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Steve Albini explains why he hates Steely Dan

#362
Altitude said:
Are you saying that few people in the UK know about Steely Dan, or that few people in the UK know that you don't like Steely Dan?
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Few people in the UK know about Steely Dan. I am sure a few, after reading this thread know now I don't like Steely Dan but 80% of them won't know who Steely Dan are and have simply assumed that Mr. Albini was referring to a Duran Duran side project they hadn't heard of.
 
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#368
Trucker Bumptip said:
Go see if you can visit the place. Prices are listed on their website. When I checked back when I was in a band considering booking time there, it was like $700 per session with Albini, and $500 with Greg, or an intern.
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Really affordable rates at that space, and
a ton of great acoustic environments to work with.

I might book some time there the next time I’m in Chicago just engineer in some of those spaces myself.

Even Steve’s $900 day rate for engineering is wildly affordable given his body of work.
 
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#369
jnuts1 said:
what i think everyone is failing to take into account is that this style of alt rock music is not listened to by everyone. and he seems to have a very narrow field of styles he recorded and if you dont listen to anything close to it you will know nobody except the few household names.
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Let's see. I picked 1 band and one song and just the Youtube listens. 18 million listens for The Breeders song Cannonball. A band you've never heard of with a narrow appeal. I mean if we're getting out yardsticks, which is objectively stupid, your argument doesn't hold water. Imagine if I included album sales and spotify listens or whatever. We get that you don't listen to that sort of stuff, but let's stop with the narrow appeal BS. Also no matter what, anything unusual in your eyes isn't going to be worth spit.
 
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#372
-Asdfgh- said:
Few people in the UK know about Steely Dan. I am sure a few, after reading this thread know now I don't like Steely Dan but 80% of them won't know who Steely Dan are and have simply assumed that Mr. Albini was referring to a Duran Duran side project they hadn't heard of.
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You made me curious, so I looked. Six albums Silver over there and two Gold with about 550,000 albums sold total. That might not make them quite as obscure as you suggest, but as a subset of their 40 million total album sales it's less than I'd have guessed.

https://bestsellingalbums.org/artist/12330#STEELY DAN_detailed_sales_by_country
 
#373
MDBass said:
The amount of people on this thread genuinely upset at Steve for making people laugh on Twitter is really something.

Why so serious? :roflmao:
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Well, here's the thing. If you want to troll and get reactions, Steely Dan fans are an easy target because they tend to be a certain type of music-lover who, generally, take music and production very seriously.

I'm not slagging on them because I also love Steely Dan and I love quality production. But to my ear there's a huge difference between hi-fidelity production values and something with the life squeezed out of it. But not everyone hears the same way I do, which is also fine.

Here's the best part. Becker and Fagen are (were) world-class clowns with acerbic, sarcastic senses of humor. There's probably nobody more in on this joke than they are (well, Fagen at this point since Becker is no longer with us). I find it hilarious that people are so easily trolled, but that's just me.
 
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#374
deff said:
Let's see. I picked 1 band and one song and just the Youtube listens. 18 million listens for The Breeders song Cannonball. A band you've never heard of with a narrow appeal. I mean if we're getting out yardsticks, which is objectively stupid, your argument doesn't hold water. Imagine if I included album sales and spotify listens or whatever. We get that you don't listen to that sort of stuff, but let's stop with the narrow appeal BS. Also no matter what, anything unusual in your eyes isn't going to be worth spit.
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there are songs with even more listens that you havent heard either. nobody has heard everything, bad argument. on the list of most streamed songs, which are in the billions btw, in the top 25 i've only heard 3 of the songs that i know of. now i have heard the song cannonball but i never heard of the breeders before today. do you know how many songs are on the radio? a freaking lot dude. i have neither the time or desire to listen and be familiar with all styles of music.

and dont start making up arguments for me, i never said anything about unusual stuff. unusual stuff is my favorite. nirvana, the foo fighters and cheap trick are far from unusual.....
 
#375
LBS-bass said:
Well, here's the thing. If you want to troll and get reactions, Steely Dan fans are an easy target because they tend to be a certain type of music-lover who, generally, take music and production very seriously.

I'm not slagging on them because I also love Steely Dan and I love quality production. But to my ear there's a huge difference between hi-fidelity production values and something with the life squeezed out of it. But not everyone hears the same way I do, which is also fine.

Here's the best part. Becker and Fagen are (were) world-class clowns with acerbic, sarcastic senses of humor. There's probably nobody more in on this joke than they are. I find it hilarious that people are so easily trolled, but that's just me.
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I have a couple of friends in the area, one of which plays shows sometimes as a Jesus Lizard cover band and both are huge Steely Dan fans. They probably laughed at Albini's comments. One of them actually bought Becker's Ibanez Rocket Roll bass from his estate sale.
 
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#376
jnuts1 said:
why is he so freaking cheap? 900 a day? what is going on here? it's 300 a day just to keep our studio doors open. this is insane. this guy is growing on me
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I recall an interview with Albini that was conducted maybe a decade after he launched the studio where he said that every employee, including him, is paid the same. I don't know what their current employment policy is, but by US standards, it is (or was, if it's changed) an interesting way to run a business.

I imagine another factor is that Albini charges major label artists considerably more for his time as a nominal producer. The few whales they get every year probably help support the independent artists that pay listed rates.
 
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#378
I love Steely Dan. It's hard for me to accept that anyone in the music business wouldn't at least be able to appreciate them, even if it's not their thing. I'm not real familiar with Steve Albini, though. I know that he was a member of Shellac, which is a cool band name, and is associated with post-rock or math rock.
 
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#380
Altitude said:
You made me curious, so I looked. Six albums Silver over there and two Gold with about 550,000 albums sold total. That might not make them quite as obscure as you suggest, but as a subset of their 40 million total album sales it's less than I'd have guessed.

https://bestsellingalbums.org/artist/12330#STEELY DAN_detailed_sales_by_country
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Record sales are only one metric. Based on people I know that have expressed a liking for Steely Dan, about 1/4 as popular as Suns of Arqa and about 1/20 as popular as Fields of The Nephilim
 
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