I went nearly 10 years (about eight) going to dinners, playing cash at the WSOP, and knowing him as "Steve from the Stud Poker forum." And that's the way I've always known him. I'll miss my friend.

RIP.

Thanks, Chuck Bass, for this post. So much has been written about Steve but it's less likely people, aside from those in his Chicago community, would know about this side of his life. It ain't all about Nirvana, The Pixies and PJ Harvey.

I had a similar experience when I travelled to Electric Audio from Australia, sometime in the early 2010s to record. I noticed the gifts by the snooker table, which were being boxed and sent to kids whose parents couldn't afford to buy them Christmas presents. As well as been a brilliant musician and engineer, Steve was pragmatic about using his influence for good: no ego, no bullshit, just get something done to help others.

I was lucky enough to record at Electric Audio two more times. When Steve came to Melbourne he played a home game I organised with friends. He also played some late 2/5 at Crown Melbourne after a Shellac gig (in his gig overalls and wearing earplugs at the table, relatively anonymous). From memory he ran pretty good that night and insisted on buying a meat pie on the way back to his hotel, at 5am, in celebration of his win (although he did grumble a little about the high rake). I think his band mates were a little miffed that he so was tired the next day, but he nailed the second gig in Melbourne, of course. I'm not sure if those in the poker world fully understand how great Shellac were as a live band.

I've had endless conversations with close music friends about Albini's music and recording philosophy. The way he set-up a session, with much care, especially mic placement, then recorded with no fuss (and deadly honest albeit respectful feedback ), only to tape, not wasting much time on mixing --- it was almost too good to be true, except for the fact that I witnessed it work seamlessly every time. In the independent music-engineering world he is a god, with many in Australia drawing upon his techniques, even building studios based on his principles. I certainly was not the only Melbourne muso to travel all the way to Chicago in the middle of winter to record with Albini.

I must admit I loved the fact a whole bunch of 2+2 books would be lying around Electric Audio, including in the loos (he would often be posting on 2+2 in between takes as well) . When there was a spare moment, Steve would tell me a few things about 7 card stud, particularly as I had sat in a dealer's choice game at this studio my first night there, and had been googling the rules to stud while playing (I only knew PLO and NLH at the time). It didn't occur until later that I was sitting at the table with three WSOP bracelet holders (Oscillator and Brian Hastings along with Steve). Fortunately we were only playing $0.50/$1.00.

Have to say, also, could he record drums. It's all there on the recordings. The drums sound as they do in the room. No audio tricks: just smart mic placement and other things about gain-stage etc, which I don't know enough about to comment on further, except to say, in my experience, it was kind of magical (although if I said that to Albini he'd probably laugh, tell me exactly what he was doing, then in a gesture of mock false-humility, agree that he was a genius, and move on to the next task).

I'm sure there are many are grieving his loss right now. I certainly am, but trying my best to hold onto what he held dear: playing music with integrity, recording music with integrity, releasing music with integrity; playing poker well, not being an arsehole, ever, at the table, and making sure all know the rules; knowing how to tell jokes, knowing where the good places to eat are, being prepared to make small-talk; being kind when it matters, teaching others about things that matter when you can and so on and so on.

I feel better just knowing he's left a legacy.

Shellac were one hell of a live band. They apparently took a liking to the Primavera Sound Festival in Porto (and Barcelona too maybe, IDK), playing it every single year w/ some headlining gigs around Europe usually planned around that, too. The first time I saw them there they were on at 4.50 am, I had a hard staying up and the nights get cold at the sea but they absolutely killed it and the sound was just immaculate. Absolutely massive engineering.
We went back pretty much every year - great city and festival - and sometimes I thought they were the best thing I saw all weekend there. Thanks - so sad - RIP.

it sounds as if everything he did in life was so punk. i ****ing love it! thanks for sharing your stories guys.

we lost a good one.

DrTJO, awesome post, thank you.

I'm so bummed I never saw Shellac live. Truth to be told, I'm not a huge fan of 'noise rock' (unsure if correct genre - not a musician here so apologies if the wording isn't accurate), and before I met Steve and his friends I basically only knew him as a legendary record engineer who'd recorded so many of my favorite albums. But I got curious after everyone in Chicago hyped what a great live act Shellac were, and last summer I almost flew to Primavera essentially just to see them live. I'm not even a huge music geek and don't ever do that type of stuff - I can't really explain my urge to fly over to the other side of the continent in any other way except that it felt like the missing piece of the puzzle to fully understand the man, the myth, the legend that was Steve Albini. But then other things came up, and I figured I'll just go next year. Still can't believe there will never be next year.

