Steve Albini - Big Black
I was thinking about my old friend Steve Albini this morning and decided I wanted to blog about it. Here’s a cover of a CD called “Rich Man’s Eight Track Tape”. I shot this cover in the 1980’s. The first run of the CDs didn’t have photo credits – subsequent runs listed me as the photographer. I also did a few shots of Steve and the band for various magazines and underground papers. Steve Albini is his name – he’s now a fairly big time producer having done Nirvana, Cheap Trick and a many other big name band’s recordings.
He was fairly well known amongst the punk rockers in the States, but never gained the notoriety that he had in Europe. The first time I heard his music I didn’t get it. The first time I saw him perform live I knew that he was destined for great things just because of the passion he had while performing. Some of the stuff still doesn’t do it for me, but there are times when I truly enjoy a good Big Black song or two. I think he was ahead of his time. What seemed like raucous in-your-face noise back then just sounds normal now.
Steve was quite a character. He loved playing with fire. One of the shots I did of him was him playing a trumpet with flames coming out the bell. He also used to soak his steel toed boots with film cleaner and light his feet on fire then go up the stairs and wait for the “EL” train just to see how people would react.
I remember him coming in to work one day all bummed out. He declared, “My girlfriend ran away with a Butthole Surfer.” Even though he was visibly upset, most people couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of that sentence. For those of you who may not know “The Butthole Surfers” was another band of that era. They happened to be friends of Steve’s and stayed at his place while they were in town for a gig. When they left, his girlfriend went with them.
The last time I saw Steve was at a surprise birthday party - I think it was his 35th, but I’m not really sure anymore. MTV did a nice video for him called “Show me on the doll where he touched you.” Too funny! I’d love to get my hands on a copy. I suppose I should look him up one of these days. Yep, Steve was one of the more colorful characters I’ve run across in my travels. I kind of miss him. I have two of his concert posters in my office.
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May 11th, 2009 at 6:38 am
Steve Albini — I’ve enjoyed his work many, many times. Chevelle, Cheap Trick, Pixies, Wedding Present, etc.
However, I think that this is my favorite Steve Albini moment:
When asked by Magnet Magazine (along with several others “in the know”) to comment on his favorite “power pop” song of all time, rather than respond with the seemingly unassailable “September Gurls” or the like as other people did, Mr. Albini rants:
“The bands you mention (Big Star, Raspberries, Flamin’ Groovies, Cheap Trick, Dwight Twilley, Shoes, dB’s, Matthew Sweet, Posies) are utterly unrelated. I can tolerate some of them, love the Flamin’ Groovies and Cheap Trick and have a profound hatred of the rest. I cannot bring myself to use the term ‘power pop.’ Catchy mock-descriptive terms are for dilettantes and journalists. I guess you could say I think this music is for pussies and should be stopped.”
Never bend an inch. That seems to be the watch word with Steve Albini. It works for me.