Pixies, ‘The place Is My Thoughts’ (1988)
For the primary file he recorded exterior of his pal circle, Albini used the buzzy Boston band Pixies as lab animals for his sonic concepts: loading its debut album, “Surfer Rosa,” with off-the-cuff studio chatter, refusing to make use of silence in between songs and making the bassist Kim Deal sing the reverb-soaked background vocals on “The place Is My Thoughts?” within the studio’s echo-y rest room. On reflection, Albini mentioned his manufacturing touches have been intrusive, however the subsequent technology of alt-rock titans discovered them invigorating. “‘The place Is My Thoughts?’” later grew to become one of many data that different bands would reference once they needed to work with me,” he informed The Guardian. “No one anticipated it to take off as a result of no underground American band of that technology had even a fleeting notion of economic success as a aim. Folks simply needed to blow minds.”
The Breeders, ‘Happiness Is a Heat Gun’ (1990)
When Albini labored with Deal on her solo mission the Breeders, “I immediately most well-liked it to the Pixies,” he mentioned within the ebook “Idiot the World: The Oral Historical past of a Band Known as Pixies.” “There was a simultaneous appeal to Kim’s presentation to her music that’s each childlike and giddy and likewise utterly mature and form of soiled.” The band, typically in pajamas, banged out its debut LP, “Pod,” within the first week of a two-week session. “Steve Albini wasn’t involved in ‘perfecting’ a track or a efficiency: His métier was getting the very best sound from the gear and urgent ‘file,’” the Breeders bassist Josephine Wiggs mentioned in a 2008 information launch. “He was completely happy with himself when mixing the file, saying, ‘Look — no EQ!’”
The Jesus Lizard, ‘Mouth Breather’ (1991)
“Once I consider the Jesus Lizard, I consider them as the best band I’ve ever seen, as the very best musicians I’ve ever labored with, and because the purest melding of the chic and the profane,” Albini mentioned in “The Jesus Lizard Guide.” The group of noise-rock chaos engines was susceptible to damage, viewers entanglements and public nudity, and Albini by some means harnessed its vitality throughout 4 full-length LPs. “Steve labored rapidly and cheaply, and acquired good offers at studios,” the band’s bassist David Wm. Sims mentioned in “Guide.” “He was inclined to supply extra enter than we have been on the lookout for, however didn’t appear to thoughts that we usually ignored him.”
PJ Harvey, ‘Rid of Me’ (1993)
“I knew I needed to work with Steve Albini from listening to Pixies data, and listening to the sounds he was getting, which have been in contrast to some other sounds that I’d heard on vinyl,” PJ Harvey informed Spin about recording her breakthrough album, “Rid of Me.” “I actually needed that very naked, very actual sound. I knew that it will go well with the songs. It’s like touching actual objects or feeling the grain of wooden.” Some reviewers blanched at Albini’s caustic, drum-dominant manufacturing of “Rid of Me,” however the album would show to be some of the enduring of the ’90s.
Nirvana, ‘Serve the Servants’ (1993)
Following Nirvana’s multiplatinum coup, “Nevermind,” the trio retreated to a secluded spot in Minnesota to work with the man behind the Pixies, Breeders and Jesus Lizard data they liked. “We didn’t wanna be sellouts and Albini is understood for having integrity,” the Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic informed Mojo. “It simply appeared prefer it made sense, going again to our roots as an alternative of simply making one other actually slick album.” Recorded in round 12 days utilizing a handful of first-takes, Nirvana’s closing studio LP, “In Utero,” was a feedback-soaked, ragged-edged doc of a band that had already rewired rock music to embrace the ugly and imperfect.
