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Steve Albini explains why he hates Steely Dan

#121
Hard to point fingers at a band whose music is still readily being played 50 years later. Might not be your cup of tea — that I get. But, you have to give the staying power and originality of the band full respect. Solid vocals, complex chord arrangements (for rock), deliberate presence of jazz into mainstream rock, unbelievable guitar solos (some of the best crafted, IMHO) — super jazz cats on saxophone and drums — and great lyrics.

Musicians usually give them full props. I’m a classic rock and jazz guy and never heard of the naysayer producer. I’ll give the win to the band that is probably being played “somewhere” as you are reading this — 40-50 years after that song originally dropped.
 
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#122
Funny, reading Albini’s Wikipedia page, he claims to be influenced by Walter Becker’s approach to recording without a producer diluting or interfering with the artist’s vision.

Another nugget was Albini being influence by Becker’s bass and guitar playing…..

Maybe taking this little blurb literally misses a bit of the sly ribbing SD loved to indulge in.
 
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#123
Bassnkeys said:
Hard to point fingers at a band whose music is still readily being played 50 years later. Might not be your cup of tea — that I get. But, you have to give the staying power and originality of the band full respect. Solid vocals, complex chord arrangements (for rock), deliberate presence of jazz into mainstream rock, unbelievable guitar solos (some of the best crafted, IMHO) — super jazz cats on saxophone and drums — and great lyrics.

Musicians usually give them full props. I’m a classic rock and jazz guy and never heard of the naysayer producer. I’ll give the win to the band that is probably being played “somewhere” as you are reading this — 40-50 years after that song originally dropped.
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Well they got a 20 year head start on ol’ Steve, but between Nirvana, The Pixies, and Helmet, that’s about 30 years worth of legendary stuff he produced.
 
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#130
Screenshot_2023-02-07-23-02-30.png
 
#132
Bassnkeys said:
Hard to point fingers at a band whose music is still readily being played 50 years later. Might not be your cup of tea — that I get. But, you have to give the staying power and originality of the band full respect. Solid vocals, complex chord arrangements (for rock), deliberate presence of jazz into mainstream rock, unbelievable guitar solos (some of the best crafted, IMHO) — super jazz cats on saxophone and drums — and great lyrics.

Musicians usually give them full props. I’m a classic rock and jazz guy and never heard of the naysayer producer. I’ll give the win to the band that is probably being played “somewhere” as you are reading this — 40-50 years after that song originally dropped.
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Just because YOU never heard of him doesn't mean he's a "nobody". I don't really care for much of what he's produced, but you'd have to be living under a rock for the past 30 years to not recognize the bands he helped make famous.
 
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#136
My favorite Steve Albini Tweet is from a thread where he's dunking on the Tesla Cybertruck (fair warning, lots of language here I cannot paste into a Talkbass comment), and he goes on a bit of a tangent about Peavey gear and his appreciation for it:

"The first instrument I ever owned was a Peavey T40 bass, and it was built like a truck. Real truck not Musk's manifestation of multifaceted stupid. Dave used it in Big Black, and at our last show we smashed all our gear. He swung it like an axe and knocked a hole in the stage."

Anyway, Steve's a guy of strong opinions, and he's not shy about sharing them. The Steely Dan trashing is deliberately a little overdone for comedic effect, I don't think it landed that well though. He actually does have a kind side to him that shows up on his Twitter feed occasionally. But there's also a lot of this side.
 
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#137
bassrique said:
There's not a single ~GenX soul at TB that doesn't know that.

Anyway, the guy is being controversial because he enjoys it. I like stirring up things too, but Steely Dan is brilliance. Real changes...
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Yeah well, besides the fly in the ointment of how Steely Dan fits, or doesn't, in that paragraph, how many others here know who Lyle Preslar is?

//I suspect someone, possibly from Electrical Audio, had a little fun editing Albini's Wiki page.
 
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#138
Isaac_James said:
My favorite Steve Albini Tweet is from a thread where he's dunking on the Tesla Cybertruck (fair warning, lots of language here I cannot paste into a Talkbass comment), and he goes on a bit of a tangent about Peavey gear and his appreciation for it:

"The first instrument I ever owned was a Peavey T40 bass, and it was built like a truck. Real truck not Musk's manifestation of multifaceted stupid. Dave used it in Big Black, and at our last show we smashed all our gear. He swung it like an axe and knocked a hole in the stage."

Anyway, Steve's a guy of strong opinions, and he's not shy about sharing them. The Steely Dan trashing is deliberately a little overdone for comedic effect, I don't think it landed that well though. He actually does have a kind side to him that shows up on his Twitter feed occasionally. But there's also a lot of this side.
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:roflmao:

I missed that one at the time.

The "Moon Patrol" buggy & Peavey logo is a deadly accurate description.
 
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#139
I used to hate SD (or I thought I did), until I started getting into vintage stereo equipment. Seems everyone who is into vintage stereo stuff LOVES SD. So I thought, I'll give them another shot. And I found out that I really, really liked most of their stuff. I also think Fagen's "Nightfly" album is better than any of the Steely Dan stuff. I love that album.

That said, somehow, this whole Albini thing popped up in my Twitter feed, and it is pretty funny.
 

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