classic albums, atsonicpark edition # 16: slint - spiderland
 

SLINT "SPIDERLAND"
Touch and Go, 1991

1. Breadcrumb Trail
2. Nosferatu Man
3. Don, Aman
4. Washer
5. For Dinner
6. Good Morning Captain

This goes without saying, eh? Of course it's a classic, maybe I wanted to start these threads to highlight records that don't get enough attention.. but fuck it, this album gets plenty of attention, and it's still too good for me to go without speaking about it.... I had never heard ANYTHING like this when I first heard this.. the only reason I checked it out is because I bought "At Action Park" when I was 14 and someone on the internet described the song 'Idea of North' as Slint-like. So, I listened to Slint...

Some will say this album is way too overrated, but I digress.. never will you hear such a bleak, cold, minimal recording that, uh, actually rocks in parts. 6 perfect and completely different songs, united by some complex (but not over-the-top) rhythms, weird guitar playing with an emphasis on harmonics, spoken word vocals. What REALLY strikes me about this album, though, is the atmosphere in the recording. Blame it on a limited recording budget, a very competent (or incompetent) producer, or ... something else (the mental breakdowns?) .. but this recording has a dark atmosphere unlike any I've ever heard. How the fuck did they do that?

Begins perfect and ends perfect with nothing bad in the middle. I actually think "For Dinner" is my favorite song on the album, the way it rises out of the darkness and keeps falling apart. It seems to be filler, but it's placement of the album is perfect. And uh... "I'm sorry, and I miss you." For those who haven't heard this album (?!??!?), think Jandek making kinda mathy rock. There you go.

A classic.

yeah. one of my favourite albums. just like you said it has a perfect beggining and end. the melodies and lyrics are genius not to mention the drumming; its just perfect.

Yeah! This is an amazingly bleak, and excellent record. I've gotta be in the right kind of mood to listen to it, but once it's on I always end up lisetening to the whole damn thing. So distant and creepy sounding... Plus I love that cover picture too.

It is awesome, but a little inconsistant. Washer, Breadcrumb Trail and Good Morning Captain are excellent, excellent songs.

I was on the last train back into London, and i had my old CD player with my (burned) copy of Spiderland and nothing else accesible. I had been writing a story for a couple of months, this story had many different purposes and facets but i had not been able to see what its end would be.
I sat on this train journey lookin at my refelction in the night, listening to this album, and i saw what i was to do. From this journey my story became crystallised, and over the coming weeks i knew what was going to happen.
Bangin'.

The end of Good Morning, Captain is the greatest thing my ears have ever witnessed. Pure bliss.

I think everyone agrees with that.

I have played this album about five times a week every week since I got it last February and I've yet to tire of it. There are very few albums that I can say that about. Spiderland has a massive amount of balls.

Like yo momma

There are times when I love this album. But most of the time I'll usually listen to something else. Still classic, though.

i love this album a lot.

Classic indeed.

I was a bit disappointed with their performance in Chicago honestly. Probably not the best location with daylight and the whole setting...

Spiderland fucking rocks.

ive said it before... essentail listening for anyone with ears!

hah yeah.

only 15 answers for spiderland?! i thought this one was going to be controversial.

spiderland and loveless are still the best alblums that have come out since theyve come out if you ask me. i think loveless slightly edges spiderland out but a tiny tiny tiny bit, but thats just because ive listened to it longer maybe.

Bores me to death.

Threadmaker: Yeah.

Although I don't understand some cult classics.

I listened to the record only once and found it rather boring.

*promotes the genius*

You're absolutely right, this album is incredible, and Good Morning Captain is the absolute highlight. One of my biggest regrets was not seeing this performed live last year. It's just a shame we didn't hear more from Slint, and what we did didn't come close to the genius of Spiderland.

