― Orbit (Orbit), Sunday, 10 July 2005 20:11 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jeff Sumner (Jeff Sumner), Sunday, 10 July 2005 20:13 (eighteen years ago) link
SOOOOTM. Listening to them distresses me greatly -- which in a way is neat that it makes me react that way (as no other music has ever given me near panic attacks like theirs), but it's just too harrowing to listen to for very personal reasons. So Slits by a country mile.
― Ian Riese-Moraine: that obscure object of desire. (Eastern Mantra), Sunday, 10 July 2005 20:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― chris andrews (fraew), Sunday, 10 July 2005 22:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― I.M. (I.M.), Sunday, 10 July 2005 22:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― peter smith (plsmith), Sunday, 10 July 2005 23:13 (eighteen years ago) link
― latebloomer: the Clonus Horror (latebloomer), Sunday, 10 July 2005 23:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― Will(14/\/\), Monday, 11 July 2005 00:42 (eighteen years ago) link
'Fairytale in the Supermarket' is great, and so is Odyshape. After Cut though, the Slits didn't do much for me. Tough call. Slits covers are probably better, what with 'Man Who Lives Next Door'.
― Sasha (sgh), Monday, 11 July 2005 01:33 (eighteen years ago) link
Ludus is closer, but still not there. Neonbabies may come closest of all.
― I.M. (I.M.), Monday, 11 July 2005 02:19 (eighteen years ago) link
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Monday, 11 July 2005 08:36 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dr. C (Dr. C), Monday, 11 July 2005 10:49 (eighteen years ago) link
Similar reasoning leads you to compare Siouxsie and Debbie Harry?
― Bob Six (bobbysix), Monday, 11 July 2005 11:08 (eighteen years ago) link
That said, I pick the Raincoats over the Slits - but if you narrow it to the Slits Peel Sessions v. the first Raincoats album, it's a tie.
― mike a, Monday, 11 July 2005 11:46 (eighteen years ago) link
Palmolive was in The Slits before joining / forming The Raincoats (hence both bands recorded "Adventures Close To Home"), came from the same scene and frequently gigged together.
(x-post)
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Monday, 11 July 2005 11:47 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Monday, 11 July 2005 12:47 (eighteen years ago) link
OK - it's just that I find them completely different.
Sexist posting monitoring police called off - but Alex in NYC gets a mild warning for:
Being nude and slathered in mud on yer album cover never hurts either. Haha.
― Bob Six (bobbysix), Monday, 11 July 2005 13:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Monday, 11 July 2005 13:28 (eighteen years ago) link
THERE IS NO DEDICATED THREAD FOR CUT
so I am putting this OMG new release here:
The Slits, "Cut" deluxe 2CD edition
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002J8LVNQ/ref=pd_re_dt_x1
still no goddamn interview track from that 7" though.
― sleeve, Thursday, 17 February 2011 20:57 (thirteen years ago) link
"SAME OLD THING YEAH I KNOW...Everybody does it" The Slits' Cut POLL
― just sayin, Thursday, 17 February 2011 21:14 (thirteen years ago) link
polls don't count :D
― sleeve, Thursday, 17 February 2011 21:22 (thirteen years ago) link
I'll side with the Raincoats.
― Trip Maker, Thursday, 17 February 2011 21:25 (thirteen years ago) link
Eh, the bonus disc wasn't all that. "Cut" is insanely great, though, and stomps over all of the Raincoats output, as good as it is.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 17 February 2011 22:28 (thirteen years ago) link
I wonder if anyone will ever reissue "Retrospective" aka Y3
also there's some thread around here where dee extrovert notes that there are numerous 80-81 era singles not yet on CD.
― sleeve, Thursday, 17 February 2011 22:39 (thirteen years ago) link
TS: nu-Slits vs. nu-Raincoats, gotta go with Raincoats there.
― sleeve, Thursday, 17 February 2011 22:40 (thirteen years ago) link
isn't the Cut/Uncut 2CD remastered edition old news, or is that something else? I remember asking my mom for it for Christmas 09 and catching major hell for it...
― kingkongvsbasedgodzilla (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, 17 February 2011 23:13 (thirteen years ago) link
Yeah, what planet are you people on? The 2xCD "Cut" has been out for a while. It doesn't feature the interview track from that 7" because that was part of "Return Of The Giant Slits" - and guess what . . . it is on that 2xCD reissue!
Also, "Retrospective" is on CD now, from Japan, with both sides of the "Man Next Door" 7" and nbon-LP versions of "Animal Space" and Animal Spacier" as bonus tracks. That's been out a couple of years, too. I think everything is on CD now, with the exception of the 12" version of "Man Next Door."
