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ZEROZEROZERO

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Mogwai Scotland, UK

Mogwai are a Scottish rock band, formed in 1995 in Glasgow. The band consists of Stuart Braithwaite (guitar, vocals), Barry Burns (guitar, piano, synthesizer, vocals), Dominic Aitchison (bass guitar), and Martin Bulloch (drums).

• mogwai.scot
• Jun 8 Royal Hospital Kilmainham Dublin, Ireland
• Jun 28 Middenvijver Antwerp, Belgium
• Jun 29 Queen's Park Recreation Ground Glasgow, UK
• Jun 29 Queens Park Glasgow Glasgow, UK
• Jul 13 Teatro Panoramica Templi Agrigento, Italy
• Jul 15 Sequoie Music Park Bologna, Italy
• Aug 14 Fernhill Farm Compton Martin, UK

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Zerozerozero Mogwai 8 May 2020

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For every mood

Deezer Originals

Named after the furry creature in the 1984 film Gremlins , Scottish post-rockers Mogwai acted as surly, outsiders to the mid-1990s Brit-pop craze with their sprawling soundscapes and experimental guitar noise. Formed in Glasgow in 1995 by guitarist Dominic Aitchison, singer and guitarist Stuart Braithwaite, and drummer Martin Bulloch, the trio added John Cummings, a third guitarist, before making their live debut. They quickly established themselves as cult heroes with 1997’s Mogwai Young Team and 1999’s Come On Die Young . Favourites of Radio 1 DJ John Peel, the band recruited Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals, Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol and David Pajo of Slint to provide vocals on third album, 2001’s Rock Action before creating the soundtrack to Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (2006), an art-house film of French footballer Zinedine Zindane. The atmospheric instrumentals of 2007’s The Hawk Is Howling and the guttural chaos of 2010’s Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will inspired the likes of Broken Social Scene, Metronomy and Foals, and solidified Mogwai as a keystone of British experimental rock. Nearly 20 years into their career, 2014’s Rave Tapes became their first album to crack the top 10 in the UK, and 2017’s Every Country’s Sun topped it by hitting number 6. Four years passed before the release of 2021’s As the Love Continues .

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8 Tracks: What was the Steve Albini sound? Almost everything

The recording engineer left an indelible mark on how we hear music.

Lars Gotrich

Hazel Cills

Sheldon Pearce

Artists like Superchunk, Neurosis, Pixies, Low, Mogwai and Joanna Newsom came to recording engineer Steve Albini when they had something righteous or defiant to proclaim. Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty hide caption

Artists like Superchunk, Neurosis, Pixies, Low, Mogwai and Joanna Newsom came to recording engineer Steve Albini when they had something righteous or defiant to proclaim.

8 Tracks is your antidote to the algorithm. Each week, NPR Music producer Lars Gotrich, with the help of his colleagues, makes connections between sounds across time.

The same three records have led pretty much every obituary for Steve Albini , including my own . And how could they not? Nirvana 's In Utero is a gripping maelstrom of vomitous punk. Pixies ' Surfer Rosa swerves from sweet to sinister in an instant. PJ Harvey 's Rid of Me simmers just as much as it seethes. Albini understood that, as a recording engineer, a moment made all the difference — his job was not only to capture a ring of feedback or the decay of a drum, but, more crucially, the integrity and feeling of that artistic choice. If an artist was willing to confront their truths, Albini was ready to take them into the gaping maw.

Even though I knew and even loved these records — and was later introduced to his bands Big Black and Shellac — the first time I really registered Albini as a distinct studio presence was on Low 's Things We Lost in the Fire. In 2001, the trio was slowly stepping out its self-imposed slowcore parameters; even songs that "rocked out" (see: "Dinosaur Act") played with pace as an intensifying experience. Perhaps Albini could see this transition taking shape but knew there was still more to explore.

"In Metal," in particular, presents the complicated and delicate balance the band was pursuing. What has always set this song apart was the care put into the sound of this sensitive (and secretive) impulse: to preserve the wonder of an infant child by, in this case, casting them in metal. Despite his reputation as a crank — not unearned, yet those whom he loved knew they were loved by him — Albini prized earnestness and vulnerability in art, especially the thoughts and emotions too shocking to utter. Somewhat against type, Albini gives Parker's heavenly voice a brassy weight; her floor toms, too, boom like looming thunder. Sparhawk's acoustic guitar strums are mixed equally with the squeaks of their baby. The lengthy outro overwhelms their voices with a sweet cacophony, as if to give in to the unknown chaos that awaits parenthood.

8 Tracks: No beef, just a Madlib beat

Steve Albini, iconoclastic rock musician and engineer, dies at 61

Albini didn't so much have a signature sound — though the noise-rock bands who entered Electrical Audio certainly didn't mind his pedigree of gnarliness — but a methodology built on conversations with the artist. No preconceptions, just ears tuned to the experience — the mics and mixes would follow. That's why he was sought out by Nirvana, sure, but also Slint , Man or Astro-Man?, Silkworm, Danielson , Jawbreaker , Nina Nastasia , Sunn O))) and The Breeders — all rock bands, but with different goals and intentions.

So for this edition of 8 Tracks , I asked my colleagues to share their favorite Steve Albini recordings — some of them will be familiar, some are deep cuts, all of them sound incredible. If you're a studio nerd (or want to be) and have not heeded Albini's knowledge, there are several sources, but his Electrical Audio How-To series on YouTube is a great place to start.

(Oh, and because Albini literally made thousands of records, it's impossible to capture to his entire scope, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention: The first four albums by The Jesus Lizard are completely unhinged, yet confident in their instability. There's never been a more synchronous studio match for Steve Albini. You should listen to the first four albums by The Jesus Lizard.)

