Slits vs Raincoats

"SAME OLD THING YEAH I KNOW...Everybody does it" The Slits' Cut POLL

polls don't count :D

I'll side with the Raincoats.

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.

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.

TS: nu-Slits vs. nu-Raincoats, gotta go with Raincoats there.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

https://indiethroughthelookingglass.com/2018/05/07/the-raincoats-previously-unseen-photographs-from-1978/

Slits movie also mentioned on another Slits thread recently

x-post- ah the late 70s... transitional time

great photos. would be great if KC didn’t have to be invoked every f-ing time the Raincoats are mentioned.

Raincoats. Although if either had originally done the Mo-dettes White Mice I would've put my vote there.

Slits

So the movie doc Here to Be Heard: The Story of the Slits is on Hulu now, but I haven't seen it yet