“I’m really high on life right now, but it’s ok cause I can quit whenever I want.” This is just genius quote #1 out of the other 341290834128947 that make up the 30 minutes of Season 3 Episode 3 of Soft Focus. The blurb on the site about the TV show simply says “Ian Svenonius returns to America for another round of conversational jiu-jitsu with some of the shining lights of the US musical underground.” This episode’s sparring partner: Steve Albini. If you don’t know who he is you obviously never read this blog, but I’ll tell you anyway cause I like the way it’s written. Via @VBS.TV:
Steve Albini is responsible for fronting the most caustic and, depending on whether or not you have a sense of humor, either hilarious or upsetting bands of the mid- to late-80s (Big Black), that weird sort of late-80s to 90s spur period (Rapeman), and the 90s proper (Shellac), as well as producing more albums by more bands than we’re sure even he can keep track of. He’s also the only music writer who doesn’t make us want to drive a woodawl under the fingernails on each of our hands. If you haven’t read his notorious breakdown of exactly how major labels (and a lot of so-called indies) rip off their artists, Some Of Your Friends Are Probably Already This Fucked click that link and prepare to have your mind bummed.
Basically, this interview is better than that show on IFC where Lorne Michaels and Paul Simon interview each other and they show some unreleased performance of “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” (anyone know where I can find a video of that????).
But uh, seriously – Ian Svenonius and Steve Albini just shoot the shit about good music and related miscellany – but they manage to obscure it in such a way that if you aren’t really paying attention you’ll probably misunderstand the entire thing. Seriously. Read the comments (i.e. “Im not sure I am a big fan of Ian’s interview style. I don’t really want to hear what Steve Albini has to say about the economy. Im half way through the interview and I dont think he has even said the word “music”… I mean, come on.”)
Shut up, stupid commenting guy.
Dude, I just noticed that they did one with Dead Moon, too.
