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Comment by vlunkr | Hacker News Reader

If you're not familiar with Albini, he's worked lots of great bands. Pixies of course, The Jesus Lizard, Mclusky, his own band Shellac to name a few. Nirvana was good, but they've come to overshadow the really great music scene they emerged from.

It's too bad his work with Fugazi didn't work out. Apparently the band and Albini decided they both didn't like and they re-recorded it at another studio.

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Don't forget Big Black. I can't find the words to describe what listening to that was like in the 80s as a young computer hacker. To me, it's like shoving a couple William Gibson novels into my eardrums. It is harsh, loud, sterile, ethereal, haunting, electric and beautiful.

There's a 90s MTV interview with Alibini and the rest of Shellac on YouTube (back when there was still music on MTV), and he jokingly complained how their concerts never attracted hot chicks but just computer programmers and the like :-)

Women don’t like Shellac because Steve Albini wears his guitar as a belt, true story.

My March 2020 Shellac tickets are finally going to be used in May, I’m excited!

I was never that crazy about Jesus Lizard, but I never understood why Nirvana and not them, relatively speaking.

I liked Goat, Liar, and Down better than Shot, which seems to correlate with Albini producing only the first three.

Albini also worked on Joanna Newsom’s Ys.

Wow, I didn’t know that.

His work on The Wedding Present's "Seamonsters" is the one that stands out to me from that time.

Incredible album

He also did Jason Molina's Magnolia Electric Co., an amazingly recorded and engineered record that I think accomplishes his idea of "capturing the band's music and existence" as he describes in the letter.

The Albini mix of (parts of) In on the Kill Taker are on Youtube, but I must admit I found listening to the mix very tiring. The final album is splendid though.

Agreed, I wouldn't have that album any other way, but it would have been interesting to hear them complete a project together.

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