Steve Albini to read works of short fiction at Quimby’s
Steve Albini, right, with his band Shellac
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Quimby’s Bookstore, purveyor of all things weird, has announced that Steve Albini will be reading some of his short fiction on Sept. 20 alongside poet and punk-rocker Brett Eugene Ralph, frontman of Kentucky Chrome Revue. Ralph has an established literary reputation and a book of poetry under his belt, Black Sabbatical, but no one knows what to expect from Albini. When Quimby’s asked Ralph if there was a local author he’d like to read with, he named Albini, much to the staff’s surprise. “We’d never done a gig together and he’s never given a public reading of his fiction,” says Ralph, Albini's longtime friend who’s familiar with his work. But the notion alone that Albini writes short fiction is a bit of a shock.
Ralph has high praise for Albini's stories. “Some of them are really funny, some of them are raw and provocative, maybe bordering on offensive, like his lyrics over the years.” Albini, never straying far from his reputation, is writing the kind of stories fans should expect. “They’re very persona driven, first-person rants,” Ralph says. “They’re crafted works of fiction, but they still have the visceral appeal of punk rock.” In other words, they'll probably be a lot like everything else Albini does—odd, angry, and occasionally brilliant.
Get used the man's voice by brushing up on this interview he did for DIY Or Die:
