by Roni Sarig
DISCOGRAPHY
Album: Generic Flipper (Subterranean, 1981; Def American, 1992); the essential debut album.
Gone Fishin’ (Subterranean, 1982); the more ambitious second studio record, that traded musical variety for sublime sludge.
Blow’n Chunks [tape] (ROIR, 1984; 1990); recorded live in 1983 at CBGB.
Public Flipper Limited Live 1980-1985 (Subterranean, 1986); a double album of live recordings, spanning the group’s career.
Sex Bomb Baby! (Subterranean, 1987; Infinite Zero, 1995); a collection of singles and compilation tracks, including much of their most inspired material, with three tracks added on the reissue.
American Grafishy (Def American, 1993); an uninspired ‘90s reunion record without Will Shatter.
SLINT
Jenny Toomey, Tsunami / Licorice:
Slint were the most name-dropped band of the ‘90s probably. I don’t know that anyone has done that style of music – which did become a style – as well as they did. Codeine, Karate, a million bands. They proved slow and quiet could be more powerful and earnest than fast rock songs.
Because Slint is the youngest band in this book, it’s not yet possible to gauge the influence, they’ve had and will continue to have on rock. By all accounts, though, they are destined to be one of the great underground reference points for generations of post-rock bands to come. During Slint’s brief career – 1987 to 1991 – the group released only two albums (plus a posthumous single). Their amalgam of avant hardcore and prog rock, though, has already been adopted by enough indie bands – Rodan, June of ‘44, Codeine, and so forth – to make “Slint-esque” a meaningful label. Even bands much older than Slint are likely to name the group as one of the truly inventive rock creations of the ‘90s. At this late hour in rock’s history, that’s quite an accomplishment.
Slint represents the artistic pinnacle of the small, closely intertwined punk scene in Louisville, Kentucky that has produced (or played some part in) indie bands as diverse as Palace, King Kong, Tortoise, and Gastr del Sol. The group was formed by guitarist Brian McMahon and drummer Britt Walford, who at the ripe old age of 17 had already made two highly regarded records as part of the hardcore band Squirrel Bait. When McMahon recruited guitarist David Pajo, and Pajo’s friend Ethan Buckler joined as bassist, the quartet was complete.
Bob Pollard, Guided by Voices:
I really appreciate Slint, because I think Brian McMahon was the least appreciated guy in Squirrel Bait, but he went on to do the most important stuff. There’s a lot of Slint copy bands.
Though they weren’t sure how they’d go about it, from the start Slint meant to be a reaction to the hardcore sound that by ‘87 was way past its prime. “Bands all started to sound the same. There wasn’t anything new and exciting,” Pajo remembers. “We talked about doing something out of frustration with what was around. It sounded pretty fun, so we just started playing.” Slint was primarily interested in exploring dynamics and textures as opposed to writing traditionally structured songs. Though they’d later add some words – often spoken rather than sung – the emphasis was always on crafting perfectly economical instrumentals.
Creating rock music as intricate as what they envisioned proved demanding, and it required the band to focus much more energy on practicing than would be prudent for a more informal punk band. But barely out of high school, the four members were content to live with their parents and work odd jobs while ironing out Slint’s sound. “We weren’t really driven to make lots of records or tour,” Pajo says. “We were serious but didn’t obsess over it. But we’d practice a lot compared to how much we played out or recorded. And I think it shows in how intricate the songs are.”
Anxious to document their initial material, Slint drove north to Chicago in the fall of 1987 to record with one of their biggest musical influences, Big Black’s Steve Albini. Though it wasn’t released until 1989 – and then only on the micro-indie Jennifer Hartman Records and Tapes – the band’s debut, Tweez, was an immediately distinctive statement of purpose. With songs named after band member’s parents (and pets) and album sides named after toilet manufacturers, it was clearly a record with a sense of humor. However, the music was surprisingly dramatic, with sudden leaps between its fractured song segments. Though the music was rarely melodic, it managed to stay more focused and fluid than most instrumental rock.
Buckler, who found his ideas on music didn’t fit with the other Slint members, disapproved of Tweez and left soon after to pursue more whimsical and groove-based music with King Kong. The addition of new bassist Todd Brashear, as well as the maturing of the others, changed Slint’s sound greatly in the two years before they recorded their follow-up, Spiderland. “Our taste in music started to change. We all started listening to a lot more Delta blues and old country music and Leonard Cohen. With Tweez there’s tons of inside jokes and weird noises, but with Spiderland it’s completely straight. We tried to keep it pure, which I think was part of us being into all this old music.”
