Genius #5: May '24

As Larry Michaels awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed from a hater into a waiter at Eric Adam’s table of success.

With the death of legendary recording engineer Steve Albini earlier this month, I found myself mostly listening to his old bands, and albums that he recorded — this month’s Replay is dedicated to his work & is made up of some of my favorites from the Albini catalog. If you’re not already familiar, I hope that you will give a listen to some of the albums below & focus on the way the band sounds like they are playing live in front of you: weird reflections of sound, microphone bleed across channels, the loose feel to the sessions. It’s part of what makes his records special.

Later this month, I’ll be packing all of my stuff out of my Brooklyn apartment & driving it down to Baltimore — this month’s scene report is my first attempt at a full I95 corridor show calendar.

Table of Contents:

• Capitalism
• Album recommendations
• Replay
• Garbage Corner
• Scene Report & Upcoming I-95 Corridor shows*

*Epicenter is Baltimore, with select DC/Philly/NYC shows as well

Capitalism:

I haven’t bought a stupid expensive thing in forever. I have been seduced by the idea of a new purchase — a microphone, a tape recorder, etc. It could happen soon. I did buy a t-shirt at the Orchid reunion show at Warsaw. It’s got the Chaos Is Me skeleton on it. It’s come to my attention that I have a lot of t-shirts with “spooky looking guys” on them. Sue me, I don’t care!!

Album Recommendations:

Jim White - All Hits: Memories (Drag City, Mar ‘24)

Experimental collage of drums & synths

This is what’s up!! Percussionist Jim White (Dirty Three, PJ Harvey, Cat Power, etc.) offers 13 short pieces (total run time of 24 minutes) of drum soundscapes and synth drones (with production from Fugazi legend Guy Picciotto). Timpanis burst along the side of the soundstage, cymbals clatter and clang, brushes scrape out little micro-rhythms on the drum heads, while synths rumble about. Only a handful of these last longer than 3min, most barely hit 90 secs. This is what we do this for, I live for this shit.

Mdou Moctar - Funeral For Justice (Matador, May ‘24)

Anti-colonialist psych rock fused with Saharan trad. blues

Nigerien Moctar is the reigning guitar hero in the world today. His melding of American guitar rock and Tuareg “desert blues” just straight up rocks. Each of these pyschedelic Moctar’s massive riffs trill around the upper strings of the guitar and get blissed out with phase and delay & the production puts as much at the forefront as possible. Bonus: all of these songs are about how sick and tired Moctar is of France and US meddling in Niger’s politics.

Lip Critic - Hex Dealer (Partisan, May ‘24)

Noisy & fun hip-hoppy electro

Ok let’s get this straight off the bat: this is annoying music. This LP sounds like FNM-era Mike Patton fronting Death Grips, growling & spitting faux-Kiedis voice. But the songs are just fucking GOOD. The band is made up of 2 drummers and 2 electronics players (one of whom takes lead vocal duties). Every song sounds like it’s been put through the ringer and back again: vocal hits return pitched up a couple octaves, real drums mix in with fake drum hits, every song has WAY too much square wave buzzy bass. This is a total blast.

Celestine Ukwu & His Philosophers National - Ilo Abu Chi (Philips, 1974)

Fusion of jazz and Nigerian trad. music

A contemplative spin on Ghanian highlife music that takes all of the dancey percussion rhythms and bright wind instrumentation from the genre, but Ukwu’s soulful vocals & the dark production style brings a thoughtful coolness into their songs. Repetitive catchy basslines, hypnotic guitar work, and a vocal delivery that quickly jumps from crooning and call-and-response to just flat speech while the band cooks. I tried to find a translation to the title and it seems like in Igbo it means “my god is not my enemy.” Been keeping this one on repeat lately.1

Gastr Del Sol - We Have Dozens Of Titles (Drag City, May ‘24)

Experimental post-rock vault recordings from the legendary duo

Grateful that Drag City collected and issued these B-Sides, singles, and live performances. GDS is made up of dual wizards Jim O’Rourke & David Grubbs and whatever collection of Chicago musicians are around to be hoovered into their scattered recordings. At any moment on any of these compositions, it feels like anything could happen: a sudden burst of electricity, a contemplative piano melody might start winnowing through the sound, a polyrhythmic drum pattern, a rollicking primitive acoustic strum. Breathtaking to listen to. These are the last recordings from the band & a great starting point before working backward.

