Very sad news today from Chicago, where it was reported that musician, recording engineer, author, designer, professional poker player and accomplished iconoclast Steve Albini died yesterday of a heart attack. He was only 61 years old.
I didn’t know Albini well, but we had some good conversations over the years. He was a big fan of my 1990s zines, Beer Frame: The Journal of Inconspicuous Consumption. When the first six issues of that zine were compiled into a book, Conspicuous consumption: an obsessive look at what we take for granted, I asked Albini to write the preface and he graciously agreed.
More recently, about a year ago, I did a very fun, independent interview with Albini. We talked about the visual aesthetics of bands and records, the uniforms worn by the staff in their recording studios, the virtues of DIY design, and many other similar topics. (That interview, which was published on my Substack, is available without a paywall here.) I’m proud to say that he had the Uni Watch Seam Ripper and even more proud that he called it “an incredible trading option.” Referred to as. I mean, I honestly can’t think of any merchandise more particularly mysterious than that.
Like a lot of indie-rock fans of my generation, I was a big fan of Albini’s first Chicago band, Big Black. But I was always more interested in his writing than his music. His articles in the mid-1980s forced performance, Case, Other zines had a huge influence on me when I was in college, and I was always interested in reading everything they wrote, because they had such a fertile, interesting mind and such clear intelligence. Even when I didn’t agree with him, I felt like I always learned things from him.
Albini was extremely loyal to those he liked, but he did not tolerate fools gladly, he had no patience for nonsense at all, and at times he could be shrill, confrontational, and aggressive, Especially when he was young. More recently, he has reiterated some of the more inflammatory and morally questionable positions of his youth, while maintaining his steadfast advocacy for the better, smarter world he wants to see. I have nothing but respect for how he handled it all.
Now that I’m about to leave Uni Watch and get ready to go back to inconsequential consumption, I was hoping to interview Albini again sometime in the near future. My idea was that I would meet him during his next visit to Chicago and take him on a tour of his favorite unobtrusive architectural details and designs around the city. I know it would have been great, and it sucks knowing we’ll never get the chance to do it. RIP, friend – you will be missed.