Lou Barlow, Sebadoh / Folk Implosion:
Almost immediately after we heard Spiderland we made up an instrumental called “Slint.” It was kind of creepy and spare, similar to what I was doing but developed more. They were like these little eggheads who totally knew how to play, and had a real grasp on dynamics. That was really lost with ‘80s bands like Dinosaur and Pussy Galore, who were not about dynamics at all. But Slint would build these towering epics. Their influence is amazing, it absolutely makes sense with younger kids who hear them.
For Spiderland (which featured a cover photo taken by their friend, Will Oldham of Palace), Slint worked with producer Brian Paulson (who also worked with Wilco, Beck, and many others) to create something that took their ideas to an entirely different level. Songs were tighter and better executed, with even more subtlety to the instrumental dynamics. McMahon’s vocals – such as the quietly intoned narrative of Breadcrumb Trail – became more prominent, though never intruded on the primacy of the arrangements. Spiderland’s impact on certain segments of the indie rock world was, much to the band’s surprise, immediate and deep.
Jim O’Rourke, solo / Gastr del Sol:
I can’t heap enough praise on the second Slint record. They found something new. It’s an original representation of Americana, in its place and time. It couldn’t have been made elsewhere. It’s a very pure record, distilled to its essentials. It has a real articulateness that I had never heard before in music like that. Any time somebody falls upon something like that I’m very inspired, like, “Ah ha / Excellent / Let’s get back to work... ”
Slint, though, would not last long enough to capitalize on its notoriety. By the time Spiderland came out in 1991, McMahon had quit and the group effectively dissolved. Britt Walford had a short stint as the Breeders’ drummer (credited as “Mike Hunt”), then played with Evergreen; David Pajo joined Chicago’s Tortoise and also pursued M, his Louisville-based band; McMahon formed the For Carnation, and then worked for a record company in Los Angeles. Each member of Slint, at various points, has also taken part in Will Oldham’s Palace. And though Slint re-formed for a short time in 1993, no new recordings resulted and the group has no plans to play together again.
DISCOGRAPHY
Tweez (Jennifer Hartman, 1989; Touch and Go, 1993); the Steve Albini-recorded debut, a lighthearted post-hardcore record that hinted what was to come.
Slint [single] (Touch and Go, 1994); two-song release featuring extended instrumentals recorded between the two albums.
Spiderland (Touch and Go, 1991); the group’s masterpiece, a founding document of ‘90s indie rock.
INDEX
13th Floor Elevators 66
Bad Brains 279
Barrett, Syd 73
Beat Happening 54
Big Black 221
Big Star 47
Birthday Party, The 218
Black Flag 265
Branca, Glenn 30
Buzzcocks 233
Cage, John 18
Cale, John 22
Can 124
Captain Beefheart 77
Chrome 215
Conrad, Tony 22
Cramps, The 116
Dead Kennedys 269
DNA 187
Drake, Nick 112
Dream Syndicate, The 22
Einstürzende Neubauten 212
Eno, Brian 146
Erickson, Roky 66
ESG 199
Fall, The 236
Faust 128
Feelies, The 183
Flipper 296
Gainsbourg, Serge 43
Gang of Four 240
Germs, The 262
Glass, Philip 26
Gun Club 120
Half Japanese 96
Hell, Richard 179
Hüsker Dü 276
Iceberg Slim 171
Johnston, Daniel 100
Kraftwerk 131
Last Poets 160
Liquid Liquid 202
Lydia Lunch 248
MC5 59
Minor Threat 283
Minutemen, The 272
Mission of Burma 292
Modern Lovers, The 103
Neu! 134
Parks, Van Dyke 35
Parsons, Gram 108
Pere Ubu 85
Perry, Lee “Scratch” 142
Public Image Limited 225
Raincoats, The 258
Red Krayola 88
Residents, The 81
Richman, Jonathan 103
Satie, Erik 12
Scott, Raymond 15
Scott-Heron, Gil 167
Shaggs, The 93
Sherwood, Adrian 151
Silver Apples 69
Slint 299
Slits, The 255
Stooges, The 62
Suicide 175
Swans 191
Swell Maps 244
Television 179
Theater of Eternal Music 22
Thompson, Mayo 88
Throbbing Gristle 208
Trouble Funk 196
Tubby, King 139
U-Roy 157
Voidoids, The 179
Walker, Scott 39
Watts Prophets 164
Wipers 288
Wire 229
X-Ray Spex 252
Young, LaMonte 22
Young Marble Giants 51