Upcoming June albums to look forward to:

• Minimal techno artist Actress has a new album fittingly called Statik on 6/7 via Smallsound Supersound
• Hardcore-tinged metal band Candy newest, It’s Inside You should be another stomach-turner for Relapse, out 6/7.
• Post-punk trio Cola (ex-Ought) seem to have broken through their growing pains & found a cool sound. Their 2nd, The Gloss is out 6/14 via Fire Talk.
• Warren Ellis’ violin-led post-rock legends Dirty Three has their first in 12 years, Love Changes Everything, out on 6/28 via Drag City.
• Oakland alt-rock trio Sour Widows are releasing their 2nd of knotted up chunky guitars & beautiful harmonies, Revival of a Friend, with Exploding In Sound on 6/28

Replay:

Steve Albini RIP

Steve Albini, the legendary recording engineer who defined the shape of guitar music from the 80s to present day, passed from a heart attack at the young age of 61 in May. Important to note before I move on to his work that he was a notorious prick (one of the first “edgelords” by modern parlance). He said all kinds of nasty things, named his bands nasty names, and was generally as unpleasant as he could muster. A lot of the shit he said is just not really defensible. In the last few years, he pushed thru his boomer/X-er nihilism and found a graceful place to stand. The power and intensity of his recordings continue to speak for themselves.

Albini’s recording style is artist-focused and distinctly analog. Often, there’s a ton of bleed between the channels, which doesn’t allow for a ton of remixing or retooling after the performance has been recorded. Other producers will try to keep things digital & organized so that they can be perfected, but Albini’s approach tends to be more about capturing the sound of the band performing live, warts and all. Historically, he has preferred to not be credited on albums, sometimes being listed in the liner notes as “the proprietor” or just simply not included at all.

The hallmarks of an Albini recording are extremely loud drums with a ton of room sound, guitars that buzz and resonate, and vocals with almost no treatment. He would have disagreed with this & would claim that he doesn’t have a distinct style: his style is just dictated by the tastes of the bands who tend to record with him.

Here are some Albini records to note:

Shellac - To All Trains (Touch And Go, May ‘24)

Shellac’s final album, released a week after Albini’s death. Not necessarily their absolute best (my fave is 1000 Hurts), but the recording is immaculate. Clean, but buzzing and every instrument cuts through clearly. Some of these would have been great to hear live. A real shame.

Nirvana - In Utero (Geffen, 1993)

Speaks for itself. Listening to the 2013 remix of this album that pushes the vocals into the back reminds me of hearing this album for the first time when I was 13. I had no fucking idea what I was hearing, it sounded way different from Nevermind & it put me off. Everything sounded “slightly wrong.” Now, that’s exactly what I seek out.

mclusky - mclusky do dallas (Too Pure, 2002)

This is a formative moment for me in my life, this is the first time I’ve heard an album and gone “how do you make a bass guitar sound like that?” The rest is history.

Don Caballero - American Don (Touch And Go, 2000)

This album destroyed Don Cab. Guitarist Ian Williams refused to use any type of guitar distortion. In response, drummer Damon Che used maybe the worst snare I’ve ever heard. Albini takes that tension & the result is one of the single greatest recordings ever put to tape. He even manages to make the snare sound ok. I could listen to this album on repeat every day and never get tired of it.

The Breeders - Pod (4AD, 1990)

The sparseness and power of this album is really accentuated by Albini’s approach to tracking the drums (HUGE) and bass (bright). This is a classic, this is an album you should listen to it.

Songs: Ohia - Magnolia Electric Co. (Secretly Canadian, 2003)

Alt-country savant Jason Molina recorded almost exclusively with Albini & the results were always stellar, but this album has something very special running through it. I have a yearly obsession with this one every fall. Many of these songs were recorded in the first take with the whole band, which is astounding to consider.

Pixies - Surfer Rosa (4AD, 1988)

Another an all-timer classic, Kim Deal is a national treasure. This is simply one of the best debut albums ever released & Albini’s production blows up everything to a maximum level.

Joanna Newsom - Ys (Drag City, 2006)

Ys? More like “yeesh!” What a record, I can’t imagine trying to capture the orchestration with the harp playing — it all comes across as a very natural album.

