VBS.TV Blog

THIS GUY ALSO THINKS THAT PLANTS CAN MAKE MUSIC (AS WELL AS HIS DOG, BACON)

June 04, 2009
by VBS Staff

Soft Focus Season 3

• Culture
• Music
• United States

This week’s guest on Soft Focus is probably one of our top 15 all-time favorite Chicagoans, but certainly one of our two all-time favorite Missoulans (the other being David Lynch). Steve Albini is responsible for fronting the most caustic and, depending on whether or not you have a sense of humor, either hilarious or upsetting bands of the mid- to late-80s (Big Black), that weird sort of late-80s to 90s spur period (Rapeman), and the 90s proper (Shellac), as well as producing more albums by more bands than we’re sure even he can keep track of. He’s also the only music writer who doesn’t make us want to drive a woodawl under the fingernails on each of our hands. If you haven’t read his notorious breakdown of exactly how major labels (and a lot of so-called indies) rip off their artists, Some of Your Friends Are Probably Already This Fucked, click that link and prepare to have your mind bummed.

OK, now that we’re done fellating all the skin off of Steve’s penis, go watch the episode for Pete’s sake. When you’re done, you can come back here and check out the below links for further satisfaction.

Big Black doing ‘Jordan, Minnesota’ in their heyday.

The only live footage of Rapeman we’ve ever seen.

Somebody made a Steve Albini lyric generator a little while back. Keep clicking refresh for more quips.

This is a studio-recording message board that Steve’s in charge of.

For some reason, in the late 90s Steve helped Cheap Trick re-record their 1977 album In Color. Here’s how it turned out.

And here, for those of you with Rapidshare accounts, is a bootleg of the legendary Halloween show Shellac played as the Sex Pistols, never once breaking character the entire evening. David Yow from the Jesus Lizard was Johnny Rotten. (That’s also Yow on the couch next to Steve in the outro from the old Pigpile video at the top of the page. He’s the one who gets slapped, not the one doing the slapping.)