Have you heard the Chicago band Black Nag (includes Dorian Taj from Articles of Faith)? What do you think of them?

KJS

wtf is swingo?

[/quote]

Very nice.

I wouldn't call it "variance." Signing Erstad was a disaster, Dye's dropoff wasn't unexpected though the severity is surprising, and the bullpen was meh from the start.

I'm hoping Kenny learns from this year and we come back strong in 2008. He did do a good job with the McCarthy trade, and even Gavin Floyd looks like he might be a servicable major league pitcher for a couple years.

Well, present company excepted, there was an awesome Cheap Trick album released in 1994, titled "Cheap Trick," just like their first one, but the record company went [censored]-up a week later. The Fall keep making records, and once in a while one of them is good. Wire did it. Mission of Burma. Silkworm. Zeni Geva. Neurosis.

I was about to say it isn't too common, but I keep thinking of more, so basically you're wrong. Lame bands ought to break up early, but good ones can go on for a long time.

I have not heard them. I would not hold AOF (who were ridiculous and terrible) against Dorian. He always seemed like an okay guy.

Have you ever edited your own wikipedia entry?

Named after a Naked Raygun song, Swingo is the poker game for the 21st Century, incorporating elements of 5-card draw, stud, hold-em and intentional angle-shooting. Invented (though rarely played) at the Tuesday game.

Swingo
Pot-limit played with two equal blinds.

Everyone is dealt five cards, and there is a round of betting. After the betting closes, each player places two of his cards face-down on the table. When all players have placed their hole-cards down, all players still in the hand expose the other three cards in their hand by placing them on the table face-up. These cards ("the Board") remain in play unless the hand holding them folds. There is another round of betting, starting with the best hand showing (as in stud), not taking other players' cards into account. For example, a player with two Kings on board would act first if no other player has a better hand showing, even if another player could make trips using a board card in addition to his up-cards. After the betting is closed, a final community card is dealt face-up on the table. There is a final round of betting. Players, starting with the last player to bet or raise, show their hands and declare them. The best legal declared hand wins. Declaring a hand your cards do not allow does not kill your hand, but it makes you a dick, and you have to get it right or ask for help for your next try.

A player may use any one of the other players' exposed cards (the Board, not another player's hole cards) in his hand. More than one player may use the same Board card. Any player may use the river card in his hand. Players are not required to use any board cards or the river card to make their hands. A player must use a minimum of three cards from his original five-card hand. The best five-card hand wins.

There is some debate about whether this game should be declared or cards-speak.

Other options: Hi-Low split, split pot with a player whose board card you use to make your hand (for this version, the hands should be declared rather than cards speak, since a player may opt to play for the whole pot by declaring a hand that doesn't use an opponent's up card).

[edit: I do not know of any site that offers Swingo online]

I think editing your own Wikipedia entry is super-duper lame and uncool, and I would never do it. It's supposed to be for other people to hang stuff on you, like how you are a sex criminal or cheat at Yahtzee whatever.

Hey Steve,

Curious about your production on a couple Mono albums and GY!BE...

At the beginning of some songs (Ode, Yearning, and 09-15-00), the listener can hear your voice saying, "You're on." I understand these were recorded live, but I was curious what the purpose of leaving the command on those songs served.

Mr Albini

I'm particularly fond of the Electrelane albums you worked on, I was wondering how you found working with them and what you think of the albums yourself.

Also, I was wondering what record producers you particularly admire yourself.

what's your relationship with the guitar and how has it changed over the years? do you spend a lot of time playing for fun, or not so much?

I didn't mix the Godspeed! record, so I don't know what decisions were made there. With Mono, I think they started thinking of that as the beginning of the song. In one case, I remember they asked me to overdub a "you're rolling." I never pressed them for a specific reason and they never gave me one.

steve,

you may very well be saying 'no comment' by ignoring it in my last post, but i am super curious: nothing to say about 24 hour revenge therapy?

I think Electrelane are an awesome band, with really ambitious ideas. Each of the women is a unique character and I enjoyed working with them tremendously. Verity is a fantastic musician with the capacity to hear impossibly complex arrangements in her head, and I admire that.