Brainiac - Hissing Prigs In Static Couture (Touch And Go, 1996)

Listening to this, you can hear how influential it was to your favorite bands. Also their music is fucking hilarious — song titles like “Kiss Me You Jacked Up Jerk” is the sort of thing that you might read in a Dril tweet.

Superchunk - No Pocky For Kitty (Matador, 1991)

According to the band, they sounded nothing like this record, but it was the first time their recordings sounded the way that they THOUGHT they sounded. Wow wow!

Dianogah - Battle Champions (Southern Records, 2000)

You ever try to record a band with 2 basses? Get real, those frequencies get FUCKED up, they get wrapped up with each other. Albini’s spartan production does a lot of justice for this trio.

Jawbreaker - 24 Hour Revenge Therapy (Tupelo, 1994)

Another classic — check that bass tone! The vocals and guitar are super buried and they way overcorrected on Dear You, this is the way this band should sound on a record IMO.

Garbage Corner:

Recording Techniques via Albini

I talked about this in the 4.5 Scrap Heap, but to highlight again: Steve Albini spent a ton of time online discussing his recording techniques & offering insight for curious folks. A lot of this can be utilized by small recording studios, including bedroom setups. His main advice was always: capture the sound correctly using well-placed, high quality microphones and you may not need all the rack equipment. Get a goood take from the band and you may not need to fix things in post-production.

There is a wealth of info available and he answers technical questions with a ton of detail & with practicable advice. Some resources:

This interview with Albini at his home studio before he hit it big is a great one. It includes some false physics things (the bass standing wave thing), but it includes some great gems and a clear vision to a truly DIY setup.

Electrical Audio’s Youtube channel has a lot of cool info on stuff that recording engineers fuss over (Mid/Side recording, Time Alignment from sound sources, how to mic a cab, etc.). Wonderful resource.

Albini’s Reddit AMA is pretty good, including specific details of capturing Kim Deal’s voice, preferred drum heads, his guitar setup for Shellac, etc.

The Electrical Audio Webforum is a 3rd website you can go to instead of Instagram and Twitter. The nerds there know their stuff.

Scene Report:

Colin Stetson at Green-Wood Cemetery (5/12)

@unitsunit7706_#colinstetson #greenwoodcemetery #brooklyn

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This is definitely the first time I’ve had to use a tiktok as a vid embed, nobody put this show up on YT

Love going to shows at Green-Wood Cemetery right near my apartment — I will miss this so much. The cemetery closes at dusk, so entering after hours and sitting among the graves listening to these artists is a real special time.

Opener Deeradorian used a mix of flute & vocals with loopers & samplers to create ambient soundscapes — the mood set the tone nicely in the cemetery, with each piece using a different basis from which to improv against (deep vocal drones got live flute playing, looped reverb-y flute hits got some live vocal percussion clicks, etc.). Reminded me of the Ka Baird set I saw in March. Her penultimate piece was really moving, but it seemed like she still had some time left, so she tried doing an unrehearsed improv piece that didn’t quite land, and then apologized? Definitely an odd way to close a set.

Colin Stetson’s performance was stellar and well-composed, switching between baritone and alto saxes with each song. For the uninitiated, Stetson performs on custom woodwind instruments outfitted with contact microphones and a special throat microphone (see above). Through this set-up, he’s able to capture the percussion of the valves and he can hum distinct notes while blowing into the saxophone to create multiple tones at once. It’s as much athletics as it is art. He did the soundtrack for Hereditary and The Menu, etc. There were several moments in the performance where my jaw literally dropped — the sound was unbelievably full. Good mix of bright flutters and some of the deeper more noisy pieces.

Electricity kept getting cut to the stage, which (thankfully) did not affect the sound, but DID affect his space heater — he complained of cold saxophones once and took a little extra time between pieces to warm up his hands, but still managed to get through the set with no problem. Afterwards, we filtered out of the cemetery, through the crowds of people still milling around and enjoying the cool spring air.

