Murder Talk Radio Ep 4 - The Problem with Steve Albini

[@ViktoriaEvans]

Peculiar that people upset by our coverage of Steve Albini's connection to two convicted child predators feel so entitled to abuse others...

[@ViktoriaEvans]

@vargvikernes5201 Facts aren't slander. We are not going to leave abusive comments up to appease abusive personalities. Why are you defending pedophiles? And why have you chosen to name your account after the neo nazi singer who stabbed someone?

[@DavidBusiness-wb2jo]

Who are the two child predators? Sotos wouldn't appear to be one..

[@bgmiller5]

Everyone should have a healthy skepticism of capitalism.

[@ViktoriaEvans]

Maybe you can join the Black Hammer organization: www.murderpm.com/p/black-in-the-ussr-the-black-hammer

[@spyowns]

I wonder if people will be disgusted by exploitative murder porn podcasts in 20 years.

[@ViktoriaEvans]

I wonder if someday you'll recognize the false equivalence between journalism and the production/promotion of child pornography.

[@gargantuk]

​@@ViktoriaEvans 'Journalism'!

[@ViktoriaEvans]

@@gargantuk Journalism - noun - the collection, preparation, and distribution of news and related commentary via print and electronic media.

[@BGNOLA]

That book Our Band Could be Your Life brings up Albini's edgelord stuff but leaves the pedo shit out; it's like mentioning it would've indited everybody in the scene

[@ViktoriaEvans]

The way that so many in the scene have responded to our coverage of this has been highly suspect and extremely disturbing. My biggest disappointment is that we were unable to develop this story further before his death. The proximity of these people to each other being random is highly unlikely. "One's backfire, three is gunplay."

[@gigachad2221-g4n]

Disliking capitalism doesnt necessarily translate to being a socialist. No human system is free of error. But thats a whole other issue.

[@ViktoriaEvans]

"Hardcore became increasingly hidebound to a single style of music, a single look, a single mentality, a single politics [anarcho communism]. Honestly, of them all, the politics was the part that I could get behind." - Steve Albini

[@JustMe-oo3wm]

Man, it's been such a bummer being a fan of Steve and his music, him dying so suddenly, going through this whole grieving process, and then finding all this out about him. I read that Big Black tour diary last night and was pretty disgusted. I knew he was an edgelord, and I'm not easily bothered by that kind of thing normally, but... that, whatever you wanna call it... was something else. Even apart from the whole Pure thing. This dude hated his fans, hated his audience, hated seemingly almost every other band in existence. Referred constantly to women only by their physical appearance and whether or not he'd fuck them. All the racist and sexist shit. But of course, the Sotos and bad comrade thing is by far the worst. I love, or used to love, Big Black and Steve, but this really just kinda ruins them for me. I doubt I could ever go back and listen to Atomizer without thinking about this and just never be able to really get into it again. And I actually believed him when he addressed his "edgelord shit". After all, people do grow and change. That is, until reading that tour diary and article, and then finding out he was still buddies with Sotos as recently as 2021. Now I see just how performative all that "owning up" was. No wonder he went all woke towards the end, probably to deflect. I didn't even know about the bad comrade thing until today. I hate to say this, but I have to wonder if Steve was ever a "customer" of his... because it sure is suspicious how quickly he made all that stuff on the forum disappear.

[@ViktoriaEvans]

For us, too... having a hard time separating "art from artist" after all this. Shellac actually just put out an album called "To All Trains" that was already in the works when he died and because of all this I can't bring myself to listen to it. Going over his history with a fine tooth comb was interesting; you mention him hating other artists. He engineered a few albums for Urge Overkill, who he started trashing after they became somewhat popular and stopped using his services in favor of Butch Vig. Nirvana did the same thing, but Steve never trashed them, presumably because they're rock royalty, whereas Urge Overkill are a safe target. In the same vein, he also never trashed Fugazi, who tried making the album In on the Kill Taker with Albini and hated the recordings so much they re-recorded every single song with someone else in another studio.

