This super sucks. “My guy” Steve Albini died today of a heart attack at 61, so for this week’s Wednesday album, I’m picking the most groundbreaking album of his most groundbreaking band, Big Black’s Atomizer. Although Albini matured into a thoughtful elder statesman of indie rock, he began as something of a proto-internet troll. Quick with a joke and quick to offend, the rail-thin guitarist and frontman of Big Black (a punk band with a drum machine) wrote funny, groovy songs with unique sounds and scathing lyrics. His best “Kerosene” is about midwestern kids so bored with life that they light each other on fire. It’s a bop. Although Albini would make more music with other bands – Rapeman (whose name the more wizened Albini would regret) and Shellac (who have their first album in a decade coming out later this month!) – he would become best known for his bone dry, practical, analog production on classics like the Pixies’s Surfer Rosa and Nirvana’s In Utero. Fiercely independent, he hated the graft of the music industry and insisted upon a flat fee for producing (most “name” producers take a percentage of sales) and insisted he be credited as an ‘engineer.” He seemingly worked his ass off at his Electric Audio Studio in Chicago, although became known in later years for winning poker tournaments and for being “woke” – although, he never lost his wicked sense of humor. I’m normally not a meet-your-heroes kind of guy, but I am bummed out that I’ll never get a chance to meet Albini. RIP.