Slint | Spiderland

HISTORY

Slint have been hailed by many as the originators of post rock. Mixing hardcore punk ethics (but not punk aggression) with desolate soundscapes.  The band formed in 1985 and consisted of – David Pajo (guitar), Brian McMahon (guitar, vocals), Britt Walford (Drums) and Todd Brashear (bass).

Their first album * Tweez was recorded by Steve Albini in 1987 and carries a lot of the hallmarks of his production style.  The album was released in 1989 and was shamefully barely noticed (check out the songs Carol and Darlene).

In 1990 Slint recorded Spiderland, their second and last album with producer/engineer Brian Paulson.  Spiderland was released in 1991 and was a lot more successful than Tweez selling 50,000 copies and influencing a new generation of musical geek-ery!  The album was recorded in 4 days, Brian Paulson preferring live recording and few takes.  There is rumor that a member of the band had been in a psychiatric hospital around the time of recording.

They disbanded in 1991, and reunited for small tours in 2005 and 2007.  The band debuted a new track King’s Approach in 2007 leading to speculation that they’d reform full time.

PACKAGING

The album cover is immediately striking, a black and white photograph of the band keeping themselves afloat in the waters of an abandoned quarry, they look like they’re having fun but they also look quite intense which is a look you see from many tight bands in photos.  The back cover features a black and white photograph of a spider, slightly out of focus and has all 6 tracks listed in hand written green ink.

MUSIC

Spiderland is a collection of 6 songs that feel claustrophobic and edgy with general themes of self disgust and loss. The production and spoken word in the record make the music feel very close in proximity and there is a strong sense of their youth, anger and intelligence throughout.

BREADCRUMB TRAIL

Breadcrumb Trail sets the album off at a slow, almost drunken pace. The guitar is clean with a little reverb and is quite melodic, yet unsettling at the same time.  Spacious cymbals, guitar harmonics and a quiet harmony on the bass set the scene for a strange dream like story of a man and a female fortune teller who like each other and go on a rollercoaster ride, when she comes off she vomits.  A frail guitar motif gives way to the album’s first moment of heaviness – fuzzy guitar and creamy bass supply the low end while a distorted guitar (probably thin e string around the 15th fret) pierces your ear.  The singer shouts “creeping up into the sky” guitar notes bend, the song is in an insane waltz. As the girl vomits there is a repeated riff in a strange time signature, jagged guitar that gives way to a beautiful, fat, chorus filled note and the song is suddenly weightless, guitar and bass picking away, cymbal crashes.  The narrator finishes the story to the original verse riff.

NOSFERATU MAN

Rim shot and snare precedes a 5/4 timing, the rolling de-tuned bass and chompy, nervous sounding guitars smeared like paint.  The drumming is tight and inventive and moves at a faster pace than breadcrumb trail.  Again the 2nd guitar is played very high up and sounds unusual, and the vocals are spoken during the verses.  The chorus explodes with distortion, slight pauses in the infectious, circular riff.  The middle is tough sounding and you can hear the bass very clearly, it sounds metallic, the drums settle into a standard 4/4 while the guitars are being hammered and the song returns to the chorus riff to end.  This is my favorite song of the album, the middle especially has so much chaos and sounds unlike any other band out there. The lyric is about a vampire that drinks the blood of his queen, killing her. He feels helpless and wishes things were difference, but he has no time…

DON, AMAN

Don, Aman is so soaked in self disgust. It’s the musical equivalent of the Hunchback of Notre Dame – small, ugly, hates himself, everyone hates him in his eyes, unlovable and pathetic.  I get the feeling the song is about hating what you can become when you drink.  The song is completely narrated and musically is a dance between 2 ( one in each ear) guitars that end up fighting with each other when they pick up the pace it sounds dangerous.  The narration continues and tension builds-builds-builds till it is set free with heavy distortion in the left ear, a mess of anger.  The song then slows to a halt….

WASHER

Washer is the most melodic track on the album, a very sad piece of music and probably the only track on the album I think sounds anything like Mogwai at all.  The band are in no rush, just resting on the off key melody waiting for the vocals which are sung without shame.  The most straight forward song lyrically on the album, a lament about a man leaving his love in her bed for the last time.

I won’t be back here

Though we may meet again

The vocal is right at the front of the mix and filled with reverb, things quiet down leaving the vocal bare and build up to a distorted climax which then again winds down and down and down.  Very inventive guitar work.  These guys guitars dance together so well.

FOR DINNER…

In this track the 2 guitars snake around a low flat bassline and is constantly swelling and building up towards small climaxes.  The band are very patient and I’m always pleased when it doesn’t distort.  This instrumental shows how properly tight and dynamic the band are. The bass line is very simple but it would be sooo easy to not play it right – true tightness.

GOOD MORNING, CAPTAIN

Last song on the album, epic, intense.  It centres on a guitar line that sounds like off key bells in space, the bass is stuffed with mid end and almost sounds stuffy apart from the metallic bite of extreme chorus, the drums are loose and inventive and really push the music, the bass line staggers and loops, the guitars build chopping tension then the music falls back to a simply melody.  The chorus is HUGE.  Really loud, really big, long held distorted chords, totally despairing. The words are mostly narrated and concern the captain of a ship being woken up by a crew member who informs him that a storm threw the ship against the edge of a cliff, killing everyone.  He meets a child, his child and feels hatred for himself.  The song explodes into distortion at the end as he shouts

“I miss you”

CONCLUSION

I think Spiderland is a very interesting listen, but you have to give yourself to it.  It’s a testament to youth, anger and intelligence and what that can bring about in people.  The album is very insular and unforgiving… Just like young, angry intelligent people.

