On May 8,2024, a thread entitled Requiescat FM Steve appeared, pinned to the top of the General Discussion section of the Electrical Audio Forum. One would have to imagine that the first reactions would be confusion and denial. A member of the forum posted “I realize Pitchfork is reputable, but I don’t believe this yet. He’s posted to Bluesky within the last day or so.” Fifteen minutes later, another forum member posted “It’s real and it fucking sucks,” followed by another with “Another magazine is saying staff confirmed a heart attack.”
To call Steve Albini’s passing shocking doesn’t do it justice. For those who’ve closely followed the post-hardcore genre of music, the news had a sickening familiarity. Just eleven months prior, guitarist, frontman, and graphic designer Rick Froberg (Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes, The Obits) died suddenly from heart failure. The idea that the same malady could strike down two of the most revered figures in underground music in less than a year. It hardly felt fair.
Fandom can be weird sometimes. In the immediate, how does one process the death of artists whom you admire greatly? The most basic reaction is with one’s wallet. While, I had pre-ordered Shellac’s latest record, To All Trains (released just ten days prior) from Chicago’s Touch and Go Records, the purpose felt insufficient. As it happened to be, their debut At Action Park had also been repressed along with newly made jackets (Tortoise-style packaging) made by Dexterity Letter Press.[1] And then while I was at it, I also threw money at Electrical Audio, Albini’s recording studio—two t-shirts and a hoodie. Point being, buying stuff that I did not need was one of the ways I processed the situation. If there was a different type of crisis that required financial support to the label or the recording studio, I’m sure I’d do the same thing.
Fan reaction is one thing, but how do one’s peers react? Obviously, posting stuff on X (formerly known as Twitter) and other social media sites is easiest and the most immediate, but what other public displays can musicians do to show their appreciation? If you’re New Jersey’s Rye Coalition, you assemble every member of Rye Coalition’s history and record two cover songs: One from Shellac. One from Drive Like Jehu. On the podcast Protonic Reversal, Rye Coalition vocalist Ralph Cuseglio told host Conan Neutron that the release came from a place of deep appreciation.
“Paid In Full is really related to having a debt of gratitude and our way of paying this debt. We really do owe to these two amazing dudes, Rick and Steve, but also to the music they created—Shellac, Big Black, Hot Snakes, Drive Like Jehu, and Pitchfork,” Cuseglio said.
It should come as no surprise that both songs are straightforward and not interpretations, which would have been divisive at best. With “Bullet Train to Vegas” and “Wingwalker,” Rye Coalition more than does the songs justice, serving as reminders of how great both songs are, instead of making the covers about the band covering it. At present, all physical copies of the single have sold out. While at this time, there are no plans for a repress, digital copies are still available and all profits from the single will go to Letters Charity, an organization co-founded by Albini and his wife Heather Whinna. The charity looks to use “art as a conduit to transform passive compassion into immediate assistance through the distribution of money given, without expectation or judgment, directly to families experiencing poverty.”
This single is the first new recordings from Rye Coalition since 2006’s Curses. In unrelated Rye news, Numero Group have posted to the interwebs a batch of previously unreleased, early recordings. In addition, the label has plans for box set containing their back catalog, including 2002’s On Top, which the band recorded with Albini.
On the Rick Froberg front, his first collection of visual art will be released early next year. It comes as a standard and a limited edition. | David Lichius
[1] A New Haven, CT company owned by Jeff Mueller, who through the years had also released music (Rodan, June of 44, Shipping News) on the imprint and its sister label, Quarterstick Records