Pixies, "Cactus" (1988)

Is it weird to say a song conjures the smell of burning hair? The feeling of stinging skin? When I was 24, I lived in San Francisco in a shared apartment with a claustrophobic living room and an illegal addition that shot out of the roof like a weird eruption. I slept in that strange space. I was lonely, my stomach full of hunger. I became obsessed with the Pixies' Surfer Rosa ; it smelled like a burn to me. "Cactus," a brief, weird shout into the void that might speak for a stalker or just someone with an extra-broken heart, was my favorite track. Its dynamics were unruly. Black Francis's choked vocals never fully surfaced; David Lovering's drums hit too hard. "Will you take off your dress and send it to me?" I thank Steve Albini for building a space within that song that had no air and yet infinitely extended, helping the Pixies reach a sound that sounded so dirty, so much like a body hurting, a heart hurting itself. —Ann Powers

Superchunk, "Throwing Things" (1991)

Steve Albini's name doesn't appear in the credits for Superchunk 's sophomore album No Pocky for Kitty , but his touch as a producer (or "recordist," whatever the man wanted) is unmistakable. The band's 1990 debut, an admirably bratty collection of pop-edged punk rock, had this constrained quality — the shouting vocals and drum kicks and guitars thrash into each other with no rest, tightening the space of each song like a mosh pit of drunk college kids closing in on you. But on No Pocky for Kitty , Albini did what he did best: He took the rising band's raw talent and honed their pogo-ready sound without muzzling it, transforming Superchunk's brash energy into big, focused, methodical power.

Nowhere do I hear that more than on its closing track, "Throwing Things." The song drags itself along for the first minute and a half, with Mac McCaughan's wearily singing, "I'm blowing up the street / Like a leaf." But there are flashes of resilience — "I'm starting to climb / Well I'm starting on my knees" — and with each utterance of that line so does the music, the song raging awake with gnarly drags of electric guitar and tight drumming so loud I feel like it could crack my skull. The last, pummeling minute of No Pocky for Kitty plays like the finale of a fireworks display, the blown-out sound of each member in the band throwing everything into playing, and Albini recording music that clearly reflects that live intensity on track. "He also made us sound huge, much bigger than we were in real life," McCaughan told Rolling Stone in a tribute to Albini. On "Throwing Things," and so many other records, Albini made an indie-rock band sound like an act fit for a football stadium. —Hazel Cills

Neurosis, "Under the Surface" (1999)

Albini made lasting partnerships: Will Oldham , Don Caballero and The Jesus Lizard were all repeat customers. Perhaps one of Albini's most enriching studio relationships was with the metal band Neurosis : They made seven albums together, starting with 1999's Times of Grace . "I guess what I like about their music is that it is as rich and as complex as the best," Albini told Tape Op in 2001, "and emotional music without having to do it in the same register of everyone else." That bears out in "Under the Surface," which explores what he described as "the subtleties within that intensity": For the first four minutes, polyrhythmic pummeling drives melodically devastating riffs, then drops out into a textured landscape of guitar sustain and low-end synths. That suspense requires a dynamic mix that doesn't compress the moment, but sits inside that reflection, especially as the band comes roaring back. —Lars Gotrich

Pinebender, "There's a Bag of Weights in the Back of My Car" (2000)

Albini earned his most eye-popping credits at Pachyderm Studio in Minnesota (PJ Harvey, Nirvana), but his home was Chicago, and his unadorned, "what you see is what you hear" approach helped define the region's skeletal sound in the 1990s. So let's go with the most Chicago song I know: Pinebender's post-rock epic "There's A Bag Of Weights In The Back Of My Car." The trio of Matt Clark (guitar), Chris Hansen (more guitar) and Stephen Howard (drums) recorded this 12-minute slow burn with Albini in February 1999 at Electrical Audio along with the rest of their debut album, Things Are About To Get Weird . –Otis Hart

Shannon Wright, "Hinterland" (2001)

In the early 2000s, Shannon Wright was something of a torch balladeer, but an experimental one at that. Perhaps that's what made Albini an oddly perfect fit. She made 2001's Dyed in the Wool with both Albini and Andy Baker, but the hauntingly intense sound of "Hinterland" can only belong to one engineer. First, there's the knotty drum work of Brian Teasley (Man or Astro-Man?) — a freakishly full frontal presence that punctures a large, reverberant room. Wright's piano playing is equally tangled, but just as percussive, her voice howling through briars. And that's it: drums, piano, voice. So spare, yet so full of fight and spite. —Lars Gotrich

Mogwai, "My Father My King" (2001)

As the '90s ended and the new millennium began, Albini's role in the scene started to shift from cattle-prod-in-the-major-label-system's-behind to something more like an oracle for certain sectors of the underground. Bands (like Bedhead, Low, Nina Nastasia and Jim White, Edith Frost, Don Caballero, the Breeders for its first album in a decade, Mclusky and Electrelane two times apiece ... so many more, obviously) with something righteous or defiant to proclaim sought him out as a provider of a certain truth as the industry, starting to slip from its millennial commercial peak, was still in heavy denial.

The miracle of the recordings he made during this half-decade run is their fluidity. Mogwai, like their chosen conduit, could be scabrous, and ready for a fight . But "My Father My King , "a 20-minute-long instrumental track based on a Jewish prayer melody that the group recorded with Albini in London in August of 2001, undulates from delicate to distorted multiple times. It sounds like something monumental shedding its skin: a revelation, an ugly catharsis. There's no question why it became Mogwai's signature song live. Maybe they knew it would be, and needed a guide who would help them witness the rough beast as it lurched into view, and then out again. As with so many of us, they were drawn to him in search of something true. —Jacob Ganz

Songs: Ohia, "Hold On Magnolia" (2003)

The adjective "uncompromising" stuck to Steve Albini throughout his career, implying a complex web of characteristics: a specific way of being a fussy, difficult stickler while also maintaining unwavering integrity. But Albini's north star wasn't so much "the way things ought to be" as "the way the artist wants them to be." He had an aesthetic, but it mostly boiled down to bestowing — or at least enabling — a process as free from outside interference as the music industry allowed.

