126: Slint - Spiderland (1991)
“Spiderland is a majestic album, sublime and strange, made more brilliant by its simplicity and quiet grace. Songs evolve and expand from simple statements that are inverted and truncated in a manner that seems spontaneous, but is so precise and emphatic that it must be intuitive or orchestrated or both.”
—Steve Albini
Slint are a true one-of-a-kind band - they showed up seemingly out of nowhere, singlehandedly defined an entire genre on a single album, and disappeared before that album was even released. What happened? Why is Spiderland so influential? And, beyond its influence - does the album still hold up today? Phil certainly thinks so - in his opinion, its grandeur has been frequently imitated, but never duplicated. He, along with Mike, Rich, and Dan, are here to talk about just what makes this album so special.
Miscellany
As Rich mentioned, it’s doubtful that Slint were getting inspiration from obscure house 12-inches, but one unexpected influence they did name was Madonna. Exactly how the music reflects that influence is unclear, but the title of “Don, Aman” is indeed an anagram for “Madonna.”
As further evidence that Slint had no idea what they had, the liner notes to Spiderland actually included a call for “interested female vocalists.” One who responded was PJ Harvey.
Other links
Slint's official Bandcamp (Bandcamp.com)
Scott Tennant's 33 1/3 on Spiderland (Bloomsbury.com)
Post-Rock & Post-Punk in a Post-Spiderland World (Walden Green, 34st.com)
Discord & Rhyme’s Spiderland playlist (Spotify)
Discord & Rhyme’s merch store (TeePublic)
Discord & Rhyme Roll Call
Phil Maddox (host)
Mike DeFabio (moderator)
Rich Bunnell
Dan Watkins
Spiderland tracklist
Breadcrumb Trail
Nosferatu Man
Don, Aman
Washer
For Dinner …
Good Morning, Captain
Other clips used
Slint:
Glenn
Ron
Nosferatu Man (Basement Practice)
Others:
Squirrel Bait - Kick the Kat
Shellac - Didn't We Deserve a Look At You the Way You Really Are
Nirvana - Milk It
Chavez - Break Up Your Band
The Velvet Underground - The Murder Mystery
Black Flag - Damaged I
Stone Temple Pilots - Creep
Underworld - Cups
The Velvet Underground - The Gift
Black Country, New Road - Science Fair
Pinback - AFK
Talk Talk - Eden
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Moya
Polvo - Fast Canoe
Fugazi - Exit Only
Tortoise - In Sarah, Mencken, Christ, and Beethoven There Were Women and Men
Mogwai - Like Herod
Unwound - Look a Ghost
Band/album personnel
Todd Brashear – bass guitar
David Pajo – guitar
Brian McMahan – vocals, guitar
Britt Walford – drums, vocals, guitar
Brian Paulson – engineering
Credits
“Discord & Rhyme (theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of:
Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf
Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste
The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...
Faith No More - Midlife Crisis
Herbie Hancock - Hornets
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen
Slint - Good Morning, Captain (this episode only)
You can buy or stream Spiderland and the one other album by Slint at slint.bandcamp.com, your local record store, or the usual suspects such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Twitter @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other random stuff. Editing is by Rich Bunnell, and special thanks to our own Mike DeFabio, the Other Leading Brand, for production and original music. See you next album, and keep as cool as you can.