Re: Steve's charity ventures - it has dawned on me that I and my co-producer might actually be the only people in the world who possess this type of footage about Steve, at least on this scale (we have like 8 hours of footage for an unfinished project). As DrTJO wrote, Steve was pragmatic about using his influence for good: no ego, no bullshit, just get something done to help others. He did so much more than all but a few people know. I'd love for the world to be able to see this side of him.

Very sorry to hear this news - I never met Steve in real life but enjoyed his posts and exchanging ideas on the stud forum when I played that game seriously years ago (his posts were must reads to me ). Didn’t know his background at all - seems like he had many great accomplishments and brought enjoyment to many people. RIP

I guess I am writing this more for myself than I am for Steve, who never partial to self-publicity and would likely hate this.

Steve was one of the first people I met when I moved from LA to Chicago in early 2009. We were introduced through a mutual 2+2 acquaintance and Steve of course immediately gave me his phone number and invited me to the Tuesday game. He’s still in my phone as “electrical” which was his 2+2 handle. Had no ideal for many years that was also the name of his recording studio.

The Tuesday game took place at his recording studio, which was where he lived at the time. I know virtually nothing about music, had no idea he recorded Nirvana, and like 90 percent of the bands in his AMA thread go right over my head. Apparently I’ve been on a mutual text thread with one of the headliners of Silkworm and have never known he is in Silkworm until yesterday when I re-read the AMA thread. Very nice guy. As Steve once said to me, I like pussy ass **** so he told me to listen to more of Glenn Hansard and introduced me to Jason Molina. So that’s basically all the music for this rant.

The Tuesday game ran (at least for me) fairly regularly from whenever I got there until the pandemic, when it partially moved online. I think I played with some important people in the music industry once or twice or something, but you would ever know it from the atmosphere.

The Chicago crew has a few bracelets under their belt and with some out of town guests, I think this 25-50 cent game once had something like 12 bracelets at the table at the time. It was basically 25-50 cent, one round NLHE and one round dealer’s choice (casino games plus swingo). There’s lots of straddles and short-handed nonsense. I was up $500 (which is a big number in that game generally) the first time I played until Swingo was called toward the end of the night. First time playing this masterful game, and Steve and I got it all in with one card to come and I thought I had a board lock. I did not. I did have 2 outs that did not hit.
I met a lot of great people through that game and through Steve, many of whom I am close to today.

Steve was prolific in the Chicago poker community. He regularly played the 40-80 HORSE when that was the mixed game at the boat and has learned all the new games as they came out, nowadays playing 50-100 or higher multi-game mixes with all of those split pot draw games the new kids like. He was kind enough to back me in the HORSE back in the day and I will forever be appreciative of that.

Some other random things in no particular order.

Steve was a rabid baseball fan, particularly of the White Sox. Encyclopedic knowledge of baseball and a game was almost always on TV on Tuesdays.

He was a fantastic cook and a good gardener. He often made snacks for the Tuesday game and I was the beneficiary of many of his dinner pictures. He once gave be a bottle of olive oil infused with “alley herbs,” which was literally a bottle of good olive oil infused with herbs he grew in the alley next to the studio. It was fantastic.

He was always super generous with both this time and money. Have someone with a kid who wants to be a drummer? Friend who is a fanboy? Always would be willing to have them over to the studio and show them around.

Chuck talked about Steve and his wife’s charity above. It was called Letters to Santa. My understanding of it was that he used to collect letters mailed to Santa from some of the poorer neighborhoods in the city and then buy them the things they asked for on the list, plus a winter coat. He did this with no fanfare or request for accolades. He dropped the stuff off on Christmas Eve or early Christmas morning and he drove away in his purple PT Cruiser. After some bureaucracy prevented him from getting dead letters from the post office, he partnered with local charities to get letters or with lists from local families. More recently, it has become an actual 501c3 and they do coats and computers as well as gifts. Again with no fanfare or requests of any kind.

He never really solicited money for the charity. That was not his nature. Through Second City, he and his wife put on a 24-hour donation type thing around Christmas of every year to help subsidize it, but that was it. I imagine it would mean the world to him if anyone would use the link to donate in his memory.

He was a collector of strays of sorts. Maybe I was one of them at first. There was always someone on his couch. He always answered his phone. Especially for a friend in need. He had a rule that someone had to call him before offing themselves so he could talk them out of it.

He was one hell of a good one pocket player and knew everyone in the Chicago scene that used to make a living in pool halls.

He was a huge liberal and had some borderline socialistic tendencies, and as a staunch advocate for the massive swath of working poor in this country. Any sort of bigotry, especially toward the LGTBQ community, drove him nuts. Yet, at the same time, he did not really harbor any hatred in his heart. One of his close friends is a moderately evil Republican. He enjoyed getting into political debates or poker debates or any sort of debates. He liked arguing. Never admitted he was wrong. He mostly wasn’t.

