Albini is truly the greatest recordist of our era and one of the best of all time. He may be eccentric, but I must admit he is not quite a sell out. It seems if anything that he has been the last thread of artistic integrity in the mainstream recordings of several bands and albums, and has already been pointed out, he hardly made any money of any of them!

I enjoy practically EVERYTHING he has recorded, and his touch is a sure sign that you will enjoy a band's album.

In regards to this mainstream vs indy debate..

Albini is actually right about the parasitic and exploitative music industry which destroys the art. He is a bit correct, and perhaps giving you a confession from the inside view about how sonic youth should be a bit embarassed, because to a degree they were in fact scouts. I absolutely adore what bands like SY and Nirvana did to mainstream music, utterly destroying hair bands BUT, none-the-less they did give the parasites of the music industry ample room to invade our otherwise delightful indy music scene...
ALL art has went through this debate from all eras. The rich and elitists and exploitative businessmen always are the wealthy patrons and consumers of art, and the artists always deal with this struggle. We should be able to criticize the exploitation without necessary judging the artists who both use and are used by the system. At best, it is just a wink and a nudge...

Kurt Cobain is the Carravagio of our generation, and the music industry are the Medicis.. Albini, he is just the Saint Francis dinosaur a bit out of touch and yet intuitively aware of the drama of the business, but at least a shines a light into the darkness, and all light in the context of darkness at times seems a contradiction to itself, but inevitably your eyes adjust..

A wildflower painted and confined to a frame.

Even more so than "I love meth" and "that girl is cute, minus the acne"?!

SURELY YOU JEST!

It's up there, though, definitely.

Yeah that's a funny quote, not quite Lenny Bruce extremes though.

One of my favorite quotes to pass out to after a night of heavy Derek style drinking. That kid, + that damned love/hate relationship w/ whiskey. Worst ex-girlfriend ever. She shows up at random times, begging him to take her + he loves 'er so much that he's just gotta, gotta, gotta. After a few days she starts wearin' on 'em though, + he tells her to get lost again. Wines a bit sweeter, a bit more understanding. Even if not quite as sexy. She can sit on his fridge-top looking all sexy sometimes for days on end, and he doesn't even have to touch her.

But Swa(y) + Ms. Ezra Brooks, they've had some great times w/ that quote..... Room dark as shit and spinning, that quote will slow things down a bit.

yeah, it's toward the top of my list of fav. quotes to get drunk to. + whenever I'm reading it, I feel like the only person in the entire world. I can dig that.

Yeah, it's definitely, DEFINITELY up there!

I thought it was fantastic.

Hey guys,

I'm just going to explain my post by saying that that quote fucking bored me to death, I think it's one of the worst quotes I've ever heard and I don't really hate things without humor, there are some quotes that I really dig (from Derek, atsonicpark, Glice, Dead-Air...) but I listened to that quote when I wasn't that much into quoting (basically, at the time, I was thinking that quotes = boring). Now, maybe I should give it another try but seriously, from what I remember, it was just plain boring...

It's a quote. It doesn't give you a fucking personality.

I like quotes. Their interests go beyond musical snobbery + video games.

Hhaa, Robe. actually made a tribute (in title anyway) cd.. Quotes:Special Low Frequency Edition (Boris made the Absolutego tribute version too). Great album. Phases 3 is also awesome. The thing is, it was such a simple but perfect quote that there really doesn't need to be any more speechdrone stuff that sounds like this album -- and yet there was...

(I just fuckin adore the structure of the quote. Quoteage eventually gives way to unquoteage with quote-percussives, and the way that these people did it is beyond mere worship. It really is a compositional masterpiece, up there with Bach and Cage.) __________________

I love that record, but to be honest, I like meth more. "Hex" and "The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull" totally blew my mind. Driving stoned in the desert with those sounds is surreal. I love the wild west "Blood Meridian" influences. Meth is one of today's most important drugs.

i listen to ann ashtray's quotes in my car so it sounds like i'm driving a refrigerator.

ann ashtray is swa(y), now I don't know if he has other quotes, but who the fuck cares.

Odelay for me, and sea change too coz the extracts are amazing on that.

Steve says "end of thread."

don't have time to read all this....

I suppose that guy gets paid by the word.
Honestly, I'm kiddin and I don't want to sound "disrespectful", coz that's a sort of "recap" written by a sy fan after all, but it's quite an unnecessary read for people who knows SY a bit.
I can see it have some "usefulness" for younger pitchfork audience perhaps, but I think a good portion of those who know Albini enough to give a damn about what he says do also know SY a bit...dunno.
I'm ranty.

I don't know, I think this is a perfectly reasonable and realistic attitude to have. I would imagine the pressure of having to depend on your band for a living would increase the chances of the band breaking up, and if you're friends with the people in your band it could also ruin the friendship.

not even kid a???

anyhoo...everyone going all boo hoo because steve ripped on sy turning all corporate! so what..this isnt new news...this isnt even old news...its old end of story. albini is allowed to speak his mind and you can agree or disagree with him til the cows come home, end of story is that they exist and the opinions exist and anyone who takes this seriously shoould really be forced to listen to THE CORAL whilst watching other people take drugs..

albini rocks!

good article, shame about the dufus!

Some great time's indeed.

She's been replaced again though. I miss her sometimes!

:(

maybe he's upset cuz they never used the guitar he gave them...

haha that's ridiculous, thanks for that.

i remember the guy from nuclear rabbit had a 14 string bass or something ridiculous.

chapman sticks huhhghhh ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6EEM2Lk1Ag

ugly. cool

I see where Albini is coming from, respect that point of view and feel its not a slap in the face of SY, all he is doing is hypathetically asserting his stance and opinions towards the past actions of another band. People do this all the time and its not a big deal, Albini just said what he thought and I'm sure SY doesn't think any less of him.

Even if he meant it as a slap in the face (which he clearly didn't), and even if the Youth DID take it as offensive...why would it even matter?

Hm, that's quite an interesting question. Why does anything matter? Why even care about anything, or talk about anything? Why have an opinion? Why even think? Why even exist?

All of which has absolutely everything and nothing to do with my original question.

good job.

Everything and nothing has everything and nothing to do with everything and nothing.

That was the title pitchfork used. I just copied it.

Is he making devil horns?

Another reason not to read Pitchfork. I'm still amazed that none of their editors know the meaning of the word "verbiage".

I think the biggest reason not to read them is that just about everyone knows that their reviews are based 100% on payola -- and yet people still take their reviews seriously! The day a band gets reviewed on pitchfork, there's about 500 posts on last.fm with people debating the score... "OH MY GOD, I CAN;T BELIEVE IT ONLY GOT AN 8.3. IT TOTALLY DESERVED AN 8.8!" ... Horrid site. I mean, I guess, in the end, it's understandable if people want to read them -- stupidity can be funny -- but to take them seriously? That's what I really gotta question... one read of their review of NYC GHOSTS AND FLOWERS made me not only question the website and the writer, but to question the English language itself.

Seriously? Proof?