One of the greatest noise-rock drummers of all time granted yours truly his first interview following the still-unbelievable death of long-time Shellac bandmate Steve Albini, roughly a year after the underground legend’s tragic departure. Read one of two feature stories stemming from a truly heartfelt conversation via Music Connection.
Archive for Steve Albini
Todd Trainer on Surviving Shellac: ‘There’s Still a Massive Void There’
Posted in Interviews with tags Shellac, Steve Albini, Todd Trainer on 06/02/2025 by Kurt OrzeckShellac’s ‘At Action Park’ in Treble’s Hall of Fame
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Bob Weston, Shellac, Steve Albini, Todd Trainer on 04/13/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Shellac’s At Action Park was the consummately contrarian, anti-establishment record of the 1990s that didn’t belong in a record store’s hardcore bin. In many ways, the masterwork by Steve Albini, Bob Weston and Todd Trainer was the antithesis of every rock record that had come before it—a Paul Bunyan-size middle finger to the corporate machine regarded at the time as the enemy. Read my lengthy review of one of my favorite records ever for Treble, which inducted it into their Hall of Fame.
Live Review From The Vaults: Shellac Are Not Your Friend
Posted in Interviews with tags Bob Weston, Shellac, Steve Albini, Todd Trainer, Touch and Go on 08/04/2024 by Kurt Orzeck
Go to New Noise to read my live review, previously published on MTV News’ now-shuttered website, of Shellac’s caustic concert at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood on January 28, 2001.
For the sake of good measure and posterity, here’s an email that largely media-averse Shellac guitarist/vocalist Steve Albini sent me before his deeply sad passing on May 7:
“I’d be happy to talk to you. I’m traveling at the moment but I’ll be back on May 6th. I can do a conversation any morning prior to my normal sessions starting at 10 am (Central) or I can answer questions by email, where I will likely be more eloquent.”
The Bad Penny, named after one of Albini’s creations, already misses him more sorely than words can express.
Shellac’s ‘To All Trains’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Shellac, Steve Albini on 05/18/2024 by Kurt Orzeck
Check out my FLOOD review of To All Trains, which is presumably the final studio album by indispensable, iconoclastic noise-rock outfit Shellac. The analysis also includes some my reflections on the band’s guitarist/vocalist and one of rock’s most singular engineers ever, Steve Albini. (His song “Bad Penny,” created with his previous outfit Big Black, inspired the name of this website.)
Days before Albini suffered a fatal heart attack at his own Electrical Audio studio in Chicago, the underground legend agreed to talk with me about To All Trains (Touch and Go), 26 years after our first and only other conversation. A transcription of that first interview will surface online soon; sadly—but not a smidgen as sad as his passing—the second rendezvous never transpired.
Nirvana’s ‘In Utero’: The Heart-Shaped Album That Married Mainstream and Indie Rock
Posted in Essays with tags Dave Grohl, Kurt Cobain, Nirvana, Steve Albini on 11/09/2023 by Kurt Orzeck
With Nirvana’s In Utero celebrating its 30-year anniversary, check out my argument — itself three decades in the making — on why the band’s best record changed rock music forever. Read the treatise, accompanied by Anton Corbijn photos, on FLOOD.
Scratch Acid, Big Black, Man … Or Astro-Man? Give Chicago Hope At Touch And Go Bash
Posted in Concert Reviews, Reviews with tags Big Black, Calexico, David Yow, Didjits, Enon, Killdozer, Man ... or Astro-man?, Monorchid, Negative Approach, New Year, Pinback, Rob Crow, Scratch Acid, Shellac, Steve Albini, Supersystem, Ted Leo, Touch and Go on 02/20/2023 by Kurt Orzeck
… And here’s my review of the Touch and Go Records’ three-day anniversary concert from September 2006.
CHICAGO — Touch and Go’s three-day anniversary bash wasn’t just a lesson in the history of the seminal record label. It was a Cliff’s Notes-like recap of the last 25 years of indie rock itself.
