Shellac

In 2002, Shellac was invited to curate the All Tomorrow's Parties Festival in Camber Sands, England, and a track from one of the three sets they played at the festival (they performed in the morning so fans would be more likely to stick around to see the other bands) was included on the collection All Tomorrow's Parties 2.0: Shellac Curated. Various individual projects occupied the trio for the next several years (including Weston opening an audio mastering facility in Chicago), but Shellac found time to appear at a 2006 festival in Chicago celebrating 25 years in business for Touch & Go. In 2007 they emerged once more with the album Excellent Italian Greyhound, which included the longtime live favorite "The End of Radio" and a handsome portrait of Trainer's beloved dog Uffizi. In 2009, Touch & Go announced that declining sales were forcing them to scale back their operations and while they would keep their back catalog in print, they would no longer release new material. However, Shellac demonstrated their loyalty by persuading Touch & Go to make exceptions for their releases, and in 2014, the label issued the album Dude Incredible (which, the band helpfully pointed out, has no comma, "like Sir Duke or King Friday, for example"). It appeared two years after Shellac returned to host a December edition of All Tomorrow's Parties, with the band using the occasion to celebrate their 20th anniversary. In 2019, Shellac gave an official release to two oft-bootlegged sessions they recorded live in the studio for John Peel's BBC radio show recorded in 1994 and 2004; they appeared on a two-disc set titled The End of Radio. As was their custom, Shellac would introduce new material in their live shows, and as they stockpiled fresh songs, they committed them to tape over the course of several long-weekend sessions from 2017 to 2022. Manufacturing issues forced them to delay the release of the album (they chose to use an innovative process for the LP edition, similar to injection molding, that resulted in a quieter product that was made using mostly recycled materials), but Shellac and Touch & Go finally scheduled To All Trains to arrive in May 2024. To the shock of fans and the indie rock community, Steve Albini died following a heart attack on May 7, less than two weeks before the album's debut, unexpectedly ending the group's run. Albini was 61. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

From 🇺🇸 United States