He and I were once were in a local $1-2 no limit game (neither of our preferred games by any stretch of the imagination) with a very with a large woman that he referred to as a strumpet. She was very insistent that I first come smoke pot with her and later come do some coke with her on the balcony (I politely declined both offers). This was maybe in 2010 or so. Based on what she thought I did for a living, she started calling me prisonrape. Steve made damn sure that name stuck for the next 15 years or so. He was a ball buster extraordinaire.

He wasn’t a huge fan of Vegas and said he’s rather have the WSOP played in a warehouse in Cincinnati. Amen.

He really liked cats.

The thing I will miss most about him is his sense of humor.

i still remember how incredibly geeked i was when steve popped up in BBV for that ask me thread. he was already a legend in my book for his engineering work, for his bands, and most of all for blazing his own path through the music industry with his principles and his utterly unique sensibilities intact. for a lot of musicians around my age, if we could have picked one person who we would hope to genuinely impress with our efforts, it would be him. he was also one of those rare transgressive, self-made artists whose politics and outlook really improved with age - he was gracious, unpretentious and insightful in ways that are often a challenge for men as we get older, and refreshingly workmanlike and unsentimental about his accomplishments and his place in the scene. i will always regret the fact that i could have probably sat down around a card table with him for nothing more than the price of a bus ticket to chicago and a 2+2 PM, and never gave it a shot.

thanks for everything steve, and thanks to those in this thread who knew him and shared with the rest of us.

damn thats crazy

he was active in the forums' as other said even replied to me one time through dm when i asked a question i think

will be misseed

Man I'm so ****ed up over all of this, I've been trying to avoid all of this stuff, so I guess I'm taking a small step by posting in this stupid ****ing thread that I can't believe exists right now. I'll appreciate it later

Thanks Chris, Tim , and Miikka. Thanks anyone who has anything to say. I ****ing really miss my best friend. This guy carried so many people on his back, and he gave and gave and gave. I'll post thoughts and stories sporadically in this thing at some point but cant now. Sorry for the useless post **** this

I'm so sorry for your loss, Brandon

I've been incredibly gutted over this, and I barely even knew Steve. Knowing how close you two were, I can't even imagine what hell you must be going through.

It was such a special experience to get to spend a few days with you and Steve - it's rare to see that kind of bond between two dudes and it was obvious to everyone around how much Steve loved you and how highly he thought of you.

I know it feels impossible now, but it'll get better. ♥️ Please let me know if there's anything I can do.

In time, Brandon, I'm sure the stories about Steve will find a place (I suspect he wouldn't mind them appearing on 2+2; I mean, better than Rolling Stone, right?). Anyway, hope you're doing ok. I was in shock yesterday and only I got to know him for a few days here and there, a time where I was fortunate enough to have him record me playing some music, while talking a little poker on the side. Just a few cents: was kind of cool how he introduced you as someone who could help me play some poker in Chicago while I was recording with a few mates at Electrical Audio. At the time, 2010ish, you were someone who knew where to catch the free bus to the Horseshoe at Hammond from West Belmont, right by Dunkin Donuts. When I returned a few years later you were winning WSOP bracelets etc., while living at Electrical Audio. I'm sure Steve was proud of that fact, all jokes aside. In fact, maybe he did joke about that, but was no less proud. Anyway love that you say he 'gave and gave and gave' --- in my mind that has a lot to do with why he "engineered" so many great records.

Thanks for the charity link, Chuck. The best way to say thanks, imo.

rip

really nice reading all these well written tributes

Legend! How did this cat have enough time on his hands to master so many crafts in his life? Winning bracelets in stud vs the best in the world isn't exactly easy.

Considering how young he died, this advice aged well. RIP

Steelworker by Albini's inaugural band Big Black was a life-changing listen. My music-savvy friend gave me a burned Big Black CD just after high school graduation in 2003, and I remember multiple joyrides that summer with the boombox blasting Big Black, that friend in the passenger seat, and typically some open containers of Labatt Blue in the cupholders. Hammer Party and Rich Man's Eight-Track Tape are two of my most-listened-to albums to this day.

RIP. Always hoped I'd get a chance to sit with him at a WSOP table sometime; that dream has died along with Mr. Albini

Average age for a first heart attack in American men is 65.5. Your comment induced a googling out of me. Albini wasn't too far below avg

Or he might still be alive if he didn't follow it. Or he could have died at 25 from an OD (maybe more likely these days from fentanyl).

Some real gems and great tributes in this thread. Knew him more from here than music.
RIP

Or maybe you are stupid, ha?

Paying my respects to Steve Albini. The man was a legend. Hearing about his death hit me hard.



One of my favorite albums of all time. Pixies' Surfer Rosa has probably my favorite production on any album, ever.