I don't think too much of producers, honestly. There are some great sounding albums out there (Highway to Hell, Back in Black, Zuma, Led Zeppelin albums, Spiderland) but I attribute that to the bands themselves. If you listen to the crap Mutt Lange has done since Back in Black, for example, you can tell that giving the producer any credit for that album is going too far.

Sorry. I had to resort to Google to discover that it was a Jawbreaker album. I don't remember too much about it, other than that it was a decent, if standard pop punk record of the type that was pretty common in the mid-90s.

I didn't follow that scene or that band, and I don't know if I ever heard the record after I finished work on it, so I really don't have anything to add. Glad you liked it.

Hardly ever. Once a month or so I'll get to play a little. More if the band is rehearsing for a tour or writing songs. Still hardly any.

Steve,

whats up? im a young professional audio engineer, musician, etc etc etc trying to make a living in the NYC scene. your attitude is refreshing amidst all the [censored] out there. so i first want to thank you for sticking it out in the biz, and for keeping Electrical's doors open.

my question to you is- with digital audio getting better as time goes on, is there gonna be a Pro Tools rig at Electrical? do you ever do sessions at other studios where you end up using Pro Tools?

since you're working primarily with 2''....have you ever run into a session that needed an absurd amount of editing? i've not worked much with tape in my time as an AE....is there ever a point at which it becomes counterproductive to do a large amount of editing on analog tape?

thanks,

jonathan jetter

Steve,

Thanks very much for the Q&A opportunity. A few questions on a couple of topics:

1) It is generally accepted that most folks prefer the smell of their own farts to that of others'. Is this true for you, and can you tell us a little bit about the features of your farts that make them more palatable? Do you take any measures to achieve and maintain any particular fart qualities?

2) David Wm. Sims' instrument sound, while quite extraordinary, strongly suggests that he has a fascination with farts well beyond the social norm. Did he talk about them often? Did he choose his meals with future farts in mind? I understand if you're not at liberty to discuss, but - is this why the Jesus Lizard split?

We have digital sessions at Electrical pretty regularly. If a session comes in that requires a Pro Tools rig, we strap one in, and we wouldn't be being reasonable if we refused.

Personally, I have never used Pro Tools, and never worked from a computer for any part of a recording session. I have never felt limited by this arrangement, and there has never been a moment in a session where I have had to say "we can't do that" because we were working on tape.

Yes. We have another appearance of Urge Overkill in this thread.

Well, you sort-of answered your own question there. A lot of editing means that there's something terribly wrong with the recording, and you're going through heroic steps to salvage it. I try never to let things get that far out of whack.

It is counter-productive to try to turn ka-kaa into gold.

Since editing is relatively quicker in the digital domain, a lot of digital-only engineers use editing as their default tool in every situation. I think that's profoundly lazy, and the equivalent of trying to build a house with just a hammer, pretending that everything is a nail. It is one of the earmarks of a hack. You could say "fish" instead.

I had no idea you worked with Ballydowse on anything. Wow. This band was excellent.

I registered just to post this. Now I'm going to continue read this superb thread...

Heh.

I saw UO live twice back in the nineties and both times I was completely shocked at how putrid they were. I mean, I'm no great shakes as a guitar player, but both times they were so out of whack that I was almost embarrassed for them. The first time was in the back of a bar in Iowa City so I thought maybe they just didnt give a damn, but then they sucked it up again for me at the Metro.

Guess it wasn't just a bad couple of nights, eh?

Hi Steve, I was invited to tag along to one of your poker nights a couple of months ago by a friend of mine (local musician), but I totally chickened out. I only play (very) casually and would be totally out of my league. My friend is extremely easy going, and thought it would be okay.

Should I accept the invitation next time?

Oh absolutely.

I enjoy the music of the Didjits, and I understand you did some recording for them. Which records did you work on, and were they a band whose music (or company) you enjoyed?

Have you heard Andy Falkous' new band Future of the Left?

who in your opinion did you need to work with the least? like, bands that you pretty much just plugged in and were done right quick.