Underground granddaddies Big Black, Scratch Acid and Killdozer spit forth a lethal dose of abrasive, confrontational brutality, while !!!, Ted Leo and Enon courted the crowd with dance-rock appeal. And therein lied the clear distinction between the challenging approach taken by yesterday’s bands and the sheer accessibility of their successors.
Continue readingLooking Back: Steve Albini, David Yow, Rob Crow Chat About Touch and Go’s 25th Anniversary
Posted in Concert Reviews, Reviews with tags Big Black, Calexico, David Yow, Man ... or Astro-man?, Monorchid, Pinback, Rob Crow, Scratch Acid, Steve Albini, the Jesus Lizard, Touch and Go, Yeah Yeah Yeahs on 02/20/2023 by Kurt Orzeck
Now here’s a blast from the past. A blast from the past from the past, actually.
Touch and Go Records 4 eva.
Before Fall Out Boy, before the Academy Is … — hell, even before the Smashing Pumpkins — there was Touch and Go Records. Like those bands, the trailblazing record label’s reach has extended far beyond its Chicago base of operations, but come September, it’ll be enshrining its 25 years of influence with a massive anniversary gala designed to dazzle indie rock’s shrewdest scholars.
Scratch Acid, Big Black, Man … or Astro-man?, Killdozer — while they’re not exactly household names, the underground goons that shattered eardrums and tore punk rock a new one decades ago will be wreaking havoc once again in commemoration of the label that sustained them. Think of it as “A Mighty Wind” for the indie-rock masses.
Continue readingPete Yorn On Musicforthemorningafter: ‘It’s Too Clean’
Posted in Interviews with tags Albert Hammond, Bruce Springsteen, Bun E. Carlos, Cheap Trick, Echo & the Bunnymen, Elvis Presley, Failure, Iggy Pop, Jeff Buckley, Jon Brion, Ken Andrews, Liz Phair, Pete Yorn, Peter Buck, R.E.M., Scarlett Johansson, Steve Albini, Sunny Day Real Estate, the Beatles, the Smiths, the Stone Roses, the Sweet Inspirations, the Velvet Underground, Weezer on 10/07/2010 by Kurt Orzeck
Night owls can expect to see Pete Yorn performing on Jimmy Fallon’s show tonight in support of the self-titled album he squeezed out last week. Seems like an opportune time to roll out this vintage, never-before-online interview I conducted with him on March 9, 2003. Continue reading
Cheap Trick’s Bun E. Carlos On Recording With Steve Albini, Why Band Re-Cut In Color
Posted in Interviews with tags Bun E. Carlos, Cheap Trick, Dan the Automator, Rick Nielsen, Steve Albini, X-ecutioners on 06/15/2010 by Kurt Orzeck
Naturally, yesterday’s post about Geronimo! – a new band out of Rockford, Illinois – brought back fond memories of the city’s principal rock export: Cheap Trick. Seems like a good-enough time to dust off a years-old interview with Bun E. Carlos. Continue reading
Jesus Lizard’s Duane Denison: ‘I Can’t Imagine Ever Doing A Reunion Tour’
Posted in Interviews with tags Beck, Big Black, Brainiac, Cargo Cult, David Sims, David Yow, Denison Kimball Trio, Duane Denison, Firehose, Firewater, Girls Against Boys, Hank Williams III, Iggy Pop, Laughing Hyenas, Mac McNeilly, Melvins, Ministry, Nirvana, Phantom 309, Rage Against the Machine, Scratch Acid, Steve Albini, the Butthole Surfers, the Jesus Lizard, Trans Am, Verbena on 12/30/2009 by Kurt Orzeck
These are three hard-working men. One is bald, diminutive (around 5 feet tall) and brandishes a wrinkled, menacing smirk. This man has been arrested on numerous occasions for public exposure and enjoys his occupation, which involves howling, salivating, urinating and wrestling with complete strangers. Continue reading
The Bad Penny (beta) 