Steve Albini dead: The legendary rock underground pioneer was 61 years old

Steve Albini, an alternative rock pioneer and legendary producer who shaped the musical landscape through his work with Nirvana, the Pixies, PJ Harvey and others, has died. He was 61.

Brian Fox, an engineer at Albini’s Electrical Audio Recording studio in Chicago, said Wednesday that Albini died Tuesday evening after a heart attack.

In addition to his work on canonized rock albums such as Nirvana’s “In Utero,” the Pixies’ breakthrough “Surfer Rosa,” and PJ Harvey’s “Rid of Me,” Albini fronted underground bands Big Black and Shellac.

He rejected the term “producer,” refused to take royalties for the albums he worked on, and requested credit to “Recorded by Steve Albini,” a legendary label, for the albums he worked on.

Other music influenced by Albini includes Joanna Newsom’s indie folk opus “Ys” and releases from bands such as The Breeders, The Jesus Lizard, Hum, Superchunk, Low and Mogwai.

The new album “To All Trains” by the singer and guitarist and his Shellac bandmates Bob Weston and Todd Trainer, recorded by Electronic Audio, is due out next week. The band also planned to tour in support of the new album, their first in a decade.

On Wednesday, friends and fans took to social media to remember Albini.

“He produced some of the greatest albums of all time,” noted Marc Maron.

Chicago’s Metro Club acknowledged this in a post on The tribute was accompanied by a photo of the club’s tent that said it all.

Author Michael Azerrad, who included a chapter on Big Black in his comprehensive history “Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981-1991,” posted on X “Steve Albini has passed away,” Azerrad wrote . “He had a brilliant mind, was a great artist and experienced the most remarkable and inspiring personal transformation. “I can’t believe he’s gone.”

Albini was born in California, grew up in Montana, and fell in love with Chicago’s DIY punk music scene while attending Northwestern University, where he earned a degree in journalism from the Medill School.

He played in punk bands as a teenager and wrote about music in college for the forward-thinking indie zine Forced Exposure. While attending Northwestern in the early ’80s, he formed the raucous, loud post-punk band Big Black, known for its biting riffs, violent and taboo lyrics, and a drum machine instead of a live drummer. At the time, it was a controversial innovation from a man whose career was marked by risky decisions. The band’s best-known song, the ugly, explosive six-minute “Kerosene” from their cult-favorite 1986 album Atomizer, is ideal proof – and not for the faint of heart.

Then came the short-lived band Rapeman – one of two groups Albini led with indefensibly offensive names and vulgar song titles. In the early 90s he founded Shellac, the wild, distorted noise rock band – an evolution of Big Black, but still characterized by pounding guitar tones and aggressive vocals.

“The recording part is the part that’s important to me – that I’m making a document that records a part of our culture, the life’s work of the musicians who hire me.” Albini told The Guardian last year when asked about some of the well-known and popular albums he has recorded. “I take this part very seriously. I want music to outlive us all.”

He later became a notable poker player and apologetic for his past indiscretions.

Albini took part in numerous tournaments with great success. In 2018 he won a World Series of Poker gold bracelet and a $105,000 pot and in 2022 he repeated his performance in a HORSE competition for $196,000 in prize money. Albini’s last documented tournament was in October at the Horseshoe Hammond Casino in Indiana.

In an interview with the Sun-Times in 2021, Albini was asked if he considered himself successful in the music industry.

“As far as it matters to me, I would say yes,” he told the Sun-Times. “I have lived my whole life without goals and I find that very valuable because then I am never in a state of fear or dissatisfaction. I never feel like I haven’t achieved something. I never feel like there is anything left to achieve. I feel like goals are pretty counterproductive. They give you a goal and until you achieve that goal, you are stressed and dissatisfied and the moment you achieve that particular goal, you are aimless and have lost the guiding star of your existence. I’ve always tried to see everything as a process. I want to do things in a certain way that I can be proud of, that is sustainable and fair and equal to everyone I interact with. If I can do that, then it’s a success, and success means I get to do it again tomorrow.”

Albini is survived by his wife, Heather Whinna, a filmmaker.

Contributors: Miriam Di Nunzio, Chicago Sun-Times; Melissa Ruggieri, USA today