slint -- _spiderland_: classic or dud

sub-SY guitar <> moss icon.

thank you.

can I just say that Tom is just incredibly wrong with the '90s thing'. I mean, I really dislike plenty of 'post-rock' but there is actually a lot to it, one of them being the quiet-loud dynamics: that's the one thing that this band could've been a precursor to, its the way that they would play a in one end of the volume and then switch and catch you unawares, maybe the stop-start stuff.

Also lots of 'tugboat', very fluid, type riffing on here too. Just lovely and pleasant straight note playing on much of it: but then the switch on 'washer' was just perfection, and when it gets 'harsh', they can do that too.

The vocals on this are pretty much incredible: Brian just had a style and went with it: I'd say he tried to sing in the way the band sounded, lots of talking through, creepy wispers, then the kind of Bob Mould hardcore screamins, but lots of very nervous vocals too (reminds of the singing on meat puppets 'II')...overall he's very attentive to the whole atmosphere that the record is projecting.

I got this record back in prob 1999. having actually heard quite a bit from '91, I'd say they were just out of their time.

And as far as indie rock goes I don't like much of it but I really love every note of this.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=1592&item=4068088080&rd=1

a quick note about eBay:

recently i've noticed a lot of slint "live" cds being sold on ebay. the most common of them is a show at dreamerz in chicago that features both "good morning, captain" and a cover of neil young's "cortez the killer". while a good show, it's hardly worth the twenty dollar price that i see people bidding. this show is readily available in mp3 form elsewhere on the internet (like at this site), and the people that sell these "live" cds are cheating you. a blank cd costs one dollar, so an average auction yields about a 2000% profit. slint was a great band, and it's not cool that some guy with a cd burner is making money off of their hard work. David Pajo, in response to the Live Songs LP, summed it up best, "Somebody is rolling in some cash right now, low overhead and a big price tag. And they didn't have to play a note, they didn't have to pay for gas to drive to New Jersey, they didn't practice 5 nights a week trying to hone the songs down".

Please don't buy these "live" cds. They do nothing to help Slint and only fatten some guy's wallet.

But "Pam" is a great (fast!) crypto-metal number with the whole band, and esp. Britt Walford, on really top form.

Right. Going to see them play the album tomorrow in Brussels. (setlist in Amsterdam yesterday was: album + two song EP + new 20 minute track) Excited!

(oh, and classic, but not for listening to very often)

Slint kill me. I love "Good morning captain" but oh god is it heartbreaking.

classic, duh

"Good Morning Captain" goes straight to the back of my skull. "Washer" too, but in a more hypnotic, subtle way - "the sombre geometry of the repeating guitar riff" is a really fucking awesome and OTM description. "Washer" is one of the few songs on which I'll forgive the trembly emo-tenor singing. It just fucking works.

Saw them at ATP last weekend, they weren't helped by the cavernous venue in which they played. Still good though.

That was one of the few good things in this month's OMM; ex-Arsenal star Ian Wright reveals his secret love for "Good Morning Captain."

Wait, you're not kidding.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/story/0,,2080706,00.html
"Surprisingly, he felt much the same way about Slint, not least because of the track's X-rated scream: 'That's how it should be, letting yourself go, to the extent that he's fucking screaming.'"

Well I never!

Isn't that song about the fractious relationship between an estranged father and son?

*shivers*

What's most mesmerizing about "Good Morning, Captain" is how the lyrics are like two almost-disjoint sets, the deadpan narrative vs. achingly personal emo whisper that comes flying out of nowhere. Fucking brutal.

And the guitars/drums/bass actually sound seasick, which is awesome.

Well, they were VERY good (album + 2 track EP + new song (not 20 minutes like in Amsterdam - other track?) ), but I'm still having trouble with the whole concept of playing full albums. Anyway, yay!

i nominate this thread for some of the worst writing on ILM. no wonder these people no longer write about music.

hi steve!

who's that on bass? it isn't todd cook.

according to (Dutch mag) Oor, it is indeed Todd Cook:

( http://www.oor.nl/deruit_concertverslagen_details.asp?id=513 )

Britt Walford: drums/vocals/guitar
Brian McMahan: vocals/guitar
David Pajo: guitar
Michael McMahan: guitar (yes, his brother)
Todd Cook: bass

(according to that same article, that is)

this is definitely not todd cook:

<img src=http://bp1.blogger.com/_oDP6_P0g4gc/RlLmlr1HKoI/AAAAAAAAAWs/fxv9cL-fe4E/s1600-h/508472584_c612cac472.jpg&gt;

crap, damn:

http://bp1.blogger.com/_oDP6_P0g4gc/RlLmlr1HKoI/AAAAAAAAAWs/fxv9cL-fe4E/s1600-h/508472584_c612cac472.jpg

wtf i hate nu ilx. go here:

http://bp1.blogger.com/_oDP6_P0g4gc/RlLmlr1HKoI/AAAAAAAAAWs/fxv9cL-fe4E/s1600-h/508472584_c612cac472.jpg

that's not todd cook.

Ah. That certainly is the guy who played bass yesterday.

Does this mean that dutch journalist got it wrong? Journalists getting things wrong, I thought that was impossible? :-(

looks like a de-bearded todd brashear:

http://www.wandwvideo.com/images/toddwrobot.jpg

wow!

I'm pretty sure that's the same guy, yes!

There's now a bootleg of the Amsterdam show, and the final track only looks like being 10 mins, according to the tracklist.

I only heard about that on some forum, by the way. Maybe they meant it felt like 20 minutes?

The instrumental part in "Washer" right after "promise me the sun will rise again..." is so fucking creepy.

it gets all slow and heavy and GOD it is so depressing.

PRIMAVERA MUTHAFUCKAS!

Brussels pix

http://www.soundslike.be/pictures/?pictureID=22

(yes, Pajo was wearing a Lamb Of God tshirt)

Put this on for the first time in a few years last night, blew me away yet again, absolute classic

Whereas I listened to this for the first time a few months ago, and was just... 'meh'.

I completely love this album, and was actually fortunate enough not to have had it played up as a total 90s indie classic (which, in any case, I really think it is, btw) before hearing it. Maybe 4 years ago, one of my older brothers (who first heard it when he was in college back in the early 90s) just put it on after I played him some Mogwai. We were talking a little bit about early 90s indie very generally, and he just kind of casually said, "oh, this is Slint, you'll probably like this." I was totally blown away.

Liked it at the time, but didn't love it. Feel the same about it now. A couple times in between, I've heard it and been blown the fuck away, but mostly it just sounds nice. Requires a specific frame of mind and kind of attention, I guess. Feel much the same way about Mogwai and Godspeed!, two of yr higher profile Slint spawn outfits.

But I totally agree w/ sundar et al about how hard it is to hear this record without experiencing a parallel rush of distaste for the huge, boring museum rock culture it seems to have generated, or at least anticipated.

i bought it because of the cover photo and the intriguing band name, and grew to really love it despite later finding that it was a CLASSIC