Not only was the late Steve Albini a legendary recording engineer, musician, and poker player, he was also a longtime collector of underground memorabilia. Now, thousands of his belongings—rare vinyl, weird books, vintage t-shirts, CDs, cassettes, singles, zines, art, and “mysterious bargains”—are being sold on Steve Albini’s Closeta new website that operates as a weekly digital estate sale. A new batch of items from Albini’s archives will be released every Friday through the end of 2025. Byron Coley of Forced Exposure runs the site, with all money going to the late Albini’s estate.
“Steve pursued many fields of interest, and most of them are represented somewhere in his collections,” reads the website’s description. “All items purchased are accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity from the collection’s administrator, Byron Coley, and the proceeds are directed towards Steve’s estate. All materials are guaranteed authentic, and listings are updated on a weekly basis. All materials are guaranteed authentic, and listings are updated on a weekly basis. Some items are sold through other sites like Discogs and eBay.”
All items from the first round of available belongings have since been purchased, including the master of Neurosis’ A Sun That Never Sets and Albini’s personal copies of records by Dead Moon, Big Boys, Can, U-Men, Elvis Costello, Buzzcocks, Cinerama, Didjits, and dozens more. According to the site’s categories, though, it looks like there’s plenty more to come beyond vinyl and CDs in the coming weeks, including poker-related belongings, old fliers, concert posters, and even awards.
Albini died on May 7, 2024, of a heart attack at age 61. In addition to fronting the essential rock bands Shellac and Big Black, he was a veteran of the recording studio—where he preferred being called an “engineer” instead of a “producer”—who recorded everything from Nirvana’s In Utero and PJ Harvey’s Rid of Me to Joanna Newsom’s Ys and Cloud Nothings’ Attack on Memory. His last recorded album as a musician was Shellac’s To All Trains, their first album in a decade, which came out a week after his death.
In addition to his musical accolades, Albini was also an outspoken critic of exploitative music industry practices and a remarkable poker player with two World Series of Poker gold bracelets. Last summer, the city of Chicago named the 2600-2700 block of West Belmont Avenue, which is home to Albini’s recording studio Electrical Audio, as “Steve Albini Way.”
Steve Albini Did the Work
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