Steve Albini has died at the age of 61

Steve Albini, one of the most important figures in the history of American underground rock, has died. Pitchfork reports that he died of a heart attack yesterday. Albini led the bands Big Black, Rapeman and Shellac, the latter of which will release releases To all trains, their first album in many years, next week. He also produced loads of great, influential albums from acts like Nirvana, Pixies and PJ Harvey and ran Chicago studio Electrical Audio. Albini was 61.

Steve Albini was born in Pasadena, California and his family moved around a lot when he was young. After settling in Missoula, Montana, Albini discovered the Ramones and Sex Pistols as a teenager and played in a few punk bands before moving to the Chicago area to study journalism at Northwestern. There he wrote infamous pieces for zines such as: Forced exposure, helped run local punk label Ruthless Records and began developing albums. In the decades that followed, he worked on literally thousands of recordings.

In 1981, Albini founded Big Black, a band that came from the Midwest punk scene but developed its own scratchy, aggressive sound. On “Big Black,” Albini belted out harsh, ugly character studies over awkward guitar riffs and drum machine booms, and her sound inspired generations of noise rock and industrial bands that followed. Big Black’s debut EP lung came out in 1982 and they put out a bunch of shorter records before releasing two absolutely classic albums in 1986 Atomizer and 1987s Songs about fucking.

Big Black was a fiercely independent band. They released music on major labels such as Homestead and Touch And Go, but paid for all of their recordings themselves and booked their own tours. In 1987, Big Black announced their separation. That same year, Albini formed Rapeman, a new trio featuring two former members of the Texas post-hardcore band Scratch Acid. Rapeman took their name from a Japanese comic book character, and Albini later dealt honestly with the edgelord tendencies he displayed in choosing that band name, and wrote some of the nastier lyrics for Big Black and Rapeman. Rapeman released an album in 1988 Two nuns and a pack mulebefore she breaks up.

Albini never wanted to be known as a producer, preferring the title of engineer. In the mid-80s he produced records for bands like Urge Overkill and Slint. In 1988 he was at the booth for the Pixies’ debut album Surfer Rosa, his first of many canonical classics. Albini later insulted this album, but his dry, harsh production style proved defining for the next generations of American alternative rock. Over the next few years, Albini also produced albums by Bitch Magnet, The Poster Children, The Jesus Lizard, Pussy Galore, Boss Hog, Whitehouse, Superchunk, The Wedding Present, The Breeders and The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, among others.

In 1992, Steve Albini founded the power trio Shellac with bassist Bob Weston and drummer Todd Trainer. Shellac’s debut album At Action Park was released in 1994 and the band continued to work for the next three decades, although it often remained silent for long periods. Shellac’s sound is harsh but exploratory, combining Albini’s intensity with deep instrumental playing – minimalist stabs, unusual rhythms, unpredictable changes in time signature. If you’ve ever seen Shellac live, you’ll never forget them.

In 1993, Steve Albini developed Nirvanas In utero, the album that truly cemented his place in rock history. Nirvana, discouraged by their newfound fame, wanted to do something hard and intense, and they knew Albini could help them find that sound. The decision led to conflict with the band’s label, and Albini himself did not always praise the band’s efforts, but they prevailed. REM producer Scott Litt remixed this In utero singles, but the album retains the immediacy of Albini’s sound. That same year, Albini also developed PJ Harvey’s Get rid of me and Jawbreaker’s 24 hour revenge therapytwo more records that would become canonical classics, and wrote Some Of Your Friends Are Already This Fucked, a blistering takedown of the entire major label system Maximum rock roll. This essay, entitled “The Problem with Music,” continues to circulate.

Steve Albini hated major labels but still did business with them. In the ’90s, Albini produced major rock records by bands such as Bush, Veruca Salt, Cheap Trick and the reunited duo Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. He famously refused to accept royalties from producers, even for hugely successful records like In utero. He continued to collaborate with underground artists and produced a large number of exciting, visionary albums. In the ’90s alone, Albini’s name appeared in the credits of Don Caballero, Silkworm, Melt-Banana, Six Finger Satellite, Screeching Weasel, Gastr Del Sol, the Amps, Oxbow, Brainiac, Low, Scrawl, Smog, Pansy Division and Dirty Three , The Ex, Bedhead, Neurosis and Palace Music and Will Oldham’s many other offshoots as well as countless others. In 1997 he opened his Electrical Audio Studios in Chicago.

In the 2000s, Steve Albini became known as something of a cantankerous raconteur, always up for a quote, and taking money from a lot of people in poker. (He competed in several World Series Of Poker tournaments, winning often.) As an engineer, Albini continued to work, keeping his ratings low enough for unknown bands to work with him. In this century, Albini probably has as many classics to his name as in the 90s. He is considered the sound engineer for albums like Low’s things we lost in the fireMclusky’s Do Dallas, Thank God! Black Emperor Yanqui UXOSongs: Ohia’s The Magnolia Electric Co.Joanna Newsom’s Yesand Cloud Nothings’ Attack on memory. In recent years he has become an unexpectedly likeable Twitter presence. He lived an amazing life.

If I started publishing classics developed by Steve Albini in this area, I would never stop. (In 2012, Stereogum published a list of the 20 best albums Albini has created, and it already seems hopelessly tiny.) But listen to some of the songs from his various bands below.