slint -- _spiderland_: classic or dud

Hold up mane, I think Hongro Horace just invented the bitch ass comment only two hours ago in this very thread.

^^^ Needs more blackface

oh gosh darn horace, I thought you were better at the internet than this. nevermind.

20 years old this week. I did an interview with a radio station in Australia that devoted a 2-hour show to the anniversary. (Featuring a rarely heard clip of Maurice, Pajo and Walford's metal band that predated Slint).

just listened this morning! without knowing about any anniversary. anyone who doesn't like "good morning, captain" is no friend of mine!

20 years old ... guess this is one of those records that's never going to really sound "dated"?

I think I said something similar in the interview!

xpost.

oh and hey, i put up this pretty nice live recording of the band yesterday: http://ow.ly/4mA9E

Is that the one that ends with the Neil Young cover?

yeah, it's got a killer Cortez the Killer on there.

That's a good one. I have another Chicago 89 boot that is almost all Tweeze material but includes a super early version of "Washer" - all instrumental and with a much more rudimentary structure.

sounds cool - the one i posted is the only slint live show I have.

So in case you missed it, David Pajo put up the 1985 Maurice demos on his bandcamp page. I wrote a small amount of background about it. This demo was recorded at the behest of Glenn Danzig after Maurice asked if they could open for Samhain on the Midwest leg of their tour.

It's pretty freakin' metal. I think the most noteworthy thing about it is how insanely good Walford and Pajo were at their instruments at age 15.

Oh God Maurice were so fucking great

I saw them open for Samhain in Louisville in the gym attached to a church!

Sean Garrison had so much end-of-the-world / Satan-surveys-the-mosphit charisma you can't even imagine it

that band was intense in every sense: original, powerful, kinda uncannily serious about what they were doing

I'm a fanboy for real and I still treasure my orange and black Maurice t-shirt like a holy relic

the demo is awesome too but the live shows were the real thing

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6026/5915969886_7d53c82d4f_z.jpg

That is amazing!

I think the most noteworthy thing about it is how insanely good Walford and Pajo were at their instruments at age 15.

Walford is the drummer on the first Squirrel Bait album iirc and that was from the same year. Drums are great on that too.

this sounds very good so far

i wish spiderland were a bit ~heavier~

Walford only played on two songs on the first SB album, but yeah, the drumming is great in any case. He was a monster.

Maurice's song "The Struggle" was kind of a manifesto for Louisville HC/metal kids in highschool, the band made a poster with the lyrics and medieval torture illustrations and some sick pictures of Walford with an extremely long devilock flailing around if I recall correctly- the chugging riffs that started "the Struggle" always sound to me like the DNA of the Slint-circa-Tweeze sound too for that matter. this is making me super nostalgic about how fun it was to grow up in Louisville back then.

You could connect those chugging riffs to "Glenn," I think.

one last nostalgic outburst: I was accused of being a "Slint-worshipper" by a CRASS loving anarcho-punk kid in highschool who didn't like my zine and decided to diss me because I wrote an elaborately loving tonguebath review of Slint's show at my highschool in said zine

my friend john lived down there as a kid and he just moved around the corner from me here in western mass. when i was on a panel with d. grubbs in feb. i asked him if he remembered john and his eyes lit up and he said "john a! well, that was his punk name back then..."

lamest punk name ever! hahaha! but i call him that now when i see him. i will listen to these demos. never heard them before.

You could connect those chugging riffs to "Glenn," I think.

Haha - Pajo just commented on my blog post and said that that riff in "The Struggle" was indeed repurposed for "Glenn"! Day made.

Okay now get him to tell us if they're ever going to release a proper recurring of "King's Approach"

RECORDING

I wrote about Spiderland here:

http://devonrecordclub.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/slint-spiderland-round-46-toms-selection/

I think it's remarkable...but what do I know?

I do think it helps if you are not aware of the album's reputation and legacy before hearing it (but if you're reading this thread, presumably you will be).

I'm surprised that anyone on here doesn't like Spiderland. I guess I don't know you that well

Why come they never made a box set or something? I still wanna hear the studio version of "King's Approach"

Good Morning Captain arcs towards its climax so clinically and purposefully that in theory, it runs the risk of consolidating its loose ends in too convenient and predictable a manner. but, it manages to defy all that unequivocally; it's explosive, gut-wrenching and totally fucking incredible. every single time.

Playing in November in the UK: http://www.atpfestival.com/events/endofanerapart2.php

3rd reunion go around, huh. Hopefully they play the West Coast as well.

Don't see myself booking a flight to London, especially since I've got a baby due right around that time. Really *really* hope they come to LA, or anywhere in the vicinity.

Despite writing the book on them, I've never seen them live. Was too young/unaware the first time around, and managed to miss both reunions by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, twice. Now three times. Bummed.

Whaaaaattt??? I got to see them both times. They're not worth seeing twice though the second time they played that unreleased track "King's Approach" which made it all worth it

New box set! $150 is some bullshit though.

• Hand numbered limited edition of 3,138 copies.
• Spiderland, remastered from the original analog master tapes by Bob Weston and pressed on 180 gram vinyl
• Fourteen previously unreleased outtakes & demos personally selected by Slint, mastered by Bob Weston, and pressed on two 180 gram vinyl albums
• 104 page book with over 100 never-before-seen photos documenting Slint's entire history, as well as lyrics to the songs on Spiderland, and a forward by Will Oldham
• Remastered Spiderland on one CD, and the 14 bonus songs on a second CD
• Breadcrumb Trail, a brand new, never-before-seen, 90 minute DVD documentary about Slint and the making of Spiderland; directed by Lance Bangs
• Packaging concept and design by Louisville native Jeremy deVine (of Temporary Residence fame)
• Pre-order the Spiderland Box Set before March 8, 2014 and receive a free T-Shirt created from the recently discovered silk screen Slint used to hand print their one & only 1989 tour T-shirt. These shirts will only be available with box set pre-orders on this site. They will not be sold separately or in stores.
• There is a limited quantity of box sets signed by all four Slint members. These signed box sets are only available from this Touch and Go Records pre-order web page
• All packaging printed in the USA at Stoughton, including heavyweight, "tip-on" gatefold LP jackets
• All three albums pressed at RTI in the USA on 180 gram vinyl

http://slintbox.touchandgorecords.com/

Also where the fuck is this song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iosi9koLsBw

nice

maybe there'll be a less deluxe-o version? would like to hear those bonus cuts, don't really care about a t-shirt.

http://cdn2.pitchfork.com/news/53769/15398dae.jpg

it's expensive, but if you think about the amount of work and the cost of putting together something like this, it's hard to believe they can do it for only $150.

ordered tbh

If I wasn't saving up money for a security deposit/new furniture I would totally (resentfully) drop the money on this tbh :-/

good a time as any to mention this now…

I'm very sorry that I did not contribute to any discussions on ILM re: Slint that the esteemed sctttnnnt (pgwp) may have noticed a few years ago, because I would have been a pretty good interview for his book.

I grew up in Louisville: while I grew up with Will Oldham (as well as drew D, who doesn't seem to come around here anymore), the fellas that would make up Slint were intimidating as fuck to me. Somehow I never saw a Maurice show (saw dozens of Kinghorse ones, tho). I was not immersed n the punk rock scene to the extent that like hundreds of kids my age did.

But I saw the first three Slint shows: first was at Tewligans, winter '87, opening for Killdozer. I thought "yeah, four all-stars from the baddest bands around! this is gonna be the most terrifying metal I've ever heard." Instead it was the Tweez shit, which terrifying in an entirely more bewildering way.

Second was at a battle of the bands at my school that I booked; my own band opened, which made me feel like a gnat trying to measure up to a behemoth. One of my buddies videotaped the whole show, and we would watch their show over and over again: the little brother of the guy who taped it taped a UofL game over it, which is funny cause the little brother was a drummer in L'ville hardcore band of note in the 1990s.

third was at a VW hall that had Big Black and Urge Overkill too. I guess this was the time that Albini and the UO guys were tight, and then the UO guys sold out or behaved in a way that Albini didn't like, which results in him still, after 30 years, talking shit about them on the Electrical Audio Boards. saw them again in lville and 90, when they played some Spiderland shit, and then again at Irving Plaza in 06, surrounded by several thousand more people than at any I had been to previously.

What someone upthread said was much much more true for me at that time: those guys were way way ahead of everyone. It was baffling that the Tweez shit had as few precedents as it did. I was away from Louisville when Spiderland came out, which was again remarkable that it had as little to with Tweez as it did.

Later I had some awkward encounters with BW, but there can be no doubt that he is unlike any drummer who ever walked the Earth prior.

150 bucks seems like a pretty fair price for all that imo. not sure I need to own any more of Spiderland than what I've already got but that sounds like a very nice box set to have if yr really into the record

I feel like I kind of want this, even though I haven't listened to "Spiderland" in yrs, that record is kind of burned into my DNA

Fuck maybe I should just charge it

Veronica, that's amazing. I researched the hell out of Slint during that period, to the point that pretty sure I've pieced together a list of every single live show they ever did (which granted wasn't that many). In that sense I know exactly which shows you're referring to - would loved to have heard more about the experience of seeing them in the moment. From what I've been able to glean, a lot of people didn't appreciate what they were seeing (or maybe Slint just wasn't as good live as on record?), and also not very many people can actually claim to have caught them at all.

About this reissue - I'm excited. I knew of Pam (named for Todd Brashear's mom--his dad is Glenn). It's in a similar vein as Rhoda and, from the bootlegs I've heard, it's great. I'm super excited to hear any post-Spiderland material, as I didn't know any existed outside of the song that became "King's Approach," which they played during their reunions.

I've caught a few segments of Lance Bangs' documentary and what I've seen is excellent.