Ryan --

I agree with the first half of your post.  Albini
definitely is a snob who frowns on mainstream rock,
unless it gets him a paycheck.  He quit working with
Jesus Lizard, just because the band agreed to release
a live album on Giant Records, a disc that provided
critical cash flow to a great band.  Yet, it must be
said, Albini has done so much for indie music bands,
recording a lot of records for next to nothing.

I will have to disagree with the second half of the
post.  Big Black was a great post-punk band, who, for
better or for worse, were a major influence on
industrial (Ministry's Land of Rape and Honey is
practically a tribute album) and noise rock.  Atomizer
and Songs About Fucking are great albums.

Mike Bennett

--- erhoek@comcast.net wrote:

> I totally agree with Greg's view. Albini comes off
> consistently as the hipster insider sycophant to the
> Amphetamine Reptile and early Touch and Go scene and
> takes every given opportunity to take potshots at
> anything that offers a tinge of melody and doesn't
> sound like a garbage truck being driven off the
> Matterhorn by a gang of Hell's Angels..
> This snobbery from someone who produced, among other
> things ,a Bush album doesn't add up.
> I think Albini's output as Big Black was right up
> there in the emperor has no clothes category as
> Metal Machine Music with the exception of Big Black
> having maybe a bit more "melody" (using the word
> loosely). .
> Slint,a band Albini produced, were much better for
> that genre.. i.m.o.
> -r
> 
> 
> > > Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 12:03:46 -0400
> > > From: "Stewart Mason" <craigtorso@verizon.net>
> > > To: <audities@smoe.org>
> > > Subject: Re: Artists Surrender Their Favorite
> Power-Pop Songs
> > > Message-ID:
> <000b01c59132$70bfaf90$1d02a8c0@Sparky>
> > > 
> > > 
> > > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > > From: "Sager, Greg"
> <greg.sager@bankofamerica.com>
> > > > And it's nice to see via this *Magnet* survey
> that middle age has 
> > > > not changed Steve Albini's charming and
> winsome personality one 
> > > > iota.
> > > 
> > > I know people who have recorded with Albini, and
> believe it or not, 
> > > word is that he's actually a perfectly nice guy
> in real life, when 
> > > he's not working his persona.
> > 
> > 
> > Albini and I used to cross paths a lot back in '84
> at the two-flat here on 
> > Chicago's North Side where Breaking Circus lived
> while they were recording their 
> > EP *The Very Long Fuse*. (Albini's mentioned in
> the liner notes of the EP via 
> > his nickname at the time, "the Little Weed". He
> weighed about 90 pounds soaking 
> > wet.) We were both friends with the guys in the
> band, and the band's apartment 
> > was something of a hangout. I also used to see
> Albini at a lot of Naked Raygun 
> > and Effigies shows, as they were part of that same
> scene. Believe me, that 
> > scabrous persona he cultivates in the press was
> the genuine article. Of course, 
> > that was over twenty years ago. Since then he may
> have actually figured out how 
> > to play nice when someone isn't pointing a
> microphone in his face.
> > 
> > 
> > Gregory Sager
> 


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