Slint's Spiderland (15 page)

I followed another road down to the lake itself, quietly secluded on all sides by the bluffs. More houses lined the water, small docks built into their backyards so the families could take leisurely boat rides — maybe the kids could go for a swim. It was the perfect place to create memories.

1
Though no recordings of the original Squirrel Bait trio exist, Grubbs’s vocal delivery in his later band, Bastro — short shouts
à la
the Minutemen’s D. Boon — likely gives a good hint at what the original formation sounded like. Hearing the
Nearest Door
demos, it’s easy to imagine Grubbs’s monotone, shouty delivery over many of the tracks.

2
It’s impossible to draw a sonic line from Squirrel Bait to Slint, but one can do it with Grubbs’s output.
Skag Heaven
is an obvious maturation from
Squirrel Bait
; the mathy sound of “Kick the Cat,” which appears on
Skag Heaven
and is one of the last songs the band wrote, anticipates the more complicated style of playing Grubbs would stake out with Bastro; “Recidivist,” which appears twice on Bastro’s third album,
Sing the Troubled Beast
— once as a rocker, once as an instrumental solo piano piece — seems to point toward the more deconstructed nature of music he would create in Gastr del Sol; which in turn led to the avant-garde music he makes today.

3
The Detroit show was put on by none other than Tesco Vee and Corey Rusk, the once and future impresarios (respectively) of Touch and Go. According to Pajo, they did not actually meet Rusk at the show.

4
Maurice was hardly the last Louisville would hear of Garrison and Bucayu. Within a couple of years they would form Kinghorse — arguably the most legendary Louisville band of its era, as far as locals are concerned. Their local following was positively huge, and they were soon signed to Caroline Records. Their debut album was produced by none other than Glenn Danzig. Due to trouble with their label, the record never really got its due, and Kinghorse broke up by the mid ’90s. Still, they loom large in Louisville’s collective memory — larger than Slint.

1
The story inevitably raises the question, where did Walford get the name for his fish? But Pajo insists there is no deeper meaning. “Sometime in the ’80s I was at Guitar Emporium in Louisville and an employee asked me the name of my band. When I said Slint he didn’t bat an eye and replied ‘Oh, I get it: slut, bitch, and cunt all in one word.’ I thought it was hilarious but it wasn’t our intention!”

2
Ironically, much of “Kent” was written by Buckler.

1
“. . . I think I indulged a selfish part of my personality during the making of [
Surfer Rosa
]. I don’t think that I regarded the band as significantly as I should have. And I felt at the time like I was making a better record for the band. I recognize now that what I was doing was actually warping their record to suit myself. And I think that having gone through that experience and recognize that impulse in myself I’ve been able to weed it out a little better. Which means that I’ve gotten better over time at doing things in the band’s best interest rather than doing things to amuse myself. And being perfectly frank, there were things that I did while making that record that I did to amuse myself and I don’t think it speaks well of me. I think that portrays a weak part of my personality at the time.” (Frank and Ganz, p. 107)

1
Bitch Magnet is a band that has never really gotten its proper share of credit for its influence on the early 1990s scene that developed in the Midwest. Sooyoung Park, the band’s primary songwriter, would later go on to form the better-known (and quieter) Seam, but Bitch Magnet was experimenting with dynamics, atmosphere, and complex time signatures concurrent with Slint. 1989’s
Umber
featured a couple of forays into quieter territory, while their 1990 swan song,
Ben Hur
— featuring David Grubbs on second guitar, as well as a guest appearance by Britt Walford on guitar for one track — in some ways feels like a missing link between the metal-inclined
Tweez
and the epic dynamics of
Spiderland
.

2
Astute ears may notice that McMahan speaks a couple of lines in two verses; Pajo told me McMahan took those lines because he wrote those lyrics.

1
According to Pajo the band received a number of letters, most of which they did not bother to open since Slint had broken up. Well after the fact, however, someone in the band realized that one letter came from none other than Polly Jean Harvey.

2
It might be worth noting that Tortoise, which became a kind of clearing house for so many post-rock projects, had more ties to Louisville than Pajo’s brief tenure. The group was born in part from a collaboration between John McEntire and Bundy K. Brown, both previously two-thirds of David Grubbs’s Gastr del Sol and Bastro.

Conqueror Worm
3, (Summer 1987). Available at
http://www.louisvillehardcore.com/zines/Conqueror%20Worm/conquerorworm_issue_three.pdf
(accessed August 11, 2010).

“Crunch Gods from Kentucky Call it a Day: The Saga of Squirrel Bait.”
Pope
, (1987). Available at
http://www.swanfungus.com/2008/09/squirrel-bait-1984-demos-1987-interview.html
(accessed August 11, 2010).

DeRosa, Jon. “Unholy Passion.”
Pitchfork
, (March 6, 2005) Available at
http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/5980-unholy-passion/
(accessed September 12, 2010).

Frank, Josh and Ganz, Caryn.
Fool the World: The Oral History of a Band Called Pixies
. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, (2006).

Frere-Jones, Sasha. “Slow Fade.”
New Yorker
, April 11, (2005).

Guntzel, Jeff. “Invisible Histories: Slint (Part 1). “Originally published in
Punk Planet
66, (2005). Available at
http://mog.com/jsguntzel/blog/20790
(accessed August 11, 2010).

Jefferson County Public Schools. Brown School Profile. Available at
http://www.jefferson.k12.ky.us/schools/High/brown/mission_history.html
(accessed August 11, 2010).

LaGambina, Gregg. “Finding Spiderland.”
FILTER
14, (February 2005).