Jason Molina , who released a string of harrowing and brilliant solo records under the name Songs: Ohia before forming the band Magnolia Electric Co., was uncompromising in ways Albini understood perfectly . When he recorded the project that morphed Songs: Ohia into a full-band enterprise, he enlisted Albini to assist him in translating his sparse, anguished solo sound into one that felt gnarly, epic and fleshed out, Crazy Horse-style. The resulting album housed some of Molina's best work, culminating in the grandeur and grace of what became one of Molina's signature songs, "Hold On Magnolia." —Stephen Thompson

Joanna Newsom, "Monkey & Bear" (2006)

If there is a more whimsical song than "Monkey & Bear," I haven't found it. I can't imagine I ever will. Just one of the epics from Joanna Newsom 's wondrous 2006 album, Ys , it follows anthropomorphic characters through the lore of the constellation Ursa Major with Albini recording Newsom's voice and harp, in a bit of a departure from the guitar-rock world he'd been capturing before. To get the fullness and intimacy of her unorthodox playing style, which he once described as more of a piano idiom than a harp one, he set up additional microphones right next to the strings themselves to pull more detail from the plucks. Throughout the song's nine minutes and 29 seconds of winding storytelling you get a real sense of the instrument's majesty and the physicality it takes to play it, Newsom's voice overlayed like a canopy atop a meticulous orchestral marvel. The force of that combination transports such picturesque music from the ren faire to a realm all its own. —Sheldon Pearce

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Take Me Somewhere Nice: A Tribute to Mogwai

One of the pleasing discoveries is to realize how well the originals have aged.  The initial explosion of “Like Herod” is just as powerful as it was back then, and at 11:40, it remains one of Mogwai’s longest tracks.   Our Sense of Time Is Failing ‘s version, a minute shorter, is saved for the finale.  As expected, the mastering sounds more modern, but the sense of dynamic contrast is intact, enhanced by some descents into silence and a new set of electronics.   The Glass Pavilion  covers “Summer,” a swift entry from the same album.  This time the track is one minute longer, given a bit more space to breathe, the more bombastic portions removed, close to the  Ten Rapid  version.  That collection includes some of the band’s earliest works, including “Helicon 1,” which sits in the opening spot here, courtesy of  Red Light Skyscraper .  The original, a distillation of post-rock’s loud-quiet-loud sound, ends in a long quiet, not found in the new half-length take.

Come On Die Young  surfaced at the cusp of the millennium and.solidified the band’s reputation before Y2K.  “Ex Cowboy” contains a good deal of complexity, its parts battling before forming a whole;  Dan McKeown  exaggerates these contrasts with drum machine.   Rock Action  sees no love on the compilation, but the love returns with “Kids Will Be Skeletons,” from 2003’s  Happy Songs for Happy People.   It is indeed a happy-sounding song, despite its title, with a touch of influence from The Cure, preserved by The Wolf of Wyndham  in one of the collection’s most reverent versions.

By 2006, Mogwai was as close to a household name as post-rock bands ever get, and had grown more electronic, as demonstrated by the vocoder of “Acid Food,” covered here by Heirloom , beats and glockenspiel intact, sounding even more lo-fi than it did at first.  2008’s  The Hawk Is Howling  is represented with two tracks, “Batcat” and “Danphe and the Brain,” initially back-to-back but now separated by seven tracks.  “Batcat” in particular made a huge impact when it dropped, presenting an all-out rock sound, no drum machine in sight.   Herd of Elk  preserves the excitement, rocking as hard as they can.  The subtler “Danphe and the Brain” begins with chimes, sets a steady, relaxed pace, but increases the density to produce an enveloping effect.   Grizzy Cogs  tones it down at the start, but rises to a busier middle, holding the chimes back for greater impact.

Skipping ahead to 2011,  Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will  was the latest comeback album from the band that never left.  Filled with rocking cuts, the album continued to cement the band’s legacy, and numerous tracks might have been covered here; the choice was “San Pedro,” short and punchy and the right length for a 45.   Uppergaff  adds a voiceover and quickens the pace, adding a twist to the ending as well.

Now we enter the ACL  era with the title track from 2017’s  Every Country’s Sun , initially the album’s concluding piece.  Dislodged from that prime spot, it has less of an impact, but  Smile Tribe  keeps it fuzzy, languid and slow.  Some fans overlooked  ZEROZEROZERO , but not  AtonalitA , who cover the OST’s opening track “Visit Me,” making the spooky even spookier, lengthening the piano-led piece with an emphasis on a sweet violin line.  Finally, last year’s  As the Love Continues  is represented by “To the Bin, My Friend, Tonight We Vacate Earth” and “Richie Sacramento,” which one might say is a bit too early, but helps to contribute a sense of completion.   Non Somnia  offers the former, faithful down to the opening sample, while  Million Moons  borrows a vocalist for one of the set’s two vocal tracks.  The slower pace of the new version serves it well, distinguishing it from the original while spotlighting the melancholy nature of the composition.

While many of these versions open new windows to the originals, none replaces their quality.  But that’s the beauty of tribute albums; they extend the life of tracks while reminding us why they are worth covering in the first place.  As a bonus, all proceeds benefit The Wildlife Trust, as chosen by Mogwai.  Since Mogwai is still active, these bands are not only paying tribute to the past, but to the present.  We’re more confident than ever that hardcore will never die .   (Richard Allen)

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Screen Rant

Gremlins: secrets of the mogwai stars on portraying the wing family.

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Jurassic World: Chaos Theory Producers On Darker, More Mature New Story After Camp Cretaceous

Jonathan frakes on directing his final episode of star trek: discovery, kung fu panda 4 director mike mitchell shares his vision for the future of the franchise.

The world of Gremlins is finally being revisited with the upcoming animated series Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai . This prequel series tells the story of a young Sam Wing and his first meeting with the adorable pop culture icon Gizmo. The series was created by Tze Chun and was executive produced by Joe Dante, the director of the original Gremlins films, and Steven Spielberg.

Although the series’ primary focus is on the young Sam Wing and his companions, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai has enlisted top-their talent to portray the rest of the Wing family. Ming-Na Wen, BD Wong, and James Hong portray Fong Wing, Hon Wing, and Grandpa, respectively, and bring all the life and depth to their characters that one would expect given each actor’s body of work. While Wen, Wong, and Hong have worked together in various combinations over the years, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai marks the first time the trio has appeared in the same project since 1998’s Mulan .

