Slint

Todd Brashear - bass Brian MacMahan - guitar,song David Pajo - guitar Britt Walford - drums
Slint is the cult band par excellence, having made two of the most amazing albums of the underground rock scene, including a real masterpiece, Spiderland. It all started in 1981 in Louisville, Kentucky (U.S.A.), when at the age of 12, guitarist Brian MacMahan began playing with 11-year-old drummer Britt Walford. In 1983, they formed a pop-punk band called Squirrel Bait, with Peter Searcy singing, David Grubbs on guitar and Ethan Buckler on bass. Ethan Buckler and Britt Walford quickly left the band, replaced by Clarick Johnson and Ben Daughtrey. While Squirrel Bait continued his journey and recorded an ep in 1985 and an album, Skag Heaven , in 1986, Britt Walford began his collaboration with guitarist David Pajo. They founded Slint in 1985 with Ethan Buckler and were joined the following year by Brian MacMahan. Slint recorded his first album, Tweez, in Chicago. It is produced by the famous Steve Albini (Nirvana , Flogging Molly , Gogol Bordello , Nine Inch Nails , Pixies , Neurosis ). The album is released confidentially, and on vynil only, at a small label named Jennifer Hartman Records and Tape. Tweez is a strange and singular album, without any precedent, defying any classification. Dyed with hardcore, it leaves room for long instrumental beaches. As an anecdote, all titles bear the name of a relative of the group members or a pet. After the release of the album, Ethan Buckler left the band and founded King Kong. He was replaced by Todd Brashear. Slint's second album, Spiderland , is also recorded in Chicago, under the direction of Brian Paulson ( Beck , Dinosaur Jr , Babes In Toylands ). He was released in March 1991 at Touch and Go Records. The artwork is signed Will Oldham, author, composer, performer and actor of Louisville. Spiderland is more sophisticated and experimental than Tweez. Lance rhythms with destructured melodies, dark and melancholic atmospheres, enigmatic texts, all causing extreme tension, Slint produces an innovative music that will have a huge impact, leading to the emergence of groups seeking to avoid the frontal aggressiveness of hardcore punk without losing its foundations (one can in this order of idea compare it to Fugazi). Spiderland is a true monument of indie music, an essential album and one of the most poignant and fascinating underground rock. After the album was released, the band split up. The members of Slint will become key figures of the indie rock scene and participate in various projects: - David Pajo, known as Aerial M. then Papa M., played in Tortoise, Zwan, a few months in Early Man, New York's street metal band, before recording a very heavy metal solo album. - Brian MacMahan formed The For Carnation in 1994, where David Pajo played briefly. - Britt Walford was Evergreen's drummer and played on Breeders' Pod album under the name Shannon Doughton and Mike Hunt's on the ep Safari. He then joined Ethan Buckler in King Kong. - Brian MacMahan, Britt Walford and Todd Brashear also participated in the recording of the first album by Palace Brothers, a project by Will Oldham. In 1993, Touch and Go Records reissued Tweez and in 1994, the label released an ep posthumous with two tracks recorded before the release of both albums. Slint became a cult band and the announcement of his reformation (with Brian MacMahan, Britt Walford and David Pajo) for the English festival All Tomorrow's Parties in 2005 provoked the enthusiasm of his many fans. The band will then perform about twenty concerts around the world, including one in France at the Cartonnerie (Reims - March 2005). Slint is one of the most influential, experimental and innovative groups of the 1980s-90s. Spiderland is notably considered by some critics as the founding album of the post-rock. But far beyond labels, Slint remains an essential group.