STEVE ALBINI | 1962–2024
DAVID GRUBBS
Squirrel Bait, Bastro, Gastr Del Sol
I first met Steve in 1984 when I was 16, visiting a friend at Northwestern [University] in Chicago. I was familiar with Big Black, so I went to see them play with Urge Overkill. It was revelatory, and I wrote about them in my high school fanzine. Steve sent me some Big Black live cassettes and made me a couple of mixtapes. That was the first time I heard Ivor Cutler and Scratch Acid and The Cravats. It was a hilarious mix of things – there was some Leonard Nimoy…
In Squirrel Bait, we shared bills with Big Black. Steve was five years older and felt like a crucial older sibling. He was so fucking smart and brilliantly funny. He would do things I’d never do in a million years. One Fourth Of July,
