Silkworm: C/D?

btw matador has found some old LPs in a warehouse, firewater and developer on vinyl on their site for cheap

cutty do you have any of the phelps downer trio stuff? it's pretty good too.

i like all eras of this band.

whoa thanks dude! i just picked those up.

i've never listened to phelps-era silkworm; but trio silkworm/bottomless pit is probably top 5 all-time for me

IN THE WEST

i don't get the firewater love

I like In the West but to me they transitioned from (sometimes literal) Pavement followers / noisy indie into more of their own thing (even if their "own thing" has heavy Television + Neil Young vibes). and the lyrics became a bigger deal -- Miracle Mile, Don't Make Plans This Friday, Slow Hands all some of my favorites by them. even if it is sort of a downer record

even if even if

cutty do you have any of the phelps downer trio stuff?

i love the phelps solo stuff, yes. did any here get a chance to see silkworm with phelps?

i've never listened to phelps-era silkworm

this is mind boggling. he has the best songs on the first two records.

my firewater and developer lps got here today; rockin out to firewater now and soooooo happy

please try the earlier records, thank you

ordered libertine 20 minutes ago--just for you, cutty

is in the west OOP? because i will post it here.

amazon sez: physical version has been discontinued, still available from amazon mp3 tho

also check out the marco collins sessions EP

my firewater and developer lps got here today; rockin out to firewater now and soooooo happy

― call all destroyer, Tuesday, April 7, 2009 9:27 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
just curious, is your firewater 1 lp or 2?

No more simple tunes
No more easy poon
It takes so many millions to get laid

great, great opening line

it's 2 lps. 10 bucks from the matastore!

completely addicted to the two bottomless pit records.

particularly "red pen." great, great song.

really into bottomless pit now too

yeah, I keep putting the congress EP on again because I wish there were MORE.

Man every single time I play Lifestyle I'm reminded of why I fucking love rock music when the guitar solo kicks in on "Around the Outline".

fucking incredible record imo

It really is.

the "AIN'T YOU EVER BEEN ALONE IN YOUR LIFE?" part of the chorus to "Treat the New Guy Right" might be my favorite moment in any rock song ever

So hard to pick just one moment though. Really loving the "Ooh La La" cover, so good. Why the hell weren't these guys ever huge?

yepppp

they were huge. for me.

cutty otm

Why the hell weren't these guys ever huge?

I think part of it is that, for the press, they weren't a band that presented any kind of really appealing built-in "story angles"...you know, like for instance Animal Collective or Joanna Newsom or Bonnie Prince Billy or Pavement etc etc

like three/four workmanlike midwest regular dudes playing rock that split the difference between 90s indie and 70s classic rock but not in a flashy way

but isn't that basically GBV's story, too? And they had more success than Silkworm ... I guess GBV had Pollard's bajillions of songs + hard drinking live show as a story hook.

Also Pollard's former life as a school-teacher was a pretty big hook too, especially when you read 90s interviews.

gbv was catchy. i love silkworm's pretty lackadaisical approach to writing choruses.

yeah also GBV were such a drunk circus live

Silkworm was a huge band for me too. I was more of a Libertine/Firewater fan than Lifestyle, but "Treat the New Guy Right" is definitely one of their best songs ever.

also a big fan

I finally got around to seeing Bottomless Pit live about 4-5 months ago and it was great. I can't get into the records as much as Silkworm but it was just amazing to see Midgett and Cohen, they're an intense live band.

the "AIN'T YOU EVER BEEN ALONE IN YOUR LIFE?" part of the chorus to "Treat the New Guy Right" might be my favorite moment in any rock song ever

dude we are fucking soulmates & I wish we could see this song played live at the Triple Rock or Minneap venue of your choice so that we could @ 4 beers deep yell this line in unison

that would be awesome

damn i'm gettin' all melancholy now, i miss this band!

I've probably said this before but I think my entire guitar soloing "style" (such as it is) is based on trying to sound like Andy Cohen (and failing).

fucking love the solo in That's Entertainment

All this love makes me so happy!

I've always loved the solo in "Miracle Mile." It blew my mind that it was this despondent acoustic-guitar-and-vocals tune and then two minutes in you hear this CRACKLE CRACKLE as dude plugs in the electric guitar and then it's just like a minute of BRRREEAAAAAOOOWWW blaring electric guitar solo before cutting back out and he finishes the sad song.

rocking "empty elevator shaft" right now, a favorite & the one I would cover if I could find that passing chord in the second half of the verse

all right I'm in full Silkworm fanboy bloom now...TANGLED IN YR WEB, TANGLED IN YR WEB

also:

possibly fewer percentage of female fans that even Rush

silkworm is serious dude rock.

lol, that is true of so much early/midnineties midwestern indie! shows at the empty bottle ca. '95...all dudes

except my gf obv

so true--though my empty bottle days were more ca. 2000.

j0hn didn't u live in iowa too? did you know gabe's in ia city?

gabes was 2.5 hours from us, but we went there a little...most notably I drove in to see High on Fire circa winter 2000. like forty people there I'd guess. fucking epic.

gabes! i went there a few times as a grad student.

Are you guys into the Bottomless Pit stuff? I love their LP but I cannot get enough of their Congress EP. I feel like the songs are compositionally more fleshed out than the Silkworm material. Really its all wonderful!

haha no shit! thanks for sharing

"people who text with Steve Albini" rock

accurate!

kids these days are all Shoegaze this, Slowcore that, while overlooking what they REALLY need, the cure for what ails em: Missoula, Montana indie rock band Silkworm

— keegan (@FranziaMom) December 20, 2023

nice to see some love for silkworm. raging bull is an all-timer

i love the songs on libertine but it's serious earache to listen to on headphones, even by albini's standards. it actually sounds ass backwards to my ears; everything that should stand out in the songs is pushed to right the back. as spoken upthread, i wonder how this band would have done with a just marginally more forward production at times...

I feel like later on they did

if they were ever going to have a minor hit it was going to be this and I don't see how the production or mix could be better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9nQ8OARDcg

a lot of those earlier albini productions sound dated to me now - kind of muffled or flat or something? like i've never enjoyed how those classic pixies albums sound. sometime in the mid-90s things improved, the drums sound more alive on albums like firewater and at action park.

yeah I know what you mean it does feel like he makes some kind of breakthrough

or honestly maybe some of the bigger paydays meant he could buy better gear