3 replies to this topic

[Dave]

Good morning and welcome to your semi-sometimes Steve Albini round-up.

Steve Albini on Odd Future:
"I spent about 40 minutes with these little pricks at the end of May and I haven't wanted to strangle anybody that much in a real long time."
He goes on about their behavior on an airport shuttle bus.
"this is not a case of regular people making music about assholes, but assholes making music about being assholes. I have no time for that...If the whole thing is a put-on, a bit of Vincent Gallo life-as-theater for the benefit of whoever happens to be sitting next to them, that's no excuse. It's being an asshole about being an asshole."

Steve Albini on New York:
G: So this is an interview for Gothamist, which is a New York-centric website.
SA: I believe you.
G: Do you have any New York stories that you'd care to share?
SA: No.
G: You ridiculed New Yorkers pretty badly at your last Bell House show.
SA: Well, there's the thing about New York. New York is such a monolith that it's pointless to have an opinion about it. It's like bitching about the weather. It certainly won't accomplish anything and it certainly won't make you feel better about what you didn't like. New York has a couple of characteristics that are undeniable and one of those is that it's a magnet for assholes who couldn't get any attention at home and decided that the problem wasn't that they weren't interesting but that there were all these squares around them in Dubuque or whatever and they need to go to some big cosmopolitan city like New York where people will appreciate them. So if you can imagine that scenario playing out within every city in North America and every one of those assholes with an opinion slightly outreaching his ability getting on a fucking Greyhound. You end up with a pretty good description of what's annoying about New York is that it's full of people whose self-image just ever-so-slightly outstrips their ability.

Steve Albini on Lady Gaga (same link):
"I'm an exceptionally lucky man in that I've never heard a note of Lady Gaga's music and you could sit her on my lap and I wouldn't recognize her. I know that she's a cultural force at the moment but I'm quite satisfied in having dodged that one. It's like a truck drove by spraying shit from a nozzle over the entire neighborhood and I happened to be under an awning. You know?"

[Chad]

I like that post. I even clicked the Like button.

[kpophater]

But doesn't Steve Albini's opinion of himself outstrip his abilities?

New York City is an amazing place filled with people of amazing talent, energy and ability.

It's so sad that Albini became such a self-important dinosaur that he could never make it in the Big Apple.

Does this guy ever say anything positive? Must be a real joy to hang out with him.

[Dave]

I don't know what you mean by "make it." He's one of the most significant indie rock dudes around. I saw Shellac last time they came to Brooklyn. Awesome show.

I agree NYC is awesome and amazing, but that fact doesn't mean it's not also filled with douchetools.

Positive Albini? He has a lot of positive things to say about cooking. He has a food blog. Don't know if that helps. Steve Albini's food/cooking blog. A friend and I find it hilariously odd.

I kinda get what you're saying, because he can be ascerbic and grouchy, but the targets of his rage, more often than not, deserve it.