Shellac

Shellac is a Chicago noise rock band active from 1992 to 2024, made up of Steve Albini, Bob Weston and Todd Trainer. It is sometimes referred to as Shellac of North America, a name Albini says the group uses “when we’re being pretentious”. The band is also classified as indie rock, math rock and post-hardcore.

Sound and style

Shellac’s music is defined by a stripped-back approach built around unusual and urgent time signatures, repetitive heavy rhythms, angular guitar work and Albini’s surreal, sharply sarcastic lyrics. The songs usually avoid standard verse-chorus structures, and the arrangements are sparse enough that some describe the band as amelodic. Their sound is closely associated with vintage Travis Bean guitars, which use aluminium-based construction, and Albini also uses copper plectrums and guitar straps that fit around the waist rather than over the shoulder.

The band also works with a very direct live and recording method. Albini and Weston are both recording engineers, and Shellac’s studio approach favours a clean analogue sound with little or no overdubbing, with close attention to microphone placement and equipment. Their performances are often in smaller clubs, and live appearances are sporadic.

Working methods and themes

Shellac does not use a fixed performance fee. Instead, the band takes the door money after expenses such as promotion, running costs and venue fees. It has also asked venues to remove ticket charges it sees as unnecessary. Touring is often used as time away from the members’ day jobs rather than simply as record promotion: Albini and Weston work as recording engineers, while Trainer works at a commercial photographer’s studio in Minneapolis.

An early claim from the band was that all of its songs were about baseball and Canada, but the writing actually covers a wider range of subjects, from emotionally direct material to small everyday details. Whatever the topic, the delivery is typically deadpan and can be violently phrased. On 1000 Hurts, for example, “Shoe Song” deals with the realisation of love and its loss, while “Watch Song” focuses on irrational anger and aggression. “Shoe Song” also references Slint, who were produced by Albini.

Recordings and notable projects

Shellac records include The Futurist, an instrumental album made for a modern dance troupe. The band was dissatisfied with the recording’s wider prospects, so it pressed around 700 vinyl copies and gave them away as gifts to friends; the front cover lists the recipients with the relevant name circled.

The group also appears in a Halloween performance as the Sex Pistols, with David Yow of The Jesus Lizard and Scratch Acid playing Johnny Rotten. Both this performance and The Futurist circulate on file-sharing networks.

In 2002, Shellac curates the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in Camber Sands, England. The band goes on first every morning so festival-goers can arrive in time for the other acts, and a live album from the event appears on ATP Records.

In December 2004, Shellac records a final BBC session dedicated to John Peel, who had long supported the band. That session later appears in 2019 together with the group’s 1994 Peel session under the title The End of Radio. In 2005, the band records “Steady As She Goes” in an abandoned house for Burn To Shine, a film project organised by Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty and filmmaker Christoph Green; it is the only available live video footage of the band.

Later releases

Shellac releases Excellent Italian Greyhound in 2007 and Dude Incredible in 2014. To All Trains is announced in 2024, and Steve Albini dies in Chicago shortly before its release.