[@JustMe-oo3wm]

​@ViktoriaEvans Yeah, I really think in this instance I can no longer separate the art from the artist. I can be somewhat okay with it when the artist in question is just some asshole with a few unpopular opinions - which is who I thought Steve was until now. But that vile tour diary and all the child abuse shit and the absolute refusal by Steve to acknowledge or address any of it, or to answer for his 30-some year friendship with a literal pedophile... Um, yeah. That goes waaaaaay beyond just being an asshole or a douchey edgelord to me. I did listen to the new Shellac album after it came out before I learned of all this other sick shit. I was digging it, but I can no longer listen. I do know Steve said he wasn't a huge fan of Nirvana at first. If I recall correctly, he called them "REM with a fuzzbox". I don't recall him ever saying anything negative about Fugazi. I think I'll still be able to listen to and enjoy a lot of the albums he engineered - I would be bereft of almost all of my favorite albums if not - but as for Big Black or anything else he's fronted, nope. I can't ever enjoy it the same way any longer.

[@ViktoriaEvans]

Before he worked with them, yeah, I meant after. Speaking of rem, I also meant Scott Litt, not Vig. I always thought that was them taking a shot at Albini over the rem remark because Litt was rem's producer and despite Albini and Cobain both stating it was a label demand that the in Utero tracks be remixed, Kurt had absolute creative control in his contract. But he never said another negative thing about them as far as I ever saw.

[@ross7901]

'Cultural Marxism'🤣🤣

[@ViktoriaEvans]

@@ross7901 kzbin.info/www/bejne/g2qTn2yef714e7csi=suSZru4IoanF3y9x

[@ab8817]

I usually chalked up Albini's edgelord past as something that was typical of the time and a reaction to Reagan era conservatism - putting a mirror up to the ugly parts of human life and American society and using shock as an element in art. many groups did this during that time. however, the more Steve went performative woke (Bob Weston, his bandmate in Shellac, has done the same as well) in his later years, the more that had me questioning if there were more skeletons in his closet than typical 80s punk rock shock antics. his apologia tour in his last years, instead of simply explaining the context of the time and his actions, he instead fell on a politically aligned sword, sharpened with today's buzzwords for optics. the extreme overcorrection was suspicious. i suppose he needed to maintain that image to keep getting work from the music industry in its current prudish and puritanical state. but maybe there's more to it than that. not to mention he no longer was writing funny insults and throwing out jabs at contemporary bands, but instead making fun of bands older than him i.e. steely dan and rolling stones. easy targets.

[@ViktoriaEvans]

Absolutely. His over correction and jumping off one train to catch another came across as disingenuous. I agree that it seemed to be an attempt to save himself as people slowly began questioning his connections to people like Sotos. I wish he had responded to us when we asked him for a comment over a year ago... his silence on the subject was bizarre, too. It shouldn't be difficult to come out against pedophilia.

[@ab8817]

@@ViktoriaEvans that is strange he didn't respond AT ALL, considering not only his propensity to have a retort or defensive response comment ready at all times when pressed, but also in his later years he grew more open to answering anyone's email who had questions about anything (including Nirvana-related questions he had publicly answered thousands of times over) and agreeing to do interviews and podcasts with lots of people, including those with small audiences.

[@DeiNostri]

Sotos in my experience is for some reason interested in the worst parts of human nature and exploring it. In swedish magazine Soma he described once how he got normal reactions when seing stuff such as scat porn and that it made him feel sick watching it. Still he transcribed the conversations from various of his friend Jamie Gillis hard to find underground extreme porn and scat porn sitting for months to and end getting it right publishing these in his book "Pure Filth". Both Gillis and the co actors talk abuse to some degree and one scene does gets stopped and Gillis and the co-actor talks about her getting abused. In one part of the book one of the girls talk about things she wants to do with men and the reasons she is aroused by it, followed by some talk about sexual abuse and being abused if I remember it right, and it feels like (to some degree) that Gillis would enable her to do it and film her being abusive to a co-actor if he could. The book is really weird. It almost feel like he talks to himself (as Peter Sotos also said) and does these things as a compulsion to a degree than he actually enjoys it. To a certain degree it feels like Sotos has a drive and compulsion to explore and create this kind of material. When it comes to describing things like these im more for authors such as Dennis Cooper since it is not about real people and have a horror/drama/dreamlike and not exploring real material or real people (I find his books Closer and The Sluts sad, repulsive and sometimes funny). Adam Parfrey described his works as "Transcripts of horryfying embarrasing human degradation". I really think the possesion of Child Pornography is a major crime and that he was rightfully punished for it. I do know people that had experiences of sexual abuse as kids that buy and explore Peter Sotos work for various reasons. I don´t know, but I don´t think Sotos is a pedophile, but extremely interested in extreme and not okay material. By using these pictures in his magazine (I don´t think he used these pictures to arouse an audience) he made a great felony. I think his great interest in Andrea Dworkins material (he is a big Dworkin fan) is a bit odd. Sotos have been asked in various magazines about his sexual taste that he doesn´t want to discuss these things since they are private and talk about hanging out at gay bars every now and then thats the only true hint I´ve gotten to his sexuality.

