The Sound of Young Albinia
There’s a lovely post over at Textism, where most posts are lovely, about the convergence of two things you might be interested in: a quite possibly excellent public radio program that I never heard of before now, and a quite awesome personality with whom you most definitely should be already familiar.
One is called The Sound of Young America, and is a PRI interview show that Textism has come around to and which he has found to be quite worth a listen. The other is Steve Albini, a musician, sound engineer, and all-around rabble-rouser whose thoughts on the music industry are sure to enlighten as they are to enrage.
Back in December 2007, TSOYA interviewed Albini, and Textism posted a few snippets pulled from this interview, all of which are wonderful little jewels. Textism writes:
So after saving the podcast interview with Albini for a couple months, like a treat to be awarded whenever I got around to remembering it was still there, I listened to it yesterday. I’d never experienced him being interviewed off the page before, and it really is a treat: you’re struck by how he wanders around in his own analogies, never straying far from the point and remaining engaged with interviewer and audience.
In addition to the audio candy, this post does a number of things:
1. Though I am kind of over podcasts and have pretty much stopped listening to them, I know I need to give this one a listen.
2. It reminds me about and points to this awesome exchange from way back in 1993/94 wherein Albini penned an angry letter to the Chicago Reader for a lazy article about Liz Phair, Urge Overkill, and the Smashing Pumpkins, and elicits a couple of months of reader responses. In hilarious irony, the banner ad I see shills the 15th anniversary re-release of Exile in Guyville.
3. It reminds me about and points to this incredibly influential and widely cited article originally published in Maximum Rock & Roll in the 90s entitled “The Problem With Music” in which Albini argues why big label rock is almost always a scam. Worth a read, if you’ve never had a chance.
4. It reminds me, but does not point to, the fact that I have yet to listen to Shellac’s last album, Excellent Italian Greyhound, released last June. For shame, Wad City, for shame.
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