsters plus multiple releases by both The Breeders and Mclusky to name a few), in addition to his bands Big Black and Shellac. After processing the news, I texted friends and my husband to share that Steve had passed.
In addition to the gallery I’ve provided in this post of my images of Steve performing over the years, I’m going to share a few memories as well.
The first time I saw Shellac was in 2002 at Knitting Factory (74 Leonard Street). The moment that I remember the most fondly was an audience member shouting that the band should dedicate their next (and final) song to their sick cat. Steve laughed, agreed, and the band launched into “Prayer to God,” probably the most inappropriate/hilarious song one could dedicate to their beloved, ailing pet. The set list from that show is available here, and a recording can be found on YouTube here.
At the same show, I was very eager to buy a t-shirt. Steve sold their merch on stage, out of a backpack, after their set was over. I was young and found him intimidating so rather than purchasing a shirt directly from the man himself, my response was to flee the venue and go straight home. That ended up being a mistake since Shellac wouldn’t tour for another four years.
In 2006, I saw Shellac twice in September. I went to their performance at Europa (the venue is now another one Good Room) and then flew to Chicago for Touch and Go Records’ 25th anniversary shows at The Hideout. I was on the fence about attending but then it was announced that Big Black would reunite for a 20 minute set before Shellac played. A friend who lived in Chicago offered to let me crash on their couch so once I had a place to stay, I pitched coverage to BrooklynVegan and booked a flight because I never saw Big Black live (in my defense, they broke up when I was 7 years old). The back-to-back Big Black and Shellac sets in their hometown of Chicago were a revelation. I spotted Steve in the crowd during the day in his jumpsuit watching sets like everyone else. Oh, and I finally got my Shellac shirt.
About a year after my Shellac double header, I met Eric online and we dedicated songs involving fighting to each other and I sent him a private message apologizing for previously overlooking “Watch Song.” He was unfamiliar with that particular fight song, but it gave me a reason to contact him and start our courtship. By 2010, Eric had moved to New York, we were living together, and I got him to come with me to see this band that I loved at The Bell House.
I served as the Photo Editor at Impose Magazine for three years. During that period, if a photographer wanted to cover a festival that Shellac was playing (such as ATP Iceland), I made sure the trio was on the list of acts we wanted covered for the website. Sure, there was an editorial reason behind listing them but it was selfish as well: I wanted to see photos of Shellac performing if I couldn’t be there to witness it myself.
In 2016, Shellac booked shows in both New York City and Philadelphia, and I decided to go to both. The Philadelphia show was scheduled to take place at a venue that usually requires photo passes and since the band didn’t have a publicist, I wrote a letter and mailed it to Electrical Audio to ask if the venue required a photo pass, if they could issue one to me since I would be traveling from another state for their show. I provided my email address and phone number in the letter. While on a trip in New Orleans in September 2016, I received a call on my cell from a number I didn’t recognize. I realized the area code was from Chicago, so I stopped walking with Eric, and told him I should answer this. I picked up and it was Steve. We spoke briefly but he reassured me that I wouldn’t need a photo pass to shoot any of Shellac’s shows, so I’d be fine to photograph them if I wanted to. After hanging up, I looked at Eric and he immediately asked, “Did Steve Albini just call you?” I don’t think I need to explain how rare it was for an artist to contact a photographer directly just to tell them they had permission to document their band and I will forever appreciate that kindness. Part of me now wishes I let it go to voicemail as I probably would have kept that message.
Steve is one of two musicians to appear in my portfolio more than once, and yesterday I decided that I’ll keep it that way as long as I live.
I forgot about this when this post initially published but while I was a Photo Editor at Impose, I hijacked the second half of the January 22, 2014 episode of the radio show I sometimes hosted with Eric on Newtown Radio to play tribute to Albini. The entire episode is now available to download here. The episode page, with the full tracklist, is on Impose’s website here (the episode embed no longer seems to work a decade later but thankfully I had an mp3 archived).
There’s a video posted to Instagram from Marshall Shuster on the second slide from their 2016 Brooklyn show here. It brought a sense of joy seeing myself in the audience while the band performed years later on the day I found out Steve died and spent much of my day overwhelmed with sadness (thank you so much for posting this video, Marshall).
Steve previously posted online that he was working on a fall tour while complaining about the difficulty of having some venues charge face value for tickets. Although I’m disappointed that this tour will no longer happen, I’m not surprised (and I also love) that he was looking out for Shellac’s fans in this way. If you haven’t read Steve’s essay from 1993, “The Problem With Music,” that’s available to read on The Baffler’s website here. You can also read his fax to Nirvana regarding engineering In Utero on their Facebook page.
While writing this post, I got received a notification that my pre-order of Shellac’s new album, To All Trains, shipped. It’s going to be bittersweet listening to it now that Steve is gone, but I’m so grateful this band has been in my life for the past two decades, and I’ll listen to the albums he recorded with even more appreciation and fondness from now on.