OKAY I’M GOING TO TRY SOMETHING NEW HERE, LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE THOUGHTS ON THIS BECAUSE I DON’T KNOW HOW I FEEL ABOUT IT

June upcoming shows:

Baltimore:

• 6/5 (Wed) Nourished By Time @ Ottobar
• 6/6 (Thu) WTMD First Thursday: Dehd, Snacktime, Giji @ Canton Waterfront Park
• 6/7 (Fri) Flower Bomb @ Mt Royal Soaps
• 6/7 (Fri) Melt Banana, Flying Luttenbachers, Tomato Flower @ Metro Gallery
• 6/7 & 6/8 (Fri,Sat) Ravi Colrane Trio @ Keystone Korner
• 6/9 (Sun) Menzingers, Lucero, Dirty Nil @ Rams Head Live
• 6/12 (Wed) Sun Ra Arkestra @ Keystone Korner
• 6/16 (Sun) Cara Beth Satalino @ Current Space
• 6/16 (Sun) Protomartyr @ Metro Gallery
• 6/20 (Thu) ML Buch @ Ottobar
• 6/25 (Tue) Michael Cera Palin, Kerosene Heights, Cali Cuzns @ Ottobar

DC:

• 6/1 & 6/2 (Sat,Sun) Bill Evans @ Blues Alley
• 6/13 (Thu) Liturgy, Body Void @ Songbyrd
• 6/14 (Fri) Flowerbomb @ Comet Ping Pong
• 6/19 (Wed) Camera Obscua @ 9:30 Club
• 6/20 (Thu) Ted Leo, Ekko Astral @ 9:30 Club
• 6/23 (Sun) Future Islands @ The Anthem
• 6/25 (Tue) Os Mutantes @ Black Cat
• 6/27 (Thu) Mdou Moctar @ 9:30 Club

NYC:

• 6/1 (Sat) Trickster @ The Stone
• 6/5 (Wed) Melt-Banana & The Flying Luttenbachers @ Elsewhere
• 6/8 (Sat) Ogbert The Nerd, Blind Equation, Ultra Deluxe @ The Broadway
• 6/14 (Fri) NY Guitar Festival: Marc Ribot, Yasmin Williams, others @ Lincoln Square
• 6/15 (Sat) Liturgy, Body Void @ LPR
• 6/20 (Thu) Future Islands @ Radio City Music Hall
• 6/22 (Sat) The Armed, King Woman, Chat Pile, Ragana, Cloakroom, & Couch Slut @ Knockdown Center
• 6/24 (Mon) Bill Frisell & Bill Morrison @ Roulette
• 6/25 (Tue) Mdou Moctar @ Bowery Ballroom
• 6/26 (Wed) Mdou Moctar @ Warsaw
• 6/26 (Wed) Horse Lords @ LPR
• 6/26 (Wed) Whitney Johnson & Lia Kohl, Ka Baird, More Eaze @ Public Records
• 6/30 (Sun) Lip Critic @ TV Eye

Philly:

• 6/1 (Sat) Lip Critic @ Milkboy
• 6/7 (Fri) Laurie Spiegel's Expanding Universe @ Solar Myth
• 6/8 (Sat) Nourished By Time @ Johnny Brendas
• 6/14 (Fri) Liturgy, Body Void @ Milkboy
• 6/15 (Sat) Ragana @ Ukie Club
• 6/16 (Sun) Pure Terror @ Foto Club
• 6/21 (Fri) Ted Leo, Ekko Astral @ Union Transfer
• 6/24 (Mon) @ and This Is Lorelei @ Johnny Brendas
• 6/28 (Fri) Mdou Moctar @ Union Transfer

Beyond:

• 7/28 (Sun) Fiddlehead & Gel @ Zika Farm (Baltimore)
• 9/22 (Sun) Yo La Tengo @ Rams Head Live (Baltimore)
• 10/24 (Thu) Boris @ Baltimore Soundstage (Baltimore)
• 7/4 (Thu) Powerwasher @ DC9 (DC)
• 7/15 (Mon) Cola @ Songbyrd (DC)
• 7/18 (Thu) HIRS & .gif from god @ Songbyrd (DC)
• 8/1 (Thu) The Body & Dis Fig @ Songbyrd (DC)
• 8/9 (Fri) Breakin' Even Fest @ Pie Shop (DC)
• 8/10 (Sat) Breakin' Even Fest @ Pie Shop (DC)
• 8/11 (Sun) Breakin' Even Fest @ Pie Shop (DC)
• 9/6 (Fri) Dismembrment Plan @ 9:30 Club (DC)
• 10/29 (Tue) Drinking Boys & Girls Choir @ Songbyrd (DC)
• 9/9 (Mon) Marika Hackman @ Elsewhere (NYC)