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Steve Albini explains why he hates Steely Dan
- Thread starter nomaj
- Start date
To the popularity equals greatness stans:
White Light/White Heat by The Velvet Underground was a disaster commercially speaking, particularly initially.
White Light/White Heat inspired more musicians and bands that, in sum, garnering more fans, commercial success, critical acclaim, more record sales, more gold and platinum, more ticket sales, revenues and profits than the whole of everything Steely Dan ever did; not even close.
If you don't believe that, I've got one name among thousands for you; U2. This is not my personal endorsement of U2, I'm not a fan. This speaks to the logic of popularity equals greatness.
White Light/White Heat by The Velvet Underground was a disaster commercially speaking, particularly initially.
White Light/White Heat inspired more musicians and bands that, in sum, garnering more fans, commercial success, critical acclaim, more record sales, more gold and platinum, more ticket sales, revenues and profits than the whole of everything Steely Dan ever did; not even close.
If you don't believe that, I've got one name among thousands for you; U2. This is not my personal endorsement of U2, I'm not a fan. This speaks to the logic of popularity equals greatness.
I can actually kind of agree with that. Kinda. Kind of Beige?
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You should! His studio has produced a ton of amazing albums. From Nirvana to Jimmy Page.
Oh, Steve.....he's still out there ruffling feathers (again), taking a break from playing poker to pee on a bible (in some people's minds) (again) in order to remain 'relevant'....? On twitter no less! - the most un-cool/un-punk thing out there IMHO.
Remember that 'pee christ' artwork from years ago that resulted in a lot of pearl clutching? Same thing. Steve's bored. I would be too if I made records day in, day out, for a living, that all sounded the same, for bands that are heavily influenced by Steve's own work. He works cheap-ish, so why not? Do you like The Jesus Lizard, Pixies (Surfer Rosa), PJ Harvey, Nirvana, Neurosis, countless other midwest noise/math rock bands, etc. etc. ? Your band can hire the same dude who made your favorite records to make you sound just like your favorite records. Also, it could be part of the mid-life crisis of the semi-notable rec. engineer/musician.
I was a disciple of his for many, many years. If you ever perused the forums at Electrical Audio (Steve's studio) you'll find a bunch of zombies who will gladly step in line with whatever the guy says. It's a total clique-y echo chamber circle jerk. I think some of Steve's work is pretty good at times, but ulimately he's a broken record. i.e. Let's be an ass just for the sake of being an ass (again).
Who cares?
Remember that 'pee christ' artwork from years ago that resulted in a lot of pearl clutching? Same thing. Steve's bored. I would be too if I made records day in, day out, for a living, that all sounded the same, for bands that are heavily influenced by Steve's own work. He works cheap-ish, so why not? Do you like The Jesus Lizard, Pixies (Surfer Rosa), PJ Harvey, Nirvana, Neurosis, countless other midwest noise/math rock bands, etc. etc. ? Your band can hire the same dude who made your favorite records to make you sound just like your favorite records. Also, it could be part of the mid-life crisis of the semi-notable rec. engineer/musician.
I was a disciple of his for many, many years. If you ever perused the forums at Electrical Audio (Steve's studio) you'll find a bunch of zombies who will gladly step in line with whatever the guy says. It's a total clique-y echo chamber circle jerk. I think some of Steve's work is pretty good at times, but ulimately he's a broken record. i.e. Let's be an ass just for the sake of being an ass (again).
Who cares?
I'm really enjoying the various comments of people not understanding how Twitter works.
Steve didn't write an article. He tweeted stream of consciousness stuff like he does basically every day. Someone else decided it was newsworthy on their platform.
Steve didn't write an article. He tweeted stream of consciousness stuff like he does basically every day. Someone else decided it was newsworthy on their platform.
I could not possibly care less about his opinion on Steely Dan. There has always been damned fine musicianship on SD records. Even if someone doesn't like what they do, the should at least recognize that.
Albini does recognise it. Reading the link in the OP is out of fashion, it seems.
Albini gets a band he likes, gets them as tight as possible, and records it with minimal stuff added. A good band, the right mics in the right places, and hit record. No/minimal overdubs, performance over all.
That's pretty much his method, and it's totally different from the methods used by Steely Dan, and still a viable method.
Here's Cheap Trick recorded by him-
That's pretty much his method, and it's totally different from the methods used by Steely Dan, and still a viable method.
Here's Cheap Trick recorded by him-
This is what's killing me in this thread. Forget about the Dan. Everyone in this thread is using the words "produced" and "producer" and this guy has produced nothing. He takes the music people have already written it and bottles it up as is.
Now, there's nothing wrong with doing that. It's actually a very nice way to honor someone's creative abilities without altering their intent and there's a place in the world for it, for sure. But calling that "production" is a bridge way too far for me.
I mean, he says this kind of poopie all the time. He's not really "at it again" if he never stopped, lol
Confession: I love calling Albini a producer just to trigger his simps. Simple pleasures.
He never asked to be called a producer, but he does make creative decisions as day long.
Albini: I love to hate Steely Dan because despite their obvious talent and hard work, they do X things I don't like, and I'm gonna write funny tweets about it.
TB: Obviously Albini is a nothing, a nobody, a zero. He doesn't exist and doesn't have a creative bone in his body. Also I hate haters, so he is dead to me, if he ever existed.
Face it, the jokes about Fagan and Becker doing lines of coke while successive guitar players slave away in the Steely Dan salt mines are hilarious, all the moreso because everybody knows they're not entirely true.
This thread can easily be divided between age groups and whether or not you have an affinity for any alternative music whatsoever. To the boomers and older that have never listened to or care about any avante garde rock post late 80's... Steve is one of the most important and sought after music producers there is. I'm sure he can read a chart, score or whatever you throw in front of him and if he can't it still wouldn't have any effect on his contribution to music. You dismissing him, only shows your ignorance. Sorry.... truth...
That being said, I love Steely Dan. I love Shellac and Big Black and a whole lot of the music Steve has produced. I'd be willing to bet Steve watched the same documentary on Steely Dan that I did. Their approach to studio work, could be called interesting.... I mean if you have something of an unlimitied budget and access to some of the greatest session players around and make them do stuff over and over again until you find the magic, it's almost cheating, isn't it? It still doesn't make me like their stuff any less. Fagen and Becker are amazing writers.
But every time you people say "Steve who?", you're showing that you're the one that is ignorant.
That being said, I love Steely Dan. I love Shellac and Big Black and a whole lot of the music Steve has produced. I'd be willing to bet Steve watched the same documentary on Steely Dan that I did. Their approach to studio work, could be called interesting.... I mean if you have something of an unlimitied budget and access to some of the greatest session players around and make them do stuff over and over again until you find the magic, it's almost cheating, isn't it? It still doesn't make me like their stuff any less. Fagen and Becker are amazing writers.
But every time you people say "Steve who?", you're showing that you're the one that is ignorant.
Also Steve used to rant on about how bad of a band Articles of Faith was in the early days of Chicago hardcore. That should really have been enough to have shown the community that in a lot of cases he has no idea what he is talking about. AoF was probably the best hardcore band Chicago ever produced.
