Not only was the late Steve Albini a legendary recording engineer, musician, and poker player, but 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 via a new website that operates as a weekly digital estate sale. A new batch of items from his archives will be released every Friday through the end of 2025. Byron Coley (old contact/friend) of Forced Exposure runs the site, with all money going to the late Albini’s estate.
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 records and CDs in the coming weeks, including poker-related belongings (he won two World Series of Poker gold bracelets, BTW), old fliers, concert posters, and even awards. 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." The man is much-missed but the stuff that sold out in the first round (such as Nick Cave's original Birthday Party recordings, known as Boys Next Door) only portends better/weirder things to come.