Related: The Original Gremlins Movie Was Almost Darker (& Had Bigger Deaths)

Ming-Na Wen, BD Wong, and James Hong spoke with Screen Rant about lending their talents to Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai

Ming-Na Wen, BD Wong & James Hong on Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai

Screen Rant: Ming-Na and BD, something I love about this is that you both played people at the start of a relationship years ago in Mulan , and now you're playing an actual married couple. How is it to explore this [side of the] dynamic with each other?

BD Wong: Oh, I like that. That's an interesting way of putting it. It's great. You try not to repeat yourself, and you find yourself in different configurations of different relationships, and if you know an actor, you don't want to do the same thing you did before. It is great to say "Hey, now we're a seasoned old couple, and we have a kid, and we are strict." That's what our main purpose is. And that's fun. [To Ming-Na] Don't you think? Did you think of it that way? I like that question. We were like ingénues before. Ming-Na Wen: Oh, we were. BD Wong: And now we're just harried and old and stressed out. Ming-Na Wen: Is It art imitating life, or life imitating art? BD Wong: Exactly. Ming-Na Wen: We were just talking about our kids earlier today. My son's graduating from high school, his is graduating from college, [and] I have one kid that's already graduated. We are old hands at being parents, and it's just great that we could lend that to these characters, that experience and energy, in how we say lines. I always love working with BD. Even though we're not in the same room, there's just something about knowing that he's the voice and that there's going to be instant chemistry because we have so much history together. James Hong: All of that is wonderful. The camaraderie is the key, and love is the key to everything. Even in the scene when Grandpa walks Sam to wherever they were going, I can picture myself. My favorite uncle was the only one in Minneapolis that cared enough for me to take little James Hong to the Minnesota fair, and it was just like that [scene], walking in the fair. He's telling me this and that about the fair. In a sense, none of the other uncles really cared for me that much, but [this uncle] was my savior in a sense because he taught me how to have fun. That's life, and that's the way it is. In this story, Grandpa's trying to teach Sam certain things. Of course, he doesn't listen to everything, but [from] what he gathers he realizes that Grandpa really knew what he was talking about, because he's right into the culture of China. How can you miss that if the person from that era gives you the facts? The fact that he loves Grandpa; that's the main thing. Ming-Na Wen: We all love Grandpa. BD Wong: We all love Grandpa.

James, you've done so much amazing voice work in so many different projects, and your voices are always so full of life and so fun. Do you ever feel like you get to have more fun doing voices than being on screen?

James Hong: That's a good question. I think as everybody else has said, voice, in a sense, [is] a different art. It's a different creature. If it isn't right, it's not like in the movies [where] you just complete the scene and then quit. In voice, you just do it once, and if not right, or correct, it didn't cost any money. I don't know about the other actors, but I just tell the director, "I'll do it three times, seeing the picture and see which one you like." Let me deliver the line, but let him choose which one fits the picture. As an actor, you just go and fish all the emotions you have and throw it onto that line. You can do that [in animation], but if it's in a movie like in Chinatown , you just better deliver it the way it should be the first time around because that's the way (Roman) Polanski wants things; he wants exactly what he likes. In voiceover, you can do many things with your voices. Ming-Na Wen: And then it's crazy because then the director and the producers spend hours going through the lines and jigsaw puzzling it together. And a lot of times they'll be like, "I like-- BD Wong: "--this word of this--" Ming-Na Wen: They are so good at making those decisions. I can't decide "Do I want to have a latte, or do I want to have an Americano?" But they're really really good at making decisions.

About Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai

“Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai” takes viewers back to 1920s Shanghai where the Wing family first meets the young Mogwai called Gizmo (AJ LoCascio). Voiced by Izaac Wang, Sam Wing (future shop owner Mr. Wing in the 1984 “Gremlins” film) accepts the dangerous task to take Gizmo home and embarks on a journey through the Chinese countryside. Sam and Gizmo are joined by a teenage street thief named Elle (Gabrielle Nevaeh), and together, they encounter—and sometimes battle—colorful monsters and spirits from Chinese folklore.

Check out our other Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai interviews here:

• Izaac Wang, AJ LoCasio, and Gabrielle Nevaeh
• Tze Chun, Brendan Hay, and Joe Dante

Next: Every Easter Egg In Gremlins

Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai premieres May 23rd on Max.

• Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai (2023)

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

‘He’d offset the intensity by setting his feet on fire’: PJ Harvey, Mogwai and more on Steve Albini

Artists from the Wedding Present to Sunn O))) and Jon Spencer recall a kind yet acerbic genius who was a true champion of artists’ intentions – and a fiend for chocolate Hobnobs

I wanted to work with Steve from the moment I heard Surfer Rosa by Pixies. I had never heard anything as powerfully moving, both emotionally and sonically, and knew I wanted to hear my songs within that sound – a sound so alive, it was as if you were there in the room while the blaze of emotion was taking place.

Steve spent the first day of our recording session pacing and measuring the live room at Pachyderm [studio in Minnesota]. He would stand and look at the room a long time from different positions, intermittently clapping his hands. The band and I came and went, but Steve stayed from dawn till the late evening, absorbing and feeling the “shape” of the room, and learning what it could give him. I think we knew instinctively to leave Steve alone in the space to find what he was looking for.

He re-tuned Rob [Ellis]’s drum kit so it would be enhanced by the room and sing with it. He placed microphones in carefully measured positions to catch and open as sound met them at certain volumes. He set up our amps and guitars in the places he knew best for the room and the types of players we were.

He was driven. Driven to explore and learn from sound and space, but also mysteriously aligned with it in a way I didn’t quite understand, but knew to respect and try to learn from. He was an alchemist: patient, methodical, sensitive. Ready to capture the moment when it came. Work was hard and long as we all reached for something he knew would appear, and it did.

This intensity was offset by pauses when Steve might set his feet on fire. He was a funny man as well as being kind, intelligent and charming. I was drawn to him and his mystery, and my sadness at his death makes me realise how much I valued and loved this man. I feel lucky to have walked alongside him for a short while on this earth.

Bob Bert, Pussy Galore and Sonic Youth

Pussy Galore was one of the first bands that Steve recorded. It was 1987 and we were working on the album Right Now! I was playing a drum kit half constructed from a junkyard. The snare was two metal plates wired together on a snare drum shell. He couldn’t get a good sound out of it, so he brought out an S&M cock ring and wired it to the top to create a much better rattle and it remained there throughout the band’s existence. Albini’s cock ring travelled the world with me.

He stayed with me at my apartment in Hoboken, New Jersey, two different times for a week – I spent a lot of time with him, hearing about his obsessions like billiards and his favourite candy: Skittles. He was a one-of-a-kind personality, and could get a drum sound like no one else on the planet.

Gavin Rossdale, Bush

I loved Fugazi and Jesus Lizard, Slint records, and the whole Touch and Go [label]. Everything he’d done – so many roads led back to him. Just going to meet him was a bit of a thrill.

We went off first to the countryside [to record 1996 album Razorblade Suitcase], this very fancy recording studio owned by Trevor Horn, called Hook End. Being down there with him and spending time with him in country pubs, where he’d drink half a cider slowly, was really fun. But we really got going when we went to Abbey Road.

He was not big into overdubs. I’d be like: “I meant this harmony. Can I do it?” He goes: “All right, do it – if it was compositionally intended.” “Totally, Steve, of course it was.” I sang it, and later I looked at the track sheet – and it’s got “pointless harmony” written on it. He did call Swallowed – which was the only hit I had in England – the only turkey on the record. He didn’t want me to do the quiet-loud thing. But then people in my management heard the song and were like: “Ooh, it’s catchy.” And thank God for that, or else I never would’ve had a hit in England.

I hadn’t been made part of any gang at that point; I was sort of ostracised. So it felt really good to hang out with him, hang out with Todd [Trainer], hang out with Bob [Weston, both of Shellac], be accepted by them as a peers. Steve’s a wonderful cook; he was incredibly funny, incredibly cutting, and everything you’d want him to be. Most people are sort of disappointing, potentially, when you meet them – especially someone with that sort of history behind them – so it’s really refreshing when they’re just as acerbic as you thought [laughs]. Just as opinionated.

We had a No 1 record in America – no one can take that away from us. And more importantly, a friendship was born. It never wavered.

Jami Morgan, Code Orange

Our time with Steve [for 2023 album The Above] was one of our favourite recording experiences ever. He was a sweet man, who spent as much time making us “fluffy coffees” as he did moving mics around his self-constructed guitar music paradise. A genius of sound and an unrestricted spirit. Someone who showed up to work every single day, tools in hand. He told us amazing stories of times he, mostly inadvertently, made choices and walked paths most wouldn’t. When I asked him: “Steve, why the hell are you wearing a garbage man suit?” he replied: “Here, I’m just a utility worker.”

Jon Spencer

Steve taught me so much about the recording studio and making records – things like getting sounds on to tape, mixing, mastering, packaging design, and manufacturing and distribution. But he also taught me how to run a band: booking shows, promoting your shows and records, reading a contract, navigating a deal. All DIY!

He showed me the recording studio could be approached in the same way as a guitar or any other instrument. Do you know how to play it? Who cares. Do you have something to express? Go for it! What’s most important is the band and the record you want to make. You could ignore “rules” or “the correct way”. In fact, almost nothing was wrong or off-limits, which was very empowering. However, Steve totally knew how to work in the studio the “correct” way. He was an excellent engineer and extremely knowledgable, particularly in microphone selection and placement.

Julia Cafritz, Pussy Galore

Jon [Spencer] and I were such incredibly devoted Big Black fans. That band was so powerful and sonically interesting. And so we weren’t thinking of, “Steve Albini, the recording studio engineer.” We were really drawn to him by the sheer talent that we saw in what we thought of as his main gig. I had a very strong, visceral impression, both of his guitar playing and his personality. It was so explosive. He was such a live wire. He was clearly bristling with intelligence. And, like Pussy Galore, really transgressive in that dumb, stupid way that young punk rockers were, when you want to take down society, so you say the most horrible thing.

When we arrived in Chicago to record with him, I was struck that he was a bundle of contradictions. But maybe that’s wrong – because maybe it’s just all the natural contradictions that somebody with such a strong personality and worldview and artistic sensibility has. Like all of this is part of the stew that is Steve Albini.

We met him at his domicile at the time, and he’s in the back yard, bleaching glass bottles, because he was about to embark on bottling his own root beer. Meticulously bleaching them – rinsing them, wiping them with a little cloth at the edge of his apron to keep the bleach off his already-bleached jeans, and then placing them in crates. And I was just like: “Oh my God. What a nerd!” [laughs] But the thing is, I was a nerd. I didn’t drink, I didn’t to drugs; he didn’t drink, he didn’t do drugs. And yet we had these outsize, really hardcore personalities.

He brought his intensity – that intensity of focus, that gaze, that meticulousness, that sort of doctrinaire way of being and approaching life – to every endeavour. You might think that somebody like that would not necessarily be the best collaborator in the studio. But it was really fun.

We recorded a song [Pussy Stomp from the album Right Now], and Jon wasn’t happy with the recording. But he was happy with the way it sounded when we played it in our van, which had much shittier speakers. We ran cables all the way out of the studio into the back alley, where Jon turned on the van, put the cassette in, and then blasted the music. And Steve recorded the sound of that track with two mics coming out of the stereo in the van. To me, that was everything a studio experience was supposed to be. It was creative, rigorously intellectual in its own way; it was fun. To me, that’s everything you need to know about Steve right there: really game and really excited by other people’s ideas.

He wisely grew out of a lot of the sort of dumb shit that we all do when we’re young. But then he replaced it with really smart shit. He was an extraordinary human being in terms of sheer intelligence and the power of how he would focus that. Everything was quick. And I knew him when it was all brutal. What’s interesting to me is that as he grew older and softer, he didn’t lose any of that edge. It just was put to better use.

Laura Jane Grace

I was of that age that when Nirvana’s Nevermind came out, it absolutely blew me away, and in equal impact was In Utero. I’ve been fortunate – and made a point of it with my career – to work with as many people within that circle, or who are a part of that band, as possible. In 2020, I finally got the chance to make a record with Steve.

A true testament to him is just how easy that process was. I literally called on the phone and booked studio time, you know? It was both of us walking around in face masks and keeping distance – this surreal, science fiction-type experience, especially Steve with his coveralls.

The record I made with him [Stay Alive] is all live takes. There was only one edit, and I specifically wanted the edit made just so I could watch him edit tape. I hope people realise what a loss that is, as far as his knowledge of analogue recording and how few people have that any more. To watch someone edit tape with a razor blade and Scotch tape was incredible. And the speed with which he moved – that was like artistry.

His approach in a lot of ways [was] first take, best take. And every take after that, you’re losing energy and focus, and it’s getting diluted. If I needed more than two times through the song, I could see he lost interest immediately [laughs]. So it was a little bit of pressure. But I knew that going into it and I practised as much as I could because I respected that approach. I wanted to do it his way.

Usually you finish making a record, there’s a chain of emails and the payment’s worked out in the back and forth between managers or label people. Steve had all my master tapes and handed them to me. Then I gave him the money and we shook hands, and that was it. It was everything I wanted out of it. Refusing to take points [a percentage cut of royalties for the producer] on a record – that’s unheard of these days. And that if there isn’t someone like Steve there calling bullshit on it, who’s going to be doing that? And him wanting to be basically like a plumber – I really respect that. He woke up every morning and he made records.

Jason Narducy

There was a reason why Steve insisted on being called an engineer and not a producer. He was such a master at getting sounds, and he didn’t really want to do the other stuff. I mean, occasionally I would hear him say: “Well, this part could use a little decoration.” But he was very unspecific. If you were a really good band that practised a lot and had great songs, he could make you sound incredible. I was at his studio Electrical Audio in Chicago two weeks ago, and I went down to sing vocals. In comes Steve Albini carrying guitars and amps – 61-year-old Steve Albini helping a band load in, how about that? And as I’m singing, with the guitars in hand, he starts dancing in the room. He was so playful. I had a hard time not laughing, but I did get the vocal take. He asked if his dancing had helped my performance. I was like: “How could it not?”

He could deep dive on audio science in a way that I just could not keep up with – one morning I got to the studio and he was sending an angry email to a tape manufacturer from France, going into great detail. He had this unique level of expertise. So many people in his position would have two people doing the heavy lifting for him, and that was never the case. It was just Steve and his jumpsuit, his doing all the cables, all the mics. And he liked that. It’s very blue-collar Chicago.

Andrew Falkous, Mclusky

When we worked with Steve on our second album Mclusky Do Dallas 20 years ago, I didn’t really know who he was, except that he’d produced In Utero. I’ve never been a music historian; I came to music via arena bands. I didn’t have any expectations, apart from knowing that his whole general aesthetic was recording live – overdubs were for pussies. On first meeting, he was obviously a very intelligent person, and the whole process turned out to be a dream.

We got to Electrical Audio, and you’re instantly aware this is a facility set up for bands to record, which a lot of studios aren’t necessarily. Obviously, it’s in America, so it fucking stinks of coffee. Technically, the guy knew what he was doing, to say the least. But his real trick was creating the environment in which you’re going to give the best performance of that song. Albini provided the facility, the template, so the artist can be the artist, so the personality can be captured by his microphones.

We stayed in the dorm rooms at Electrical – you wake up and you’re there, you’re consumed by it. The first day, we started at noon and ended at midnight. By the end, we were at it until seven in the morning. The legend was that Steve worked 364 days a year, and I’m sure that’s an exaggeration. But the experience of intense collaboration with him, pulling together for a common cause … when it’s going well, there’s nothing like it.

He had a regard for us as human beings. He was perfectly happy for us to make him watch Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace with us. It was like hanging out with a friend who also had the keys to the building. Obviously, the personality of “Steve Albini” got involved; how could it not? We recorded She Will Bring You Only Happiness, I did a vocal, and Steve said: “OK, that’s a wrap.” And I said, there’s actually a harmony vocal to go with the lead vocal. “Nah, doesn’t need it.” But I’ve already demoed it, it sounds great, we’re gonna do it. And he said, “It’s your record.” So his aesthetic would push its way through, make its case – but ultimately he knew it was your record.

Mclusky Do Dallas sounds like we sounded as a band, for better or worse, and what leaps from the record is so much energy that you really feel like you’re there. And that’s because of Steve’s understanding of the scientific principles of where to place a microphone, but also because he had empathy, he knew how to listen to a band.

Stuart Braithwaite, Mogwai

We only recorded one song with Steve, but it was a very long and very involved song. My Father My King was a Jewish hymn that Arthur Baker had wanted us to record for an album he never finished. We’d been playing it live for years, and it was the big highlight of our set, so we wanted to finally record it: live, together, in a studio, and have it sound good. So Steve was the natural choice.

He was a very pleasant person to be in a room with, which goes against his reputation as being an edgelord. His sense of humour was pretty brutal, but to be honest, we loved that – he was always funny, he was never cruel. He told us not to get him a hotel room for the session: he’d just sleep on the couch of a friend. He didn’t eat anything apart from chocolate Hobnobs for the entire four days that it took us to record the song – apparently you can’t get them in the US.

Towards the end of the session, most of us went off to go watch the football, leaving [guitarist/synth player] Barry Burns alone in the studio with Steve. Barry told Steve: “I’ve just remembered that there’s actually an important guitar part that I’ve still got to record.” Steve turned round really slowly to Barry and said: “Do you remember the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey? You know the bit where the monolith comes down and the monkeys gain this knowledge from this mysterious object and suddenly they understand violence and they understand the cause and effect of something hitting another thing, and that being the birth of humanity? That’s ‘important’.”

Our friend and occasional bandmate Luke Sutherland played violin on the song, and when we were mixing the track we told Steve it didn’t need to be too loud in the mix. And Steve, absolutely deadpan, said – and this is something we still say in the studio all the time: “Feature it or fuck it.” So yeah, we featured it.

We were really young, just a bunch of kids absolutely beating the shit out of our guitars, and he was all about it – he was very kind about our band. He said we knew exactly what we wanted to sound like. He loved the big riff that surfaces in the second half of the song – he was just very enthusiastic about music.

David Gedge, the Wedding Present and Cinerama

The first couple of [Wedding Present] albums were kind of jangly, clean, like indie pop. We wanted to move away from that – they never sounded to me like the band live. I think we had more of a three-dimensional sound, and he was able to capture that.

Our first album for RCA was Bizarro, and that took us about six weeks. When we worked with Albini, we wanted to book an equivalent time. And he said: “No, no. If a record can’t be made in two weeks, something’s wrong. The Beatles did records in a weekend.” And we were like: “Well, we’re not the Beatles.” [laughs] I think, in the end, we compromised at two weeks. It was almost back to the way we started, when we had no money at the very early days, and we just recorded live in a studio, because we had to be out of there. With Albini it was: “OK, set the gear up in this room, I’ll place some microphones, and just play live.” That was his forte, wasn’t it? To capture a live band in the studio.

I happened upon this Mellotron in the studio. And he was like: “Have you any idea how hard they are to a) keep in tune, b) play, c) record?” And I was like, yeah, it’s a weird 60s instrument, but it’s going to have its great sound. “Have you got any parts prepared for it?” No, not really. “Well, fuck that, I’m not going to do that.” I let it pass, and we carried on working. And then the next day, the Mellotron was set up with the mics on it. He just wanted to argue with me a bit about it, and tell me how difficult it was going to be. But he was a pleasure to work with, really. I know people often considered him to be a bit purposely confrontational, and I think he enjoyed being a bit of a wind-up merchant. He also didn’t suffer fools – I’m from the north of England, and we’ve got that in common. People speak their mind, and don’t care if they offend people sometimes.

Sometimes it was a little bit annoying, because you would say: “Why don’t you like CDs? Why do you never take [royalty] points on records?” And then he’d launch into one of his lectures [laughs]. Once he took me aside and explained why CDs don’t sound as good as vinyl. And I was bored after about half an hour, but he was showing me these graphs and things. And I was like: “This is all very well, but we’re paying for the studio time. I know it’s quick, because it’s you, but can we crack on now?” I remember he was explaining the history of the pencil to our bass player once. I walked in and said: “Well, can we move on?” Because he was reading a book about the history of the pencil at that point.

He was very clever, very witty, and we always had brilliant times in the studio with him. I found him very easy to work with. It was never a chore; it was always good fun. He always said: “The band is the boss.” You’d tell him what you want to do, he’d do it. Which was unique for a person at that level. I’ve had so many meetings with producers over the years, and they always want to put their mark on it. He was more: “If you ask my opinion, I will give it, but I’m not going to be telling you what to do in the studio, because you are the band.” That was admirable.

Stephen O’Malley, Sunn O)))

The very first time I recorded a record was with him. He’d flown to Seattle to record Silkworm. I was in a band called Burning Witch and our bass player Stuart Dahlquist was brothers with the drummer of Silkworm, Michael Dahlquist. It was like: “Oh, Steve can come a few days early. Do you want to record with him?” He flew to Seattle from London. And I didn’t really understand this very well at the time, because I was like, 21, stoned, a metalhead – but the gig he had done right before was Jimmy Page and Robert Plant’s new album. And then flown to Seattle to record Silkworm and Burning Witch.

There’s a few things about that session that really stand out. Having the opportunity to be the next guitar player he recorded after Jimmy Page is kind of mind blowing. I checked this with him when we worked with him with Sunn O))) a few years ago, and he’s like: “Yeah, I guess so. I guess that’s what happened.” [laughs] And that says something about his character. It’s not nonchalant, but just, like, not really crushed by these hierarchies of music business. Everyone was an artist on the same level as far as how creative they could be and what they were doing themselves. He always told us he was an engineer. He’s not going to make your songs sound good; that’s your thing. But he’ll record them perfectly.

In that Burning Witch session, I learned about mic-ing – like, placing mics in front of the drum kit in a way that was inspired by billiards positioning. Putting my guitar stack in a tiny hallway where I didn’t have really room to move very much, and playing at really high volume so the feedback became musical – interactive with the feedback, and taping a tiny mic to the floor as the main sound. That was a moment for me that defined my [approach of]: “Oh, I can work with feedback as musical element – deliberately.” Which has been the thesis of my guitar playing career, actually.

He’s the kind of person you work with who’ll say a sentence and you’ll remember it for 20 years. We were listening back to a take of one of the Burning Witch songs, and there’s a pause in the riff and a feedback squall – I had somehow controlled it into this pitch bend that went up the harmonic scale, but it was feedback. And he kept rewinding and he’s like: “Oh, that’s hot. That sounds awesome.” And I’ll never forget that. I was like: “Oh, it’s not a mistake. It’s actually something we discovered that was phenomena right there.” When you can discover together something fresh and new, despite all the experience you have, that’s bonding. And it’s really encouraging to go further outside the envelope and into places you don’t know.

In 2018, Greg Anderson from Sunn O))) and I recorded with Steve at his studio for two weeks. Tim Midyett from Silkworm was involved – he played bass on that session – and also [Oscar-winning composer and cellist] Hildur Guðnadóttir was there. That whole time was so enjoyable. We took it really seriously – because working with him wasn’t the situation where you could fix stuff up to sound better than it was [laughs].

He was really intelligent and wasn’t afraid to get into it with someone – not in an aggressive, defensive way, but to really dig in and have a conversation which might not be so comfortable, if you weren’t open to trying to learn something or debate. It was interesting. I was really happy to be able to encounter him, learn from him, and make some really cool records that are monumental parts of my own music experience.

