[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Albini is truly the greatest recordist of our era and one of the best of all time. He may be eccentric, but I must admit he is not quite a sell out. It seems if anything that he has been the last thread of artistic integrity in the mainstream recordings of several bands and albums, and has already been pointed out, he hardly made any money of any of them!

I enjoy practically EVERYTHING he has recorded, and his touch is a sure sign that you will enjoy a band's album.

In regards to this mainstream vs indy debate..

Albini is actually right about the parasitic and exploitative music industry which destroys the art. He is a bit correct, and perhaps giving you a confession from the inside view about how sonic youth should be a bit embarassed, because to a degree they were in fact scouts. I absolutely adore what bands like SY and Nirvana did to mainstream music, utterly destroying hair bands BUT, none-the-less they did give the parasites of the music industry ample room to invade our otherwise delightful indy music scene...
ALL art has went through this debate from all eras. The rich and elitists and exploitative businessmen always are the wealthy patrons and consumers of art, and the artists always deal with this struggle. We should be able to criticize the exploitation without necessary judging the artists who both use and are used by the system. At best, it is just a wink and a nudge...

Kurt Cobain is the Carravagio of our generation, and the music industry are the Medicis.. Albini, he is just the Saint Francis dinosaur a bit out of touch and yet intuitively aware of the drama of the business, but at least a shines a light into the darkness, and all light in the context of darkness at times seems a contradiction to itself, but inevitably your eyes adjust..