Slits vs Raincoats? The first two Raincoats albums were better than the first Slits albums as cohesive pieces, but of those four albums, "Cut" is probably the best when you add in its utter originality and spirit. "Return Of The Giant Slits" I always perceived as a collection of oddball 12" sides crammed onto an album. In other words, it doesn't really work as an album - and there are a few weak tracks - but as individual pieces, it's pretty great.
I like the Slits' vaguely anti-riot grrrl stance (too unoriginal, too dogmatic, not enough groove), which I think adheres best to the spirit of punk / postpunk. The Raincoats seem more charmed by their influence on riot grrrl type stuff. They're now an out-and-out tribute band to themselves, performing mostly their first album and a couple of other later tunes (like "Shouting Out Loud" and "No One's Little Girl.") I'm disappointed at how they've rewritten history in eliminating a full 1/6 of their pre-reunion stuff from reissues and not releasing a few good things I know they have in their cupboards. The Slits have more than doubled the length of their two "real" studio albums as reissues, added tracks to "Retrospective" and put out a couple of great live albums and a collection of all their Peel sessions. Much more generous!
Both groups' reunion records were pretty lame. The Slits lost a lot in losing Viv (who rightly called it when she said she didn't want to be a part of Ari's backing band) and their reunion album proved that Viv was the only real songwriter (especially lyrically) in the band (save Palmolive in the early days.) The new Viv solo stuff, by the way, is a different kettle of fish and probably truer to the original spirit of both bands than any of their other post-breakup stuff. Sonically, quite different, though. Viv's played guitar with the Raincoats a time or two.
― crustaceanrebel, Friday, 18 February 2011 09:57 (thirteen years ago) link
Someone e-mailed me asking about the missing "1/6" of the original Raincoats' oeuvre:
Adventures Close To Home (7" version from "Fairytale In The Supermarket")Running Away (the other side of the "No One's Little Girl" single)Honey Mad Woman, Avidoso and Dreaming In The Past (all from the album "Moving")Honey Mad Woman (Dennis Bovell 12" mix)
Strangely, the Raincoats have just reissued "Moving" on CD in Japan and removed *another* track! ("The Body," in case you're wondering.) But they have added "Running Away," so you can spend $30 for the Japanese CD to get that one track. Are they trying to write Vicky Aspinall and Richard Dudanski out of history? (I know "Avidoso" and "Dreaming In The Past" were his tunes, and I'm pretty sure the other two were Vicky's.) Demented.
― crustaceanrebel, Friday, 18 February 2011 10:08 (thirteen years ago) link
Nothing particularly wrong with Here to Be Heard: The Story of the Slits, but I felt like it could have been better. I was there to learn; I bought Cut many years after the fact, but probably only played it once or twice. I'm posting here because I found the two Raincoats videos they played beforehand more compelling.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 15 May 2018 02:55 (five years ago) link
Eh, the bonus disc (with the deluxe version) wasn't all that. "Cut" is insanely great, though, and stomps over all of the Raincoats output, as good as it is.
2011 me is wrong about the first part - the demos offer a different perspective on "Cut" and add greater understanding of where they were coming from and where they were going. But I stand by the second - the Slits take on dub-punk is much more exciting than the folk-punk of the Raincoats (which I quite like, mind!).
I also got the 2CD expanded "Return Of The Giant Slits" for the bonus disc of dub versions, all great.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 15 May 2018 13:46 (five years ago) link
https://indiethroughthelookingglass.com/2018/05/07/the-raincoats-previously-unseen-photographs-from-1978/
― MaresNest, Tuesday, 15 May 2018 20:38 (five years ago) link
Slits movie also mentioned on another Slits thread recently
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 16 May 2018 13:20 (five years ago) link
x-post- ah the late 70s... transitional time
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 16 May 2018 13:22 (five years ago) link
great photos. would be great if KC didn’t have to be invoked every f-ing time the Raincoats are mentioned.
― by the light of the burning Citroën, Wednesday, 16 May 2018 13:44 (five years ago) link
Raincoats. Although if either had originally done the Mo-dettes White Mice I would've put my vote there.
― Yerac, Wednesday, 16 May 2018 13:52 (five years ago) link
Slits
― Incline/decline (Ross), Thursday, 17 May 2018 15:17 (five years ago) link
So the movie doc Here to Be Heard: The Story of the Slits is on Hulu now, but I haven't seen it yet
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 17 May 2018 15:21 (five years ago) link