I remember this coming out at the time, and how it really seemed to polarise people. In Britain around that time, the scene seemed to be splitting into camps, with the 'noise scene' beginning to embrace more improv/jazz/Beefheart influences (early Royal Trux, etc) with another side getting into a more Fall influenced style (Pavement, Slint, etc). I suppose at the time I was more into the former and so largely ignored Slint - although I did own Spiderland. Like Sarramkrop, I just didn't like it at the time and, listening to it again recently, still can't see what all the fuss was about. I will agree though that the cover is beautiful. And for a lot of people in the UK it was a very important album, so definitely deserves its classic status - just not for everyone.

Fact: The cover photograph was taken by Will Oldham.

Good album, but I rarely listen to it.

I never think to put it on and it rarely suits my mood. what can I say?

i listen to it prolly monthly or more. its a perennial classic. i cant think of many ablums from the 90s better than this.

yeah... all in all the 90s sucked in music.

There, I said it.

I can think of a whole bunch of people who made records in the 90's that i enjoy more than this one, which is still a good one, even though it still bores me to death.

i dont think anyone can debate that. it was a horrible time for tunes. the merging of the underground and the mainstream made for less groundbreaking underground music and less catchy pop music. people talk about the 90's as a reaction against the sucky 80's, but if you ask me, id take big black and madonna over pearl jam and guided by voices any fucking day.

not sayin there wernt some great bands and records of course, just less in volume in comparison with the 00's, 80's, 70's, and 60's.

the 90's have plenty of amazing bands and albums, my favorite thing is that most i didn't get to listen to them during that time.

there's plenty of shitty ones, just like in any decade.

i think every period has been more or less equal o musical quality. some people think that music today sucks or that the 80s sucked, but if you know where to look then you can always find someone doing something amazing and creative, just as if you look elswhere it will seem that every perioud made bad music....

Yeah, the 90's isn't any better than the 80's, the 80's isn't better than 70's... music has been pretty equal for a long time.

I love reminding people that say they love 70's music that saying so includes Throbbing Gristle.

Not to suggest that TG are bad but people that say something like that generally can't stomach TG.

Throbbing Gristle is maybe the greatest IDEA ever. But as a band? Eh... they're okay.

I remember hearing about slint for a LONG time, for over a couple of years, and I could not find any of their recordings.
One day my friend sozavac brought over the Kids sountrack and told me that Lou Barlow had put it together and that there was a slint song. I listened to it and was OH FUCK, this is as good or better than I imagined!

I found spiderland, Tweez (which is half good half meh) and the untitled EP soon after.
I played Spiderland every day for weeks. It is just an amazing album and it gave me hope, around 9 years ago or so, that young guys were still making bleak interesting sad/angry rock music


and yes, albini's production on it is fucking awesome as always.

Rob, I can't tell from your post because you kinda grouped Tweez, Spiderland, the untitled EP together in that paragraph, but in case I read this right, I just wanted to let you know Steve didn't produced Spiderland... he did produce Tweez and I read an interview that said he wishes he'd produced Spiderland though he couldn't have done a better job than the guy who produced it did.

Because obviously you're the only one who knows all music from every decade. Everything ever recorded has gone through the ears of the above dude. And even if it really did, which isn't the case, you rarely struck me as someone who absorbs music, rather than just give it a quick listen.

Thanks! who's the mad genius who did it?

I also love the EP, two long instrumental tracks with a picture of snowy murder on the black and white cover.

Twez sounds to me like a band still finding it's footing.

You know what I think of Tweez? I think it was a bunch of dudes who wanted to do a Rapeman or Big Black type thing but one of the guitarists had only heard "Kerosene" and he just decided to do harmonics on every song through a crappy distortion pedal. I think half way through recording they all decided to make an art record. All in all, it's a REALLY interesting listen, but it's not really... well... it's good. But it's more interesting than good. "PAST WHERE THEY PAINT THE HOUSES!"

I love the untitled EP though. The best song from Tweez is on there... and it sounds amazing... there's a riff on that album that just blows me away... man, Slint wrote some good riffs (on the, what, 14 songs they ever wrote)...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Paulson <--- producer of Spiderland

I still say "For Dinner" is one of the best songs ever made.