Leland, John. “Squirrel Bait:
Squirrel Bait
.”
SPIN
1, no. 10, (February 1986): 31.

———. “White Dopes on Punk.”
SPIN
2, no. 1, (April 1986): 11.

Louisville Hardcore. “Louisville Punk/Hardcore/Indie History.” Available at
http://history.louisvillehardcore.com/
(accessed August 11, 2010).

Louisville Punk. “Louisville Punk: An Incomplete Archive 1978–84.” Available at
http://louisvillepunk.awardspace.com/
(accessed August 11, 2010).

Miller, Jamie. Interview with Kinghorse.
Highlands Lowlife
1, (Summer 1995). Available at
http://www.louisvillehardcore.com/bands/kinghorse/interviews/lowlife.html
(accessed August 11, 2010).

Noise Pollution
. Unpublished interview with Sean Garrison, January 1998. Available at
http://www.louisvillehardcore.com/bands/kinghorse/interviews/unpublished.html
(accessed August 11, 2010).

Ortenzi, Rob. “The Oral History of Slint.”
Alternative Press
201, (April 2005).

Pajo, David. “The Day of the Rat.”
Pink Hollers
, (September 28, 2008). Available at
http://pinkhollers.blogspot.com/2008/09/day-of-the-rat.html
(accessed September 12, 2010).

Puckett, Jeffrey Lee. “Night Life.”
Courier-Journal
, (December 15, 1990).

Rowland, Mark. “David Pajo: Interview.”
Penny Black Music
, (April 20, 2008). Available at
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(accessed August 11, 2010).

Velluci, Justin. “Louisville Born, Brooklyn Based.”
PopMatters
, (March 10, 2006). Available at
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(accessed August 11, 2010).

Wheeler, Drew and Welch, Mike. “Garage Sale.”
SPIN
1, no. 8, (December 1985): 22–5.

1.
Dusty in Memphis
by Warren Zanes

2.
Forever Changes
by Andrew Hultkrans

3.
Harvest
by Sam Inglis

4.
The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society
by Andy Miller

5.
Meat Is Murder
by Joe Pernice

6.
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
by John Cavanagh

7.
Abba Gold
by Elisabeth Vincentelli

8.
Electric Ladyland
by John Perry

9.
Unknown Pleasures
by Chris Ott

10.
Sign ‘O’ the Times
by Michaelangelo Matos

11.
The Velvet Underground and Nico
by Joe Harvard

12.
Let It Be
by Steve Matteo

13.
Live at the Apollo
by Douglas Wolk

14.
Aqualung
by Allan Moore

15.
OK Computer
by Dai Griffiths

16.
Let It Be
by Colin Meloy

17.
Led Zeppelin IV
by Erik Davis

18.
Exile on Main St.
by Bill Janovitz

19.
Pet Sounds
by Jim Fusilli

20.
Ramones
by Nicholas Rombes

21.
Armed Forces
by Franklin Bruno

22.
Murmur
by J. Niimi

23.
Grace
by Daphne Brooks

24.
Endtroducing . . .
by Eliot Wilder

25.
Kick Out the Jams
by Don McLeese

26.
Low
by Hugo Wilcken

27.
Born in the U.S.A.
by Geoffrey Himes

28.
Music from Big Pink
by John Niven

29.
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
by Kim Cooper

30.
Paul’s Boutique
by Dan LeRoy

31.
Doolittle
by Ben Sisario

32.
There’s a Riot Goin’ On
by Miles Marshall Lewis

33.
The Stone Roses
by Alex Green

34.
In Utero
by Gillian G. Gaar

35.
Highway 61 Revisited
by Mark Polizzotti

36.
Loveless
by Mike McGonigal

37.
The Who Sell Out
by John Dougan

38.
Bee Thousand
by Marc Woodworth

39.
Daydream Nation
by Matthew Stearns

40.
Court and Spark
by Sean Nelson

41.
Use Your Illusion Vols 1 and 2
by Eric Weisbard

42.
Songs in the Key of Life
by Zeth Lundy

43.
The Notorious Byrd Brothers
by Ric Menck

44.
Trout Mask Replica
by Kevin Courrier

45.
Double Nickels on the Dime
by Michael T. Fournier

46.
Aja
by Don Breithaupt

47.
People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm
by Shawn Taylor

48.
Rid of Me
by Kate Schatz

49.
Achtung Baby
by Stephen Catanzarite

50.
If You’re Feeling Sinister
by Scott Plagenhoef

51.
Pink Moon
by Amanda Petrusich

52.
Let’s Talk About Love
by Carl Wilson

53.
Swordfishtrombones
by David Smay

54.
20 Jazz Funk Greats
by Drew Daniel

55.
Horses
by Philip Shaw

56.
Master of Reality
by John Darnielle

57.
Reign in Blood
by D. X. Ferris

58.
Shoot Out the Lights
by Hayden Childs

59.
Gentlemen
by Bob Gendron

60.
Rum, Sodomy & the Lash
by Jeffery T. Roesgen

61.
The Gilded Palace of Sin
by Bob Proehl

62.
Pink Flag
by Wilson Neate

63.
XO
by Matthew LeMay

64.
Illmatic
by Matthew Gasteier

65.
Radio City
by Bruce Eaton

66.
One Step Beyond . . .
by Terry Edwards

67.
Another Green World
by Geeta Dayal

68.
Zaireeka
by Mark Richardson

69.
69 Love Songs
by L. D. Beghtol

70.
Facing Future
by Dan Kois

71.
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
by Christopher R. Weingarten

72.
Wowee Zowee
by Bryan Charles

73.
Highway to Hell
by Joe Bonomo

74.
Song Cycle
by Richard Henderson