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33⅓ Main Series #75
Spiderland
Of all the seminal albums to come out in 1991—the year of Nevermind, Loveless, Ten, and Out of Time, among others—none were quieter, both in volume and influence, than Spiderland, and no band more mysterious than Slint. Few single albums can lay claim to sparking an entire genre, but Spiderland—all six songs of it—laid the foundation for post rock in the 1990s. Yet for so much obvious influence, both the band and the album remain something of a puzzle.
This thoroughly researched book is the first substantive attempt to break through some of the mystery surrounding Spiderland and the band that made it. Scott Tennent has written a long overdue look at this remarkable album and its origins, delving into the small, insular musical universe that included bands like Squirrel Bait, Maurice, Bitch Magnet, and Bastro. The story, helped by in-depth interviews with band members David Pajo and Todd Brashear, explores the formation of Slint, the recording of Tweez, and the band’s dramatic move into the sound of Spiderland.
This thoroughly researched book is the first substantive attempt to break through some of the mystery surrounding Spiderland and the band that made it. Scott Tennent has written a long overdue look at this remarkable album and its origins, delving into the small, insular musical universe that included bands like Squirrel Bait, Maurice, Bitch Magnet, and Bastro. The story, helped by in-depth interviews with band members David Pajo and Todd Brashear, explores the formation of Slint, the recording of Tweez, and the band’s dramatic move into the sound of Spiderland.
160 pages, Paperback
First published November 11, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
May 16, 2022
Very dry, not very detailed book about one of the most seminal, mysterious albums since punk. Still, when there's so little information around you're happy for all you can get. At least the author knows music theory enough to be able to discuss chord sequences and time-signatures (rare among rock writers), and a few basic facts help put the album in context: that Slint rehearsed their arrangements meticulously/obsessively for four months prior to recording; that the vocals had never been put to the music before; that the album was recorded and mixed in four days, in few takes, with virtually no overdubs (in other words, while most bands were using multitracking, metronomes and digital editing to produce a simulacrum of rock music, Slint used the tools of rock - four guys in a room with bass, drums and two guitars - to produce something revolutionary). That said, I always hate the track-by-track thematic analyses that the writers of this series feel they have to indulge in, and there's way too much back-story about high school projects and the inferior first record (Tweez, about which the author seems to know more than Spiderland). Still, I'd sift through another 100 pages of this just for a few more nuggets about those historic four days in a jingle-recording studio in Chicago. Spiderland, dude. Rock ends like this.
January 14, 2019
(2019 addenda: Before tackling this review and this book, be aware that the best thing ever done on the band, Slint, is Lance Bangs' wonderful 2014 documentary film, Breadcrumb Trail. It has more interviews with more band members and really captures the tenor of its time and place far better than this book. Now, on with the show...)
Without knowing it, I had a tenuous (and posthumous) link to the band, Slint. But, in a medium-sized American city like Louisville, Kentucky, my hometown, that is not altogether surprising. Here, six degrees of separation is more like two degrees.
During the last 20 years on and off I've been a casual acquaintance of Todd Brashear, a cinemaniac who in the late 90's opened (and in 2014, alas, closed) the greatest video store Louisville has ever known, Wild and Woolly Video. I was, for several years, one of the store's best customers, and Todd's genial humorous manner and love of the movies made for many enjoyable chats. He even loaned me a movie book from his personal collection that, to this day, I still have. Hopefully he'll never read this or I might have to give it back.
In short, unbeknownst to me during all those conversations, Brashear had been a bass player for the band Slint when it recorded a now legendary post-rock album, Spiderland, for the beloved indie records label Touch and Go in Chicago in 1990. The fact that I did not know that either bespoke my own ignorance at the time or Brashear's modesty.
That is not unusual, given the narrative of how the album, released in 1991 to a completely indifferent world (after the band had already broken up), has gone on to become one of the most acclaimed in the history of rock music. Spiderland's slow, inexorable, permeation into the nooks and crannies of rock history and fandom has meant that its admirers have come to it in many different ways. Word of mouth, and its adoration by musicians who've co-opted its ideas, are the most cited ways it found its niche.
I came to the record a decade ago via the obsessively curated website of the iconoclastic scientist, Piero Scaruffi, that well-known despiser of the Beatles and champion of intellectual art rock. His 1991 list of best albums places Spiderland at number one above even My Bloody Valentine's incomparable Loveless, Mercury Rev's amazing Yerself is Steam, Dogbowl's one-of-a-kind King Missile pedigree wonder, Cyclops Nuclear Submarine Captain (an even more obscure album than Spiderland), Jesus Lizard's Goat, Codeine's Frigid Stars, and several more vaunted and famous records by Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Mudhoney, Metallica, and The Pixies. In the year of the Seattle grunge explosion, Spiderland existed somewhere outside all of that in its own quiet eddy.
Clearly, this was something to be investigated.
I acquired a copy of Spiderland and listened. My first impressions were, paraphrased: "this sounds homemade," "this sounds amateurish," "it sounds like the engineer doesn't know how to make the vocals audible," "the vocalist doesn't seem to know how to sing, and has that recognizable lazy Louisville accent I know so well", and "this is all very interesting, but is it good?"
