The Shellac and Big Black frontman, who recorded classic albums by Nirvana, Pixies, PJ Harvey, and more, has died of a heart attack
      • comrade_pibb [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        10·
        6 months ago

        wait what now? Admittedly, i didn’t give much of a shit about the music industry, but i know this guy’s name for sure

        edit: holy shit please take the CW below very seriously

        • MolotovHalfEmpty [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
          12·
          6 months ago

          Steve Albini writing on his love for PURE Magazine, an infamous pedophile-friendy underground shock magazine, in which he not only praises it, talks glowingly about the imagery within, but also tips that he’s friends with the publishers.

          MASSIVE CW for image of article! Explicit discussion of child pornography, violence, rape etc.

          Then there’s the shit in the Big Black tour diary about frequenting underground pornography stores in Hamburg (CW again, pedo shit, graphic descriptions, rape)

          spoiler

          “The hall we’re playing is on the Reeperbahn: way-cool sleaze strip. Huge gaudy sex shops everywhere. They have many issues of Seventeen, this unbelievably twisted pubescents-fucking-like-weasels mag I first saw in Holland, and they have special Seventeen presents Teenager Action mags, which feature even younger couples in extended fuckoramas. Jaded as I am, I can’t help but flip seeing a girl and guy of twelve or thirteen, tops, ramming Martel bottles up each other’s asses. These are not the Dutch equivalent of abused trailer-park kids, either. They look to be in excellent health and seem to be honestly enjoying this. Makes all the conventional arguments against this kind of thing seem really silly. They’re kids. Kids like to play with their own and other people’s privates. They’re just being photographed at it. Now, people who get a voyeuristic charge out of watching them, like me, I guess, well, we’ve got some grip-on-reality problems. There’s maybe 1% of all pornography that has any effect on me, and it’s definitely not a turn-on very often. But when it is, and it’s as weird as this, it’s pretty hard to take.”

  • TheModerateTankie [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    5·
    6 months ago

    I have mixed feelings about him. I grew up listening to his music and it has been a major influence on me, was amused by him being a loudmouth asshole twerp or his petty beefs with other bamds over the years, and admired his work ethic. According to people who knew him he was a pretty generous person to anyone wanting advice or help with any aspect of the music industry. He understood that the mainstream music industry was a poisonous ripoff and warned everyone he could away from getting involved with it.

    His early music is full of dark topics and it seemed clear to me, and from reading interviews, that the intent was to shock and confront people with the darker nature of humanity, with satire and irony. Similar in the vein to something like Hunter S. Thompson. Transgressive, irreverant and confrontational, but the intent was not to promote bigotry, violence, or sex crimes. Anyone familiar with the evolution of 4-chan can see how that approach can turn out. He pretty much owned up to it in recent years with basically “This is what my intent was. I was a privileged white male asshole in a sea of them and was in the wrong. I regret it. I don’t expect forgiveness for any of it, and deserve whatever bad feelings people have towards me” Which is better than most, I guess?

    I first saw the pedo shit being posted as a response to him calling out Dave Chappelle for being a transphobic asshole, so I assumed it was some obscure shock writing from his younger days taken out of context to sound as bad as possible. Considering who were attacking him for it, I was inclined to be charitable about it.

    But I don’t know what the fuck was up with him and his long time friendship with Peter Sotos, or the the tour diary where he finds child porn in the porn shops in holland. Even under the most charitable interperetation it is legitimately gross and fucked up. Albini only ever touches the topic of pedophilia in one of his songs, and it’s based on an incident that turned out to be fake, and is meant to be disturbing. I’ve listened to almost everything he’s put out, and it’s not a running theme in any of his music or writing. So, it’s just kind of a what-the-hell moment. He’s owned up to most of his bullshit, but not that specifically, because it’s not really defensible.

    crab-party

    Also, he was a warren-snake-green-stan.

    hexcrab-party