In 1991 US band Slint released Spiderland, their second/ last album. The band had come together in Louisville, Kentucky in 1986 when two local punk bands folded (Squirrel Bait and Maurice). Slint's line up- Brian McMahon, David Pajo, Todd Brashear and Britt Walford- spent four days in August 1990 recording Spiderland, an album that got little press and coverage on release in the US but was picked up by the inkies in the UK and gradually grew to become one of the 90s rock's cult albums, an influence on the entire post- rock/ indie and alt- rock scenes.
The sessions were intense, members of the took things very seriously (as the US punk/ hardcore/ indie scene kind of demanded at the turn of the 90s- this was not done for laughs or as disposable pop music). Slint's quiet- loud dynamics, tempo shifts, unusual song structures and angular rhythms set the course for a lot of what would follow. Brian McMahon's spoken word vocals would explode into shouting and the lyrics were odd- strange narrative accounts, syntax all over the place, off kilter. Spiderland is clearly not Nevermind. It was never going to cross over and blow up like Nirvana did but in its own way it was just as influential.
The album opens with Breadcrumb Trail...
David Pajo's guitar possibly recalling Tom Verlaine, stutters and repeats a riff, the drums rumble, there's a lot of space evident- you can almost hear the room they are recording in- and McMahon talks about the day the carnival came into town. Pajo repeatedly changes course completely, the song's structure changing instantly, switching to distorted riffs. McMahon's singing becomes pained and distant. The they switch again, the bass and d rums following and becoming more of a presence. It's exhilarating and intense, a bit uncomfortable, not a song that could become background music or a prime time radio standard.
The second song is Nosferatu Rock (which I really should have posted last Saturday in the Saturday Soundtrack slot). The song is inspired by F.W. Murnau's the 1922 film, German Expressionist vampire horror.
Snares and tom toms, more sharp and angular guitar playing with an intermittent electric guitar squeal that is impossible to ignore and an explosive chorus, all jagged riff slashing and cymbal smashes. 'I could just settle down, I'd be doing just fine', McMahon mutters at one point before the chorus bursts into earshot again. Eventually they settle into a grinding, crunching groove, riffs and drums in sync, before everything dissolves and burns up into thirty seconds of feedback. The remaining four songs are all equally powerful concluding with the epic end song Good Morning Captain, the bleak seven minute closing shot. McMahon made himself sick from straining to sing/ speak/ shout over the guitars. They split up before Spiderland was even released, the toll too much (but did reform in 2005 and played together for two years).
Mogwai, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Tortoise, Explosions In The Sky, Pavement.... all these bands (and more) must have been listening to Spiderland, all took something from it. It is frequently held up as one of those albums that was hardly picked up at the time but which as gone on to have a second and third life.
No comments:
Post a Comment