Over time, I did a 180 on the album, and recognized its greatness. So much so that recently I began to find the album disturbingly addictive, like a hypnotic spell cast by someone who does not have my best interests at heart. In a published interview about the album, Brashear noted that parents his own age told how their own children were getting into it. To which he responded, "But should they?"
I suspect that's because there is something sinister in the hypnotic riffs and ebbs and tides in this methodical music that threaten to take listeners, especially ones with OCD, to a place of lost self control. As we learn from this book, and from a recent very good 2014 documentary on the band (Breadcrumb Trail, directed by Lance Bangs), we find that the band's own OCD methods of eternally practicing single notes and chords for hours on end resulted in the kind of "math rock" "post-rock" music that has made the album exalted. The problem is that, at least for me and for now, I don't want to listen to anything else. It is that seductive.
The album begins with a seductive bell-tone clarion call and from there it's an adventure into a mysterious sound realm of Wagnerian/Brucknerian heavy and delicate leitmofis, culminating 39 minutes later in a wounded repeated scream of "I miss you!" that makes your hairs stand on end and your tear ducts fill, every single time.
I once wrote that the band Slint were, in a sense, world famous but locally obscure. It is a cult-like fame, to be sure, but in this age of multitudinous entertainment options, where tastes are fragmented into smaller subcultural units, that might be the only kind of fame that matters. After Miley Cyrus is gone, there will be people still blown away by Spiderland.
So how well does Scott Tennet tell the story of Slint and Spiderland? Pretty well, I would say. This is the first attempt at a Slint/Spiderland book narrative, and Tennent sheds light on aspects of the album and band I had not yet read on various music and blog websites. His coverage of the Louisville punk/hardcore scene of the 1980s that begat Spiderland is excellent, fulsome, and pithy, if not completely scintillating. I would recommend those interested in the band and album see Lance Bangs' aforementioned documentary and read this book in tandem to flesh out a better understanding. Then, hit Youtube, where pretty much all of Slint's music can be found. Tennent is also very good when explaining the technical, musical accomplishments of the record. I was glad to find him mentioning how the band kept receiving royalty checks long after the record had seemed to fade away, an indication that the album had long-lasting legs. This was something I had wondered about and was glad Tennent thought to illuminate it.
Tennent's lack of interviews with the band's McCartney and Lennon, Britt Walford and Brian McMahan, would seem to present an insurmountable handicap to writing a decent account, but the author overcomes that pretty well. In watching the documentary film on Slint, Walford (and to a much lesser extent, McMahan) seem to have been the least amenable to self aggrandizement or publicity. And in the case of Walford, he seems downright uncommunicative, or at least somewhat less articulate or willing to comment on the various legends or facts about the band. Brashear's business-like understanding of the truth and myth can be trusted. And guitarist David Pajo, as usual, provides very good insights.
If you listen to Spiderland, please try to hear the 2014 remastering, which clarifies the guitars, drums, and even the sublimated vocals to some degree.
Slint were a story of zeroes to heroes; of some goofy, eccentric, alternately clean-cut pseudo-punk teens who pushed the envelop in total isolation to make a mysterious record, then disappeared and eventually rose like the proverbial Phoenix in the rock Zeitgeist.
Without knowing it, I had a tenuous (and posthumous) link to the band, Slint. But, in a medium-sized American city like Louisville, Kentucky, my hometown, that is not altogether surprising. Here, six degrees of separation is more like two degrees.
During the last 20 years on and off I've been a casual acquaintance of Todd Brashear, a cinemaniac who in the late 90's opened (and in 2014, alas, closed) the greatest video store Louisville has ever known, Wild and Woolly Video. I was, for several years, one of the store's best customers, and Todd's genial humorous manner and love of the movies made for many enjoyable chats. He even loaned me a movie book from his personal collection that, to this day, I still have. Hopefully he'll never read this or I might have to give it back.
In short, unbeknownst to me during all those conversations, Brashear had been a bass player for the band Slint when it recorded a now legendary post-rock album, Spiderland, for the beloved indie records label Touch and Go in Chicago in 1990. The fact that I did not know that either bespoke my own ignorance at the time or Brashear's modesty.
That is not unusual, given the narrative of how the album, released in 1991 to a completely indifferent world (after the band had already broken up), has gone on to become one of the most acclaimed in the history of rock music. Spiderland's slow, inexorable, permeation into the nooks and crannies of rock history and fandom has meant that its admirers have come to it in many different ways. Word of mouth, and its adoration by musicians who've co-opted its ideas, are the most cited ways it found its niche.
I came to the record a decade ago via the obsessively curated website of the iconoclastic scientist, Piero Scaruffi, that well-known despiser of the Beatles and champion of intellectual art rock. His 1991 list of best albums places Spiderland at number one above even My Bloody Valentine's incomparable Loveless, Mercury Rev's amazing Yerself is Steam, Dogbowl's one-of-a-kind King Missile pedigree wonder, Cyclops Nuclear Submarine Captain (an even more obscure album than Spiderland), Jesus Lizard's Goat, Codeine's Frigid Stars, and several more vaunted and famous records by Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Mudhoney, Metallica, and The Pixies. In the year of the Seattle grunge explosion, Spiderland existed somewhere outside all of that in its own quiet eddy.