[@ViktoriaEvans]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this.

[@professordrmao6321]

He was convicted in like 84

[@seanrichter4882]

I've lost faith in all of it. LOL. I don't agree with witch hunts and all the division here in the US but I'd argue most of his close associates knew who he was, what he said, and his connection to Sotos. They all conveniently don't address his weird CP comments and him being buddy buddy with Peter. Nirvana, Pixies, and the amount of people who worked with him - some of these people like to champion morality and give lectures on politics or w/e. Yet they keep that kind of company and don't hold him to the same standard. How convenient. They're all hypocrites at best and possibly just as depraved at worst.

[@ViktoriaEvans]

Well said.

[@seanrichter4882]

@@ViktoriaEvans The devil is everywhere in every institution even the "good guys". I'm not entirely sure how many good people are left on this ball of dirt. It's beyond me. What a freak show. I found myself being disillusioned with a lot of "posi" hardcore bands and bands in general. BANE (Bedard is trash look it up), Champion, EXPIRE and all their little lying friends. I recently got banned from Reddit for pointing out that Pat Flynn from Have Heart was caught "liking" creepy photos of girls who probably aren't of age on Aaron Bedard's Insta with proof lol. Flynn is currently waxing poetic at shows about g(U)n laws and violence. He's also a teacher. It means absolutely nothing to me. Until everybody starts holding each other accountable. The entire scene is now espousing inclusivity, protecting women and anti racism but it's still a tribalistic boys club. Which is great on paper minus the tribalism but once one of their own is on the wrong side of history/caught up they show their true colors. I don't believe any of it. This kind of stuff will continue to happen everywhere and somebody might get hurt and unless you're part of the club you wont be believed and probably ridiculed. Sorry for yappin' but it's all so pathetic. I take comfort in the fact that nothing of value is being lost. Some of it is good music and I'll still listen but nah man. This aint it. /Rant

[@rustyshackleford3514]

You have a unique voice. I like it!

[@ViktoriaEvans]

Thank you!

[@kingpriapatius5832]

I love his productions, but, honestly I am shocked

[@ViktoriaEvans]

@@kingpriapatius5832 I was a big fan too, it's really disappointing.

[@06mrselfdestruct]

I want to see Steve's web history

[@ViktoriaEvans]

Same! Seeing his search history could potentially help make connections & fill in blanks.

[@NamesAreNotRelevant]

I'm sorry for any artist(s) who worked with him, got presented with another mask and now feel somewhat betrayed after the fact. Thank god that In Utero is Nirvana's wackest record and I don't ever have to go back to it; his involvement in recording "Rape Me", now after reading that Big Black tour diary sh*t, makes me never wanna listen to it again.

[@starshineraiser6729]

Never liked this dude. Can’t stand Commies so no wonder. I love his work on InUtero and he worked with lots of Indie Rock bands that I love, like Thrush Hermit. Anyway… daydreaming about that Bull in the Heather video.

[@ViktoriaEvans]

We both feel the same way about Albini. His deep influence on the punk, alternative, and indie rock scenes is unquestionable, but that work is undermined by his questionable performative political pandering, and even more so by his connection to and apparent cover for not one but two convicted child predators.