Rachel’s – Handwriting 9.4

                If I have a weakness, it is for anything Post-Rock or Louisville-Kentucky related. By merging two of my obsessions together, I’m pretty much satisfied. Rachel’s not only does those two, but incorporates a pure somber classical influence as well. Thus, I think I found a band almost tailor-made to my experiences as a child and teenager thrown into one big group.

                The songs on here have verve, soul and run the gamut from severe to humorous, often within the same song “M. Daguerre” being a prime example. It starts off in a drunken jazz haze, with oboe and vibraphone. A jaunty piano joins them, as does a light-hearted drum. 

                Formed in the early 90s, very few if any bands decided “Hey, let’s play rock with classical instruments”. You’ll see the guitar, a drum, on the long-length song “Full On Night” but otherwise it is pretty much pure classical. Samples of trains passing by overwhelm the end.

                Actually, this works well as winter depression music. Everything on here is moody and pretty dark. Really, the trio did a pretty good job of keeping out the light. The connection with former short-lived band Rodan (not fun people, great band) confirms this. 

                No one should listen to this during a warm, sun-filled summer day. This is music to listen to while things “seem bleak” and you’re not sure of yourself. Listen to at night, in the dark, while your heat is broken. That’s what kind of music it is.

Slint – Spiderland 10.0

People fawn over this album. I did. When I first put it on, it blew me away. Everything about it felt perfect, right down to the clean guitar that opens up “Breadcrumb Trail”. When I finished the album, I put it on a few more times. Later that evening when I went to sleep I had paranoid, creepy nightmares recognizing the intense discomfort and paranoia that exists on a regular basis in America. 

Such is the power of Spiderland. It is the kind of thing I wish I heard more: beautiful guitar, beautiful drums, beautiful everything really. The lyrics are vulnerable yet they avoid a lot of the cliches of exposing yourself by singing. By speaking it sounds like narration, and the music is the backdrop. Hearing about the rollercoaster ride meshes so well with the perfect instrumentation. 

“Nosferatu Man is one of the more straightforward songs on here. There are absolutely excellent vamps on here, particularly at the midsection. Sometimes when I listen to that harsh, messed-up “My teeth touched her skin” I sort of wish it could last forever.

What comes up next is far more difficult. “Don Aman” is the song that gives credence to the rumor that at some point some of the members may or may not have been institutionalized during its recording. Honestly, I kind of doubt they were, but it is an extremely unsettling. Stripped of percussion, or even guitar distortion, it is simply a series of guitar chords spaced out to give tension rather than melody.

The quiet continues into “Washer”. Singing actually occurs on this song, rather than the uncomfortable speaking that went on beforehand. Percussion is re-introduced, and the song keeps its cool besides one explosion at the very end. “For Dinner” ups the ante by providing a tense moment with no relief by speaking, singing, or even a single explosion.

Finally, the end is in sight. Hearing those jangling notes, you know something is not well. The nervous drums and bass confirm this. In case you still didn’t get it, Brian lays the Ancient Mariner theme on. Samuel Taylor Coleridge probably would be thrilled to see his poem taken to such nightmarish extremes. Everything builds up to that extremely satisfying scream “I MISS YOU!” as sound explodes louder than it had during the entire album’s duration.

Released in 1991 to little to no acclaim whatsoever (excluding Steve Albini’s “ten fucking stars”), it built up its popularity. Not due to any sort of pranks or hijinks by the band. Indeed, the band has been ultra-quiet about those recording sessions it had with Brian Paulson. 

Instead, they did this unusual thing where the music spoke for itself. Occasionally others found it and sung its praises, but the band wasn’t interested in pointless promotion. This is probably one of the most American rock albums I’ve ever loved. Each second oozes a certain kind of America, the America I live in, not romanticized, just shown as realistically and starkly as possible. Pure love.

Slint – Slint EP 8.9

Released in 1994, long after the band had departed the music scape, this little EP sort of bridged the gap between the different Tweez and Spiderland albums. 

“Glenn” starts things off with the glorious guitar work that you’d later hear on Spiderland. Honestly, when I first heard these, I assumed they were written after Spiderland and not before. The drums hit really hard with this one, and the distortion is used to maximum effect. 

“Rhoda” might be vaguely recognizable from the Tweez album. It is much louder than the Tweez album version and longer. The start begins the same way, perhaps with a bit more aggression. After the start though, they begin to explore the dynamics. Easily the most aggressive Slint track out there, halfway through the song they just LOSE IT. As soon as you think it is about to let up, it gets even more insane. Bass blasts through the huge pile of distortion.