Clearly, this was something to be investigated.
I acquired a copy of Spiderland and listened. My first impressions were, paraphrased: "this sounds homemade," "this sounds amateurish," "it sounds like the engineer doesn't know how to make the vocals audible," "the vocalist doesn't seem to know how to sing, and has that recognizable lazy Louisville accent I know so well", and "this is all very interesting, but is it good?"
Over time, I did a 180 on the album, and recognized its greatness. So much so that recently I began to find the album disturbingly addictive, like a hypnotic spell cast by someone who does not have my best interests at heart. In a published interview about the album, Brashear noted that parents his own age told how their own children were getting into it. To which he responded, "But should they?"
I suspect that's because there is something sinister in the hypnotic riffs and ebbs and tides in this methodical music that threaten to take listeners, especially ones with OCD, to a place of lost self control. As we learn from this book, and from a recent very good 2014 documentary on the band (Breadcrumb Trail, directed by Lance Bangs), we find that the band's own OCD methods of eternally practicing single notes and chords for hours on end resulted in the kind of "math rock" "post-rock" music that has made the album exalted. The problem is that, at least for me and for now, I don't want to listen to anything else. It is that seductive.
The album begins with a seductive bell-tone clarion call and from there it's an adventure into a mysterious sound realm of Wagnerian/Brucknerian heavy and delicate leitmofis, culminating 39 minutes later in a wounded repeated scream of "I miss you!" that makes your hairs stand on end and your tear ducts fill, every single time.
I once wrote that the band Slint were, in a sense, world famous but locally obscure. It is a cult-like fame, to be sure, but in this age of multitudinous entertainment options, where tastes are fragmented into smaller subcultural units, that might be the only kind of fame that matters. After Miley Cyrus is gone, there will be people still blown away by Spiderland.
So how well does Scott Tennet tell the story of Slint and Spiderland? Pretty well, I would say. This is the first attempt at a Slint/Spiderland book narrative, and Tennent sheds light on aspects of the album and band I had not yet read on various music and blog websites. His coverage of the Louisville punk/hardcore scene of the 1980s that begat Spiderland is excellent, fulsome, and pithy, if not completely scintillating. I would recommend those interested in the band and album see Lance Bangs' aforementioned documentary and read this book in tandem to flesh out a better understanding. Then, hit Youtube, where pretty much all of Slint's music can be found. Tennent is also very good when explaining the technical, musical accomplishments of the record. I was glad to find him mentioning how the band kept receiving royalty checks long after the record had seemed to fade away, an indication that the album had long-lasting legs. This was something I had wondered about and was glad Tennent thought to illuminate it.
Tennent's lack of interviews with the band's McCartney and Lennon, Britt Walford and Brian McMahan, would seem to present an insurmountable handicap to writing a decent account, but the author overcomes that pretty well. In watching the documentary film on Slint, Walford (and to a much lesser extent, McMahan) seem to have been the least amenable to self aggrandizement or publicity. And in the case of Walford, he seems downright uncommunicative, or at least somewhat less articulate or willing to comment on the various legends or facts about the band. Brashear's business-like understanding of the truth and myth can be trusted. And guitarist David Pajo, as usual, provides very good insights.
If you listen to Spiderland, please try to hear the 2014 remastering, which clarifies the guitars, drums, and even the sublimated vocals to some degree.
Slint were a story of zeroes to heroes; of some goofy, eccentric, alternately clean-cut pseudo-punk teens who pushed the envelop in total isolation to make a mysterious record, then disappeared and eventually rose like the proverbial Phoenix in the rock Zeitgeist.
June 23, 2016
Truthfully, I think this is everything you'd look for in a 33 1/3. A cult artist with little documented about their history, finally unfolded with new interviews, extensive research, and a critical eye. Scott Tennent's style can sometimes veer into zine-like writing, which I love and feel is appropriate for this book. His excitement for the music shows, but he doesn't let it obscure his judgment (especially when talking about Tweez or the band's early work). I learned so much about an album I loved and feel like I can hear it with new ears. It should be noted that this isn't just about Spiderland, this book really functions as a full-on biography. But for the band's short tenure, the length is appropriate. Cannot speak highly enough of this book. For Slint fans or fans of the series, it's a must read.
April 12, 2024
One of my favorite albums of all time, finally got around to reading the story of its creation. Fills in the gaps surrounding an enigmatic band, takes a lot of the mystery away, at the same time making the record even more impressive. Four 20 year olds dropping out of school to record something before their lives take them in disparate directions. A lot of color about the surrounding "pig fuck" punk scene, Albini and his reputation, each band members musical trajectory colliding for this one notorious album. It's also a testament to how much emotion you can pull out of music on very little money. There's so many points where I was shocked at how much they were able to do with sheer teenage energy and practice.