Spiderland is available on * complete with a 7th track – Utica Quarry, Nighttime

Cheers for reading.

Micus

Thanks for that Micus.

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There is a plethora of background on Don Van Vliet, and I am not aiming to reproduce the immense catalogue or history in a short article.

Don Van Vliet | Captain Beefheart

A quick look at the image I have selected of the Cap’n explains much of the status of this indie icon… It was taken in 1972 at the Royal Albert Hall. A time when bands were discovering Rock and Roll and yet, this hugely influential artist was experimenting yet retaining his saxophone.

His use of instrumentation and refusal to ‘conform’ to the Rock and Roll revolution was explosive. Times were very different 40-50 years ago. Of far more importance was his resolute independence of mind. He could have become a Rock and Roll icon, but he even rebelled against the ‘teenage revolution’, determined to utilise his own unique sound and kick against the machine.

A true indie musician and while many current artists believe their influence is from more well known ’60s, ’70s and ’80s artists, they in turn draw their influence from a real heart and soul of music.

I won’t proclaim to know whether he regretted his lack of chart success, but to me, that is not of importance, he is a central pivot and a shining example of the bands I hope to continue showcasing on the indie bands blog.

An icon of indie music

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Reed was under contract as a songwriter for Pickwick Records, and Cale was a classically trained musician, it was this diversity of backgrounds, which probably brought about the conflict that was associated with the band. Sterling Morrisson, on guitar, and Moe Tucker on drums, completed the first line-up of the band which took its name from a pulp fiction book popular at that time.

In 1965 The Velvet Underground met with Andy Warhol, collaborated with his ‘Exploding Plastic Inevitable’ movement, added Nico on vocals and produced their first album, The Velvet Underground and Nico – Andy Warhol, also known as the Banana Album.

Unlike many bands of the time, The Velvet Underground wrote about the darker side of the hedonistic side of the time and as a result finding a record company to press the album was no easy task and it wasn’t until March 1967 that Verve records released the album.

Nico continued her solo career having no more to do with the group and the band disassociated themselves with Andy Warhol in 1967.

The second album, ‘White Light White Heat’ was riven with internal conflicts in the band. ‘Sister Ray’ a 17 minute piece, recorded live in the studio featured some of Cale’s most inspired instrumental work.

The relationship between Cale and Reed reached breaking point and Cale was fired, to be replaced by Doug Yule on bass.

By 1970, Reed abandoned the group and Yule took over, with the band releasing ‘Squeeze’ which was poorly received and is not perceived, by many as a Velvet Underground release.

The recorded music by the band was frequently not officially released and this led to a considerable amount of material being issued after the band had finally dissolved. While their recorded output was limited, The Velvet Underground were always an active live band and although not commercially successful, their influence was spread wide and far.

Despite the short life span of the band, which was riven with internal conflict, the Velvet Underground remain highly influential, either directly or through those originally inspired by the band.

Essential listening:

The Velvet Underground & Nico

Peel Slowly and See

The Velvet Underground are not for everyone, but their influence on generations of bands is undeniable.

The Damned

While the Pistols stole most of the Media spotlight, it was when the Damned played, that the true spirit of Punk shone through. The Pistols headed off on their path of commercialisation, the Damned remained apparently independent of the big marketing hype, though still breaking new ground.

In 1977, they headed off to the US to play a few gigs, long before the ill fated Pistols tour hit the country. The very fact that the Damned avoided the headlines, was in many respects one of their great achievements. Scabies, the drummer, rarely managed to finish a gig without destroying his drum kit while Sensible would appear onstage dressed in women’s clothes or possibly nothing at all.

When the Damned did receive press attention it was concerned with Gig violence, or gobbing between the audience and the band, but they managed, in the main, to keep below the firing line, though probably not by choice. Continuing to play gigs and develop their music, unlike the Pistols who were banned almost everywhere and became known more for their celebrity than their music. Though when the Pistols were able to play or release a single, or their one off album, did demonstrate they could have done so much better had they not become the target for Britain’s petty mind set.

By the end of 1977 it was all over for the Damned and they broke up in February 1978, so would have ended the story, but after a few revisions and much internal division, by the end of 1978 a revamped version of the Damned took to the stage again, with the original energy and sound restored.

During the period of their breakup, while playing in France, Scabies got himself arrested for setting a hotel room on fire and when the band reformed they found some of the UK Local Authorities had put them on the Punk blacklist. Rather than sit and mope as some of their contemporaries continued to do, they went on tour in the US once again. Just a year later by the end of 1979, once again the band hit internal divisions and they changed bass player.

Another series of riotous gigs, this time across Europe saw the band becoming more creative and although the live elements of the Damned were becoming ever more chaotic, the music was becoming stronger. A testament to their strength is that the band continues to gig even now.

While not seen from an historical perspective as one of the core punk bands, without doubt at the time, the band were essential to generating momentum for Punk Rock and their legacy has been as important as the better known Pistols, Clash etc, and they have been fundamental in changing the face of the music industry in subsequent decades.

Essential listening

New Rose/Help (Stiff  1976)

Damned Damned Damned (Stiff 1977)

The Radio One Sessions (Night tracks 1996)

The video capture may not be sharp, but it is from a gig over 30 years ago….

More modern and more from the perspective in upcoming indie bands blog entries