Artist Profile – Slint – I Heart Noise

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Slint is/was one of the bands whose popularity grew immensely after their break-up, despite the fact that the band released only two full-lengths and an EP (released 3 years after the band was gone) during their 5 year run.

The band formed in Lousville, KY in 1986 from the remains of Squirrel Bait and consisted of Brian McMahan, David Pajo and Britt Walford. Additional musicians also handled bass duties – Ethan Buckler was featured on Tweez and Todd Brashear appeared on Spiderland.

Their first album was Tweez produced by Steve Albini (Big Black, Shellac, Rapeman) and released to no/little fanfare in 1989. Their next album – “Spiderland”, however, got plenty of critical acclaim, with some suggesting that this was the first post-rock album ever. One of the most recognized tracks from the album, the closer “Good Morning Captain” ended up on a soundtrack to Larry Clark controversial 1994 movie Kids (although it wasn’t in the film itself).

Touch & Go reissued Tweez in 1993 and it was followed by an untitled EP, which contained two songs – “Glenn” (unreleased track) and “Rhoda” (a different version of the song on “Tweez”) – recorded in 1989. It was intended to be released as a single on the band’s first label Jennifer Hartman Records, but since the band signed to Touch & Go, the project was shelved.

Since Slint break-up, members were involved in numerous other project – David Pajo was in For Carnation, King Kong (along with Brian McMahan and Britt Walford) and Zwan and performed solo as Aerial M, while Britt Walford played with Breeders.

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Fifteen years after the break-up, Slint reunited to curate 2005 All Tomorrow Parties festival in England. During that year they also played a number of live shows, but still insisted that reunion will be short-lived. In 2007, however, they performed “Spiderland” in its entirety as part of Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona, Spain and a number of other shows followed. During the tour, they debuted a new composition entitled “King’s Approach” that hinted at the fact that band members are considering a full-on reunion.