January 19, 2018
I really enjoyed this book. Not only did the book provide insight into the songwriting of the songs on the album, but it also told the bands history before and after the albums release. The book has multiple memorable stories from the underground music scene in the early 90s.
March 11, 2021
One of the best 33 1/3 books I’ve read. An amazing album and a great book about it. In depth rock history of the band and their brief tenure making music together.
August 29, 2018
Found the close reading / listening half of the book to be a little sluggish but there were nuggets of storytelling here that I'm sure Slinties will lap up.
July 22, 2020
Don stepped outside. It felt good to be alone.
Having just barely reached 18 and already acquainted with loneliness, Spiderland came to me not as a piece of music, but as a rite of passage. I was already enamoured with much of its philosophical progeny, having picked up GY!BE and recent Swans records in the years prior, but hadn't yet come into contact with the seminal record. As my newfound adulthood alienation drove me to the music forums, I saw the unsettling black-and-white image; four boys swimming in a quarry; crop up time and time again in must-listen lists and general music meme culture, commonly featured alongside many of the 21st century post-rock albums I'd become familiar with.
Scattered remains of the ship could be seen in the distance. Blood stained the icy wall of the shore.
To me, the only fitting metaphor to describe Spiderland is the antarctic sea. The soundscapes McMahan and Walford devised together are vast and chilling, unfeeling and still deeply affecting. The repetitious lapping and breaking of clean, downstrum chords that swell into monstrous distorted crests. The alien cracking of glaciers as crisp as Walford's snare. The dizzying vertigo from atop the icebreaker, between crescendo and diminuendo. I can see for miles. I can see for miles.
I set a fire burning/And I railed on through the night
Slint's brief and mysterious existence left a number of unanswered questions that burrowed holes into my head. Who were they? Where did they come up with this stuff? They leave a legacy that lends itself to falsehood folklore as we are left with only a photo, 4 boys swimming at a quarry, to piece together the history of such an alien recording. Stories swimming across cables overseas of emotional disturbance and psychiatric attention. I'd heard from a friend that the "lead singer" (they didn't have one) threw up after finishing recording Good Morning, Captain, prompting his exit from the band. Seeking out the whole truth, I picked this book up at the record shop near uni.
Tennent's brilliantly researched and intimately personal account of the band's history, spanning from Squirrel Bait and Maurice to the band's dissolution on the eve of Spiderland's release, has filled in these gaps, while elevating my appreciation for the album. A collection of puerile friends with a neurotic obsession with their work, forced to record and mix in 4 days a collection of 6 songs which took 7 odd months to perfect. Gifted kids emerging from the midwestern hardcore/punk scene playing in odd time signatures on clean instruments layered upon short stories cobbled together, in the case of Don, Aman, at the eleventh hour. The contrarian nature of this band is potentially responsible for its own ephemeral existence: in-between various other projects each member has taken, at a cross-roads between childhood and adulthood, pieced together in growing creative disagreement, anxiety, and resentment.
What Tennent provides me, first and foremost, is clarity. Motivations are laid out, intricacies of the music and the lyrics are explained, the details of each of the players are filled in. The personal and factual contextualisation of the record lends further understanding to the music itself. I can now hear the inflections of each member, can distinguish Pajo's embellishments and recognise Walford and McMahan's discipline, in the same way that opening up a clock reveals each intricate, discrete, and necessary piece of engineering involved in making the machine turn.
Tennent's concise and emotional account of the music and the people behind it mirror the album's own brevity and emotion. While it is perhaps disappointing that the two most central figures in the band's history, Walford and McMahan, declined an interview, I appreciate the outsider's perspective on their songwriting. Perhaps it is for the better that I will never learn what personal experience influenced the stories told throughout. Perhaps the lack of such context is what has kept me returning to the album, as it is filtered through the prism of my own personal experience: in the throes of anxiety and depression, here was comfort and understanding.
The book is a perfect accompaniment to this perfect recording and I can no longer, in good faith, recommend the album without its context.
Having just barely reached 18 and already acquainted with loneliness, Spiderland came to me not as a piece of music, but as a rite of passage. I was already enamoured with much of its philosophical progeny, having picked up GY!BE and recent Swans records in the years prior, but hadn't yet come into contact with the seminal record. As my newfound adulthood alienation drove me to the music forums, I saw the unsettling black-and-white image; four boys swimming in a quarry; crop up time and time again in must-listen lists and general music meme culture, commonly featured alongside many of the 21st century post-rock albums I'd become familiar with.
Scattered remains of the ship could be seen in the distance. Blood stained the icy wall of the shore.
To me, the only fitting metaphor to describe Spiderland is the antarctic sea. The soundscapes McMahan and Walford devised together are vast and chilling, unfeeling and still deeply affecting. The repetitious lapping and breaking of clean, downstrum chords that swell into monstrous distorted crests. The alien cracking of glaciers as crisp as Walford's snare. The dizzying vertigo from atop the icebreaker, between crescendo and diminuendo. I can see for miles. I can see for miles.
I set a fire burning/And I railed on through the night
Slint's brief and mysterious existence left a number of unanswered questions that burrowed holes into my head. Who were they? Where did they come up with this stuff? They leave a legacy that lends itself to falsehood folklore as we are left with only a photo, 4 boys swimming at a quarry, to piece together the history of such an alien recording. Stories swimming across cables overseas of emotional disturbance and psychiatric attention. I'd heard from a friend that the "lead singer" (they didn't have one) threw up after finishing recording Good Morning, Captain, prompting his exit from the band. Seeking out the whole truth, I picked this book up at the record shop near uni.
Tennent's brilliantly researched and intimately personal account of the band's history, spanning from Squirrel Bait and Maurice to the band's dissolution on the eve of Spiderland's release, has filled in these gaps, while elevating my appreciation for the album. A collection of puerile friends with a neurotic obsession with their work, forced to record and mix in 4 days a collection of 6 songs which took 7 odd months to perfect. Gifted kids emerging from the midwestern hardcore/punk scene playing in odd time signatures on clean instruments layered upon short stories cobbled together, in the case of Don, Aman, at the eleventh hour. The contrarian nature of this band is potentially responsible for its own ephemeral existence: in-between various other projects each member has taken, at a cross-roads between childhood and adulthood, pieced together in growing creative disagreement, anxiety, and resentment.
What Tennent provides me, first and foremost, is clarity. Motivations are laid out, intricacies of the music and the lyrics are explained, the details of each of the players are filled in. The personal and factual contextualisation of the record lends further understanding to the music itself. I can now hear the inflections of each member, can distinguish Pajo's embellishments and recognise Walford and McMahan's discipline, in the same way that opening up a clock reveals each intricate, discrete, and necessary piece of engineering involved in making the machine turn.
Tennent's concise and emotional account of the music and the people behind it mirror the album's own brevity and emotion. While it is perhaps disappointing that the two most central figures in the band's history, Walford and McMahan, declined an interview, I appreciate the outsider's perspective on their songwriting. Perhaps it is for the better that I will never learn what personal experience influenced the stories told throughout. Perhaps the lack of such context is what has kept me returning to the album, as it is filtered through the prism of my own personal experience: in the throes of anxiety and depression, here was comfort and understanding.
The book is a perfect accompaniment to this perfect recording and I can no longer, in good faith, recommend the album without its context.
September 20, 2022
The record "Spiderland" is neat (that's what I say, anyway!) because it seems to come from nowhere. Most rock and pop records, especially those made in the past 30 years or so, have a clear lineage that you can trace, and many feature covers and tributes and stolen riffs and all kinds of things that connect them, for good or ill, to the larger tapestry of rock history. Most reviews of contemporary-ish rock and pop records acknowledge this by referencing other bands and songs outright, a la "Phoebe Bridgers is Elliott Smith but not as good" (just to use a random example!). But most people who write about "Spiderland" can't do this trick, because "Spiderland" is truly in its own... err... land. Even Steve Albini's celebrated writings on the record only sort of loosely connect it to Television's "Marquee Moon," an LP that is similarly cold, intellectual, and played by an ultra-talented four piece with interlocking guitars, active rhythms, and bad singing... but that finally doesn't sound anything like "Spiderland." And calling "Spiderland" the foundation of post-rock or math-rock sort of obscures the fact that... well... Slint doesn't really play what we now call post-rock or math-rock. What they play, on "Spiderland," is, umm, "Spiderland."
Scott Tennent's "33 and 1/3" entry on the album is one of the best in the series that I've read because, in trying to give the record a context and a history, it simply ends up emphasizing so totally unique and strange its subject is. The book is laid out, awesomely, kind of like the record itself: it begins with a scene-setting chapter that could've been a verse in "Breadcrumb Trail," then has some herky-jerky and wild band-swapping chapters (chapters made more legible by Tennent's helpful inclusion of a web laying out the complex Louisville scene) about Slint's formation and development, comes to a dramatic high point as the band fleshes out its vision (ala "Washer"), cools off just a little before its finish with a "For Dinner..." style breather on how the band decided to record, and finally climaxes with furious energy and excitement as the end product is revealed. Tennent's analysis of the record itself, when it eventually comes, features some of the more engaging "sound based" music criticism I've had the pleasure of reading, describing the wonderful tricks the band plays with their builds, transitions, and pay-offs... without every dispelling the magic. The way Tennent incorporates his lyrical analysis is how it should be done-- like Slint themselves, he understands "Spiderland's" words not as the be-all-end-all of the record, but an important complement... stories that rely on their music frameworks, and that wouldn't be effective without them.
The book is full of fun facts and stories of Glenn Danzig running at people with baseball bats... but it leaves much of the Slint story untouched. Just... WHY is the record like this? Why is it so cold, so eerie, so dark and emotional? What possessed a group of early twentysomething kids to practice so hard and then cut one of the greatest albums ever... in a matter of four days? What made them think they could play this way? And why the hell did the story of Slint all end so suddenly, so anticlimatically? These are the mysteries of indie rock, friends. Tennent could try to answer them, but would any answer really ever satisfy you when it comes to "Spiderland"? I mean, come on. It's fucking "Spiderland."