Shame they released so little. But if you were looking for the missing link between Tweez and Spiderland, this is it.

Slint – Tweez 8.7

“Shit. They’re fucked” the singer/speaker announces to all of us in “Ron”. The aggression is ramped up pretty high for Tweez. At times it sounds like these guys were just pumping out leftover aggression from their Squirrel Bait days. But that aggression appears to be reaching for something else, something a bit more detached.

“Carol” is one of my more beloved songs on here. It hints at the later, multi-part masterpieces they would later perfect. At the 2 minute mark the music gets wonderfully intense. The guitar screeches out a painful wail as the speaker tells you “when the time comes/you got to let go”. 

They were surprisingly young to put out something this experimental. None of them had even graduated from college yet when they got around to making a song that involves hearing a guy swallow a glass of water. A jam starts up, sounding almost like a kind of normal band having a grand old time. Being Slint, this could only last a little over a minute before they wanted to “get sensitive” and talk about Christmas Trees inside their heads.

Lyrically, it doesn’t feel as solid as say Spiderland’s clear narratives. But the weirdness can sometimes lead to a tender sweetness, like it does on “Darlene” probably one of my favorite songs about relationships of all time. That bass comes in and sounds wonderful. Beautiful guitar comes in and the speaker is delightfully nonchalant. Also, they seem to save the darkness for us until the very end of the song, as he feels sad that he lost two friends to each other. 

Reaching the end of the album, it gets into darker, even more distorted terrain with “Warren” and “Rhoda”.

I can’t believe how under-noticed this went at the time it came out. Recorded with Steve Albini, who even admits “It sounded alright”. Nobody paid attention to it, so few that it got recorded in 87 and released in 89 by Jennifer Hartman Records, which sounds like somebody working out of their garage. Later on it would be released on Touch and Go, which is where they would find a home for their masterpiece, Spiderland. 

PS. If you’re wondering where the album’s title comes from, it was from Britt Walford’s (drummer) habit of collecting tweezers.

Slint

King's ApproachKing's Approach

Slint helped to start so much of what I listen to that I really do owe them a debt of gratitude. Without them, I would have been left stranded without any of the great post-rock bands that came about either directly from them or based off of their ideals. June of 44, Rachel’s, Rodan, and the list continues of various bands created out of that initial “Big Bang” of their implosion. Perhaps they were wound a bit too tight, or maybe they just were sick of spending so much time on something people didn’t immediately appreciate.

                Those Post Rock bands that formed after these guys (like ‘Stars of the Lid’, ‘Don Caballero’, etc) were heavy informed by the dynamics set forth by Slint. Stars of the Lid focused on the quiet atmospherics. Don obviously got a lot from Slint’s extremely muscular sound, but maybe went a bit further with the drumming.

                Oddly, this obsession with them began years after they had broken up. All these developments occurred after the fact, once the music had begun to sink in with the rest of the world. Even those who weren’t exactly influenced by their music (Tortoise claimed that they knew of bands they liked more) still had to admit that there really was something quite unusual about Louisville, KY’s music scene. Perhaps it was how removed and distant it was relative to any other large major city. Due to this distance it could better form its own identity.

                After years of working in other bands, in 2007 Slint reformed. They haven’t released any new music as their band has risen from the ashes, but with the live concerts there’s a hush of anticipation. A certain expectation has been created due to that prolonged period of silence. Plus a new song has been introduced as sort of a perfect closer.

                It is called “King’s Approach” it sounds like something that might have come from Rodan. It takes its time in building up, and expands beyond any other song they have in their overture. Depending on their moods, it can last anywhere from 6 to 10 minutes. Hearing it, it does reassure me that they didn’t reform the band simply to make a huge amount of money. Most likely, they are making enough. Besides, their various other projects either as solo (David Pajo) or work in other bands would pay much better.

                Over the course of this week, I’ll go into their entire meager discography. Barely 80 minutes of pure music is all they’ve been able to offer the world. Yet it is due to the sheer quality that they have been able to sort of span entire generations of music snobs, from the vinyl to tape to digital (all of whom have their own personal bootlegs of those few 80s concerts they performed). We’ll go from the beginning ‘Tweez’ which they’ve stated repeatedly is stuff they’d like to revisit to their most famous opus ‘Spiderland’.

                Reading what few interviews exist with them, it seems telling how they would want to re-tool some of those old songs. How perhaps those songs atmospherics and general pace might not fit people twenty years later who have since started families and had real lives. But yet they known how venerated they are in certain circles and to tweak those songs even slightly would freak out too many.

                Above is a surprisingly well-captured video of them performing their newest offering “King’s Approach”