regular steve albini

regular steve albini

@electricalwsop.bsky.social

Recording engineer who plays poker and billiards and eats like a Viking

21.2K followers142 following1K posts

From the beginning, the danger hasn't been Trump. He is constitutionally lazy, ignorant, unambitious and just generally not good at things. The danger is from people supposedly in opposition doing fuck all to stop the rest of his coterie, categorically more evil, ambitious and skilled than him.

I have an entire rant with several key points, but the gist is: Send Donald Trump to jail nothing bad will happen. There will be no riots, no demonstrations, nothing that can be done by the system or police or FBI or anyone to stop it. And once it happens, we’ll realize it was never scary.

regular steve albini reposted

He’s just an old man falling asleep and farting. He’s not a diabolical mastermind. He has no supernatural powers. He’s been yelling for his red caps to come overthrow the courthouse for weeks and three people wrapped in tinfoil have showed up. If we send Donald Trump to jail, he will go there.

I have an entire rant with several key points, but the gist is: Send Donald Trump to jail nothing bad will happen. There will be no riots, no demonstrations, nothing that can be done by the system or police or FBI or anyone to stop it. And once it happens, we’ll realize it was never scary.

There are so many easter eggs in this goofy little 7" record, very happy with the way it came out.

ShartCircuit@shartcircuit.bsky.social

Recorded during the Covid lockdown and unheard for a few years, very happy to announce the release of the Chin Music 7” - a musical collaboration between me, @electricalwsop.bsky.social , @timmidyett.bsky.social and Matt Spiegel. Three songs about our love of baseball nittykitty.com/product/chin...

regular steve albini reposted

The problem with the argument around "vote for Biden because Trump will make Gaza worse" vs "do not vote for Biden because he's assisting genocide" is that *both* of them do not work. It's like arguing about whether the best way to travel to the moon is a ladder or a submarine.

I don't have any insight on relationships, monogamy, all that. But the thing is, neither does anybody else. People who think they have it all figured out, the spreadsheet people, are the absolute last fucking place I'd look to for advice. I'd rather stare at a pond.

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regular steve albini reposted

i would watch the monopoly movie if it ended like 45 minutes in because all the actors said fuck this and stopped working on it

Finalizing Fall US tour dates and my frustration with with exorbitant ticket fees is at peak. It's like pulling teeth to have tickets available at face value, which we insist on. Being fair, some venues are fine and cooperative, but this whole practice should be illegal.

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Most bands are insulated from this situation by having booking agents as intermediaries. It's only bands that get into the granular detail of their shows that even know that there are ticket fees attached, much less that their "$25" ticket actually costs a fan $34.

Hey I know it's rough out there earning a living in the arts. I'm aware. I know venues are squeezed by agents for absurd guarantees and they're looking for a way to get over, trying to find an edge. I'm aware and that's bullshit too. But it's fraudulent and reprehensible and everybody should say so.

Finalizing Fall US tour dates and my frustration with with exorbitant ticket fees is at peak. It's like pulling teeth to have tickets available at face value, which we insist on. Being fair, some venues are fine and cooperative, but this whole practice should be illegal.

View full thread

In both cases, if you look at the deal on paper, the band may be receiving a reasonable percentage of the gig income and the agent gets their fee from that part, but there is a hidden cost born by the audience, unaccounted and ignored that is a naked money grab by the venue.

And in the most egregious cases, tickets bought at the box office are still padded with ticket surcharges and fees. They've taken to charging you for the privilege of buying a ticket. Exactly like charging you five bucks to unlock the pump before you buy gas.

Finalizing Fall US tour dates and my frustration with with exorbitant ticket fees is at peak. It's like pulling teeth to have tickets available at face value, which we insist on. Being fair, some venues are fine and cooperative, but this whole practice should be illegal.

View full thread

This is preposterous on its face, tantamount to fraud and should not be tolerated by anybody. It persists because the fiction of "face value" allows negotiation of deals with bands that *look* fair, but contain a massive hidden payout to the venue or promoter. Booking agents are complicit in this...

Because the money doesn't come out of their end. Bands are often completely in the dark about these fees so as not to rile them up, and the "face value" of tickets is at an all-time high to begin with. It's a cozy one-hand-washes-the-other arrangement between them, a very close analog to merch fees.

Finalizing Fall US tour dates and my frustration with with exorbitant ticket fees is at peak. It's like pulling teeth to have tickets available at face value, which we insist on. Being fair, some venues are fine and cooperative, but this whole practice should be illegal.

For the unfamiliar, venues typically contract a ticket agency to sell their tickets for them online, and sometimes these deals require all ticket sales to go through the agency. The agencies add ticket fees on top of the face value, and kick back a percentage of the fee to the venue.

In the best case, the fees are modest, a couple of bucks, and charging a premium for the convenience of online buying seems reasonable. In bigger markets the fees can amount to an extra 30% over face value, with the venue getting on the order of 1/3 of the fee kicked back.