Scott Tennent's "33 and 1/3" entry on the album is one of the best in the series that I've read because, in trying to give the record a context and a history, it simply ends up emphasizing so totally unique and strange its subject is. The book is laid out, awesomely, kind of like the record itself: it begins with a scene-setting chapter that could've been a verse in "Breadcrumb Trail," then has some herky-jerky and wild band-swapping chapters (chapters made more legible by Tennent's helpful inclusion of a web laying out the complex Louisville scene) about Slint's formation and development, comes to a dramatic high point as the band fleshes out its vision (ala "Washer"), cools off just a little before its finish with a "For Dinner..." style breather on how the band decided to record, and finally climaxes with furious energy and excitement as the end product is revealed. Tennent's analysis of the record itself, when it eventually comes, features some of the more engaging "sound based" music criticism I've had the pleasure of reading, describing the wonderful tricks the band plays with their builds, transitions, and pay-offs... without every dispelling the magic. The way Tennent incorporates his lyrical analysis is how it should be done-- like Slint themselves, he understands "Spiderland's" words not as the be-all-end-all of the record, but an important complement... stories that rely on their music frameworks, and that wouldn't be effective without them.
The book is full of fun facts and stories of Glenn Danzig running at people with baseball bats... but it leaves much of the Slint story untouched. Just... WHY is the record like this? Why is it so cold, so eerie, so dark and emotional? What possessed a group of early twentysomething kids to practice so hard and then cut one of the greatest albums ever... in a matter of four days? What made them think they could play this way? And why the hell did the story of Slint all end so suddenly, so anticlimatically? These are the mysteries of indie rock, friends. Tennent could try to answer them, but would any answer really ever satisfy you when it comes to "Spiderland"? I mean, come on. It's fucking "Spiderland."
November 30, 2018
Being somewhat of a biography on the sophmore album Spiderland by the Post rock/Punk band hailing from Kentucky, Slint is put into a youthful but fun perspective in this novella by Scott Tennent where he discusses the history of the punk scene in Louisville, Kentucky, and the formation of Slint and the albums history. In terms of writing the book was honestly the most enjoyable of the 33 1/3 books I have indulged in but this one takes a more immature tone to the usual process of writing in this series. While yes it does follow the basic formulaic system of discuss backstory, then proceed onto the first album or the history of the band, and then focus on the main album giving title to the book, while doing a track by track analysis and the brake up and closing of the band then sending the book off with last regards. This book does that differently though, the author has a beautiful lack of concern and it shows in his writing. From random swears sounding straight out of the mouth of adolescences to his clear excitement it honestly added to the character of the book and made it more enjoyable of a read. That being said he does not skip out on many details providing a enriching experience which makes me still recommend this book to even people who do not like Slint, or even punk for that matter. Tennent does a fantastic job of utilizing the personal aspect of the music scene giving details onto how much of the young music scene works, and how music can affect people. Ignoring my personal bias towards music and towards this band I cherish alone the book does have flaws indeed which could make it as uninteresting as a textbook to a tenth grader being that it goes on about lots of basic music theory at sections which I understand is important to the albums being discussed but it still does not take into consideration many people know and enjoy that kind of nerd jargon. If they kept it more streamlined and less detailed it would make the book more enjoyable to casuals but I still say even if you are not as hardcore into this kind of thing it is worth a read to enrich yourself on local music scenes, the industry, and the creation of an album spawning a cult following and birthing a new genre impressively from the minds of young teenagers. and to Slint from one fan who I think can safely speak for the rest in tongue and cheek with this reference WE MISS YOU.
October 23, 2018
My first book of 2018 - a long way from college days in Evansville, Indiana, where I met and briefly knew Slint guitarist Dave Pajo. Pajo was attending the University of Evansville and could be found milling around the edges of the E'ville punk scene. Pajo's UofE-based band Bone Machine (not mentioned in the book) brought a new sound to town. It was a new style and method of music that only Pajo seemed to have. He brought hints of things to come and exposed the small Indiana town to his Louisville sound as well as Chicago's Steve Albini and the post-punk disturbance of Big Black. Our local record stores were flooded with the Chicago/Albini influence which I'm sure was a direct result of Pajo's local connections. The early 90s UofE alternative music scene often seemed to be little more than an extension of Albini's careening ship crashing through waves and swells with Slint at the wheel.
Prior to reading this short, but in-depth analysis of Spiderland my knowledge of Slint could be summed up by this: I knew Dave Pajo once and (nearly 30 years later) I still like his style.
But this book is not about that. This book is about a lot of guys from Louisville, Kentucky, who ebbed and flowed and created a new sound and one album, in particular, that changed music forever. If you want the rest of the story, read the book.
Prior to reading this short, but in-depth analysis of Spiderland my knowledge of Slint could be summed up by this: I knew Dave Pajo once and (nearly 30 years later) I still like his style.
But this book is not about that. This book is about a lot of guys from Louisville, Kentucky, who ebbed and flowed and created a new sound and one album, in particular, that changed music forever. If you want the rest of the story, read the book.
May 25, 2020
By and large, a must-read for any Slint fan.
That said, it needs to be updated in a new edition, for some stuff has happened around Slint and Spiderland ever since this book was published in 2011 (taken from the Wikipedia):
In an August 2013 interview with Vish Khanna, former producer Steve Albini revealed that the band was working on remastering their second album Spiderland with producer Bob Weston. The deluxe Spiderland boxset was announced in January 2014. In 2014 Touch and Go released several live, demo, and practice sessions of songs recorded by the band between 1989 and 1990. These appeared as the LP Bonus Tracks, as well as in box set editions of Spiderland alongside the DVD Breadcrumb Trail, filmmaker Lance Bangs' 90-minute documentary about the band shot over the course of 12 years. In 2014, the band also performed at the Primavera Sound music festival in Spain and Portugal and Green Man Festival in Wales.
Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsRpS...
Melon's review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjNty...
Good Morning, Captain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96MxI...
That said, it needs to be updated in a new edition, for some stuff has happened around Slint and Spiderland ever since this book was published in 2011 (taken from the Wikipedia):
In an August 2013 interview with Vish Khanna, former producer Steve Albini revealed that the band was working on remastering their second album Spiderland with producer Bob Weston. The deluxe Spiderland boxset was announced in January 2014. In 2014 Touch and Go released several live, demo, and practice sessions of songs recorded by the band between 1989 and 1990. These appeared as the LP Bonus Tracks, as well as in box set editions of Spiderland alongside the DVD Breadcrumb Trail, filmmaker Lance Bangs' 90-minute documentary about the band shot over the course of 12 years. In 2014, the band also performed at the Primavera Sound music festival in Spain and Portugal and Green Man Festival in Wales.
Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsRpS...
Melon's review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjNty...
Good Morning, Captain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96MxI...
December 12, 2025
Anyone who knows me would probably say I have way too many things to say about way too many albums. But I'm not great at actually articulating what makes an album so special.
Which is why I love books like the ones in the 33 1/3 series - written by people who are obsessed with an album (or at least appreciate it enough to dedicate a non-insignificant chunk of their life to writing about it).
Sure you can get a detailed analysis from reviews or some online rabbit hole, but there's something special about reading about genuine love for an album that has me putting the book down and listening to parts of songs every few pages with a smile on my face.
Spiderland was already one of my favourite albums of all time coming in so of course my rating is going to be heavily influenced by my love for the album itself. But I came out of this book with even more appreciation for both the finer details and album as a whole.
This isn't the kind of book that's going to get the average reader to go out and listen to Spiderland. It doesn't uncover some unbelievable backstory or entertaining tales from the recording process - I mean the author only managed to get interviews with 2/4 members of the band.
But it tells the story how it is, just some unassuming, very talented kids from Kentucky who would unknowingly create some of the most influential, genre defining music of the era.
A perfect encapsulation of Slint.
Which is why I love books like the ones in the 33 1/3 series - written by people who are obsessed with an album (or at least appreciate it enough to dedicate a non-insignificant chunk of their life to writing about it).
Sure you can get a detailed analysis from reviews or some online rabbit hole, but there's something special about reading about genuine love for an album that has me putting the book down and listening to parts of songs every few pages with a smile on my face.
Spiderland was already one of my favourite albums of all time coming in so of course my rating is going to be heavily influenced by my love for the album itself. But I came out of this book with even more appreciation for both the finer details and album as a whole.
This isn't the kind of book that's going to get the average reader to go out and listen to Spiderland. It doesn't uncover some unbelievable backstory or entertaining tales from the recording process - I mean the author only managed to get interviews with 2/4 members of the band.
But it tells the story how it is, just some unassuming, very talented kids from Kentucky who would unknowingly create some of the most influential, genre defining music of the era.
A perfect encapsulation of Slint.
September 22, 2020
3.5, I guess.
I enjoyed reading the history of this epic album, of course, and it was well-written in general.
Half the book was framed around the activity leading up to the album, which the author acknowledges and I understand, but by the time I got to the actual Spiderland part, I was a bit weary. And I'm a fan of the Louisville scene from those days!
I'm not sure what I was expecting, so maybe part of my disappointment was due to my (overly?) high expectations. I would recommend this to anyone who is a fan of the record and the band. The descriptions of the songs are quite in-depth with references to things like time signatures and playing techniques and made me want to listen to the album while reading along... lots of nuances and details that I probably missed in the countless times I've already listened. I want to grab my headphones and use this book as a guide!
I enjoyed reading the history of this epic album, of course, and it was well-written in general.
Half the book was framed around the activity leading up to the album, which the author acknowledges and I understand, but by the time I got to the actual Spiderland part, I was a bit weary. And I'm a fan of the Louisville scene from those days!
I'm not sure what I was expecting, so maybe part of my disappointment was due to my (overly?) high expectations. I would recommend this to anyone who is a fan of the record and the band. The descriptions of the songs are quite in-depth with references to things like time signatures and playing techniques and made me want to listen to the album while reading along... lots of nuances and details that I probably missed in the countless times I've already listened. I want to grab my headphones and use this book as a guide!
January 16, 2021
Knjiga ne samo o jednom od najboljih albuma ikad, nego i o povijesti benda i scene iz koje dolaze. Frajer koji je napisao ovo piše jako toplo, nostalgično i u kombinaciji s nepretencioznosti njegovog izražaja i iskrenosti dvojice od 4 članova benda koji su pristali na intervju, ovih 120-ak stranica što knjiga nudi je poslastica za svakog fana albuma i benda. Kao analiza glazbe i utjecaja elemenata albuma na bendove koji su došli nakon Slinta, osobno nisam pročitao bolje štivo. Ipak, za potpuniji dojam o bendu, ciloj toj Louisville sceni iz koje su proizašli i za intervjue sa svim članovima benda kao i širom paletom sugovornika, dokumentarac Breadcrumb Trail iz 2014. je ipak esencijalniji medij.
4 /5
4 /5
August 1, 2023
‘Spiderland’ is one of my favourite albums and this does a pretty good job at describing the making of it. It is somewhat dry and basic, only a 169 pages on the ebook copy I had but I guess there’s just not a lot to say about it. There’s no massive love dodecahedron like for the making of ‘Rumours’ or the stagnation and creative bickering of something like ‘Let it Be’, (the absence of Britt Walford and Brian McMahon is felt throughout the book, but they refused to be interviewed), ‘Spiderland’ is just what you get, four men barely in their twenties making one of the best albums of the 1990s. I really enjoyed it.
June 17, 2025
(3.5 stars) -- I had a conversation the other day with someone about Spiderland, and he said that it's one of the most "already-forgotten" "mu/core" albums, that garnered a revived underground success in 2019, and later "fell off" in 2021. Obviously, a band like Slint can't really "fall off"; subsequently, neither can Spiderland. Spiderland is excellent, but this book isn't really. I think I knew about most of this from the Breadcrumb Trail documentary, and the best part of that doc was the archival Albini interviews. No inclusion about Daniel Pajo's weird faux-suicide attempts. Although! I did learn that Aerial M is Pajo's side project.
July 7, 2017
I'm not the biggest Slint/Spiderland fan, but do own and appreciate the album. That said this just didn't grab me as I expected it to. I really enjoyed the background and context of where this record came from — but found the pre-Slint history needlessly confusing; the band family tree nearly useless given it's lack of individuals' names; and the track-by-track breakdown tedious. Maybe were I a bigger fan I'd appreciate this all more, but it seemed overwrought. This was my first foray into the 33 1/3 series and could well be my last.
December 23, 2023
i knew right from that batshit crazy chart of all their spin-off bands before the first chapter that i would love this way more than that awful MBV book in this series. perfect blend of history and analysis. brings attention to the little details of Spiderland and Tweez i missed out on all these years, and unearths some crazy Slint lore beyond what has been canonized as essential knowledge on the band. but even with all that, it never feels like it’s overly idolizing the band and their legacy the way these rock history books often do. good stuff.
April 11, 2024
𝘐 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘢𝘮 𝘵𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘸
𝘌𝘮𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵'𝘴 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱
𝘔𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘵𝘺
𝘔𝘺 𝘵𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘮
𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘮
‘Spiderland’, the second and final album from the incomparable Slint, remains one of the most unique and fascinating albums in music history. Even after countless listens, I still feel a sense of mystery, and the joy of a new discovery every time I spin it. This book does a wonderfully thorough job of unlocking the secrets of how four young men from Louisville, Kentucky created an enduring masterpiece.
𝘌𝘮𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵'𝘴 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱
𝘔𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘵𝘺
𝘔𝘺 𝘵𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘮
𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘮
‘Spiderland’, the second and final album from the incomparable Slint, remains one of the most unique and fascinating albums in music history. Even after countless listens, I still feel a sense of mystery, and the joy of a new discovery every time I spin it. This book does a wonderfully thorough job of unlocking the secrets of how four young men from Louisville, Kentucky created an enduring masterpiece.
May 6, 2017
I'd been waiting to come across a copy of this for ages so I could read it, and it finally came through the shop (books from this series don't turn up often); Manny had recommended it to me ages ago, after playing the record for me at work. Really fascinating and thorough history of the band as well as the construction and design of the music itself.
January 6, 2019
A great look into a great album. The details were never over-indulgent, and the only thing holding the book back was a lack of interviewing half the band (but not for lack of trying). The author's opinions on the songs were a highlight for me. Although the best part of the book was writing down all the referenced bands and having a load of new music to check out.
May 10, 2023
This would be better enjoyed by a completist of Slint and Slint-adjacent works, but it doesn't offer much for the casual reader. The takeaways for me were: (1) Slint were punk for being not punk and (2) the quiet-loud dynamic generally credited to Pixies should include Slint in the conversation. That said, I'm not sure I agree with either of these takeaways.
January 10, 2025
Incredibly well