Electrelane

Mia Clarke : We spent several weeks living at Electrical Audio in the spring of 2003, recording our second album The Power Out. Twenty years later it’s a bit of a blur, but I look back and think about how kind Steve was. I mean, I was a teenager and the others not much older. He was so respectful of our vision and made us feel completely comfortable in the studio, which wasn’t something we’d experienced before. He was just very focused, no BS, and helped us bring to life what I now understand to be a pretty ambitious record. In the recording room he was on the job, always, but some of my favourite memories of him at that time were in the apartment upstairs. We’d watch movies together and eat burritos. He had the sweetest grey cat, Fluss, who used to sit on his shoulders.

Emma Gaze : Steve bought a calm and reassuring feeling that everything was in hand, and because we were well prepared, it was more exciting than intimidating. I think that speaks to his attitude in general. He wasn’t ever interested in making you feel “less than”, and there was never a moment where I felt patronised or embarrassed. In fact, the opposite. If a certain band member’s neuroses were in full swing, he calmly said: “That’s the way she played it – no need to change it”. I loved that.

MC : For our third album Axes, we wanted to get as close to our live sound as possible. Steve made that happen. There was so much knowledge in his placement of each microphone. It was a huge part of his gift as an engineer, but I think a bigger part of his magic was giving a band everything they need to succeed and then just letting them be . He wasn’t a tinkerer. He was efficient. He just focused on harnessing our sound in its realest and truest form. It’s not an easy thing to do. But Steve always did it.

Will Oldham, AKA Bonnie “Prince” Billy

He was a human being who elevated the quality of the human experience. He expected more of himself and other people, but also knew it was possible. There was nothing outrageous. Just the idea of being able to continue to work within the music business, and maintain such humanity, in the face of what almost everybody says: “Well, it’s impossible to do things right, because this is just the way you do things.” Steve thought: no, there’s not another way to do it besides doing it as right as you can do it. In recent years , he’s addressed that at times in his ignorance – because we’re all born not sinful, but ignorant – he misstepped, with the full force of ignorance behind him. But he rarely spoke mindlessly or off the cuff. I always thought I had something to learn from what came out of his mouth.

We’re experiencing an increasing momentum of things that run counter to seemingly anything that drove human civilisation forward. It seems like it’s kind of coming apart right now at a mind-boggling rate. It feels like Steve’s reward is not having to witness it, and our reward is getting to do our best to fill in the vacuum that his death leaves. He took on a lot of responsibility for everybody, so we didn’t have to think and do, because he was thinking and doing on our behalf. And I feel charged and prepared to move forward alongside Steve’s personal and professional legacy as much as possible. It’s hard for those of us for whom thoughtfulness is a principal virtue. There are few examples to look to, in the way Albini is.

• Steve Albini
• Pop and rock

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When could you see the northern lights? Aurora forecast for over a dozen states this weekend

Read the latest on the northern lights this weekend: Saturday's forecast says parts of U.S. could see auroras .

A series of strong solar flares that the sun has been emitting since Wednesday morning could cause the northern lights to become visible this weekend to a wide swath of the United States.

The coronal mass ejections (CMEs) hurtling toward Earth prompted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to issue a rare  Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Storm Watch on Thursday for the first time in 19 years. The geomagnetic storms that the CMEs would produce pose a limited threat to our communications, but they can also trigger the aurora borealis, better known as the northern lights.

And because the sun is at the height of its 11-year-cycle, the auroras have a very good chance of being seen by more Americans than usual .

Here's what to know about the northern lights, and when and where you may catch a glimpse of them this weekend.

Good news on northern lights: Experts predict years of awesome aurora viewing

What are the northern lights?

The auroras are a natural light display in Earth's sky that are famously best seen in high-latitude regions.

The northern lights materialize when energized particles from the sun reach Earth's upper atmosphere at speeds of up to 45 million mph, according to Space.com . Earth's magnetic field redirects the particles toward the poles through a process that produces a stunning display of rays, spirals and flickers that has fascinated humans for millennia.

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When might the northern lights be most visible?

This week's solar activity brings with it the increased possibility of seeing the aurora across the U.S.

Though the timing is uncertain and the northern lights can be a particularly fickle forecast , officials at NOAA said the coronal mass ejections could reach Earth as early as Friday evening into Saturday, Shawn Dahl, a space weather forecaster at SWPC, told reporters Friday morning during a news briefing.

Experts from NOAA said auroras could be visible into Sunday.

The best aurora is usually within an hour or two of midnight (between 10:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m. local time). These hours expand towards evening and morning as the level of geomagnetic activity increases, according to NOAA.

Where might the northern lights be best seen in the US?

The northern half of the U.S. is forecasted to be in the view path where the auroras may be most visible.

The best chances appear to be in northern Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin and the majority of North Dakota, according to SWPC's  experimental Aurora viewline . The visibility for viewing will also depend on local weather conditions and city lights.

Experts at NOAA said the northern lights may even be visible as far south as Alabama and Northern California. If all else fails, experts even recommend taking a photo of the night sky with your cell phone – you never known what you may capture.

"Things that the human eye can't see, your phone can, so it'll be interesting to see just how far south we're getting aurora images this time," said Brent Gordon, Chief of Space Weather Services Branch for SWPC, on the Friday call with reporters.

The National Weather Service on Friday shared an aurora forecast for Friday night and early Saturday morning, showing more than a dozen states with at least a chance to see the lights.

How does the solar maximum influence the northern lights?

Explosive bursts of radiation known as solar flares and coronal mass ejections (eruptions of solar material) drive the geometric storms, releasing solar particles and electromagnetic radiation toward our planet.

As the frequency of coronal mass ejections increases at the height of its 11-year cycle,  which NASA said is expected to be in 2025 , electromagnetic activity on the sun peaks. What that so-called "solar maximum" means for us is that the risk increases for disruption to satellite signals, radio communications, internet and electrical power grids.

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Last December , a powerful burst of energy created the largest solar flare that NASA had detected since 2017.

The last G4 level solar storm hit Earth in March , one of only three storms of that severity observed since 2019, according to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center .

Just like in March, the upcoming solar storm will have particles flowing from the sun that get caught up in Earth's magnetic field, causing colorful auroras to form as they interact with molecules of atmospheric gases. The resulting glowing green and reddish colors of the aurora may be quite a sight to see.

Contributing: Doyle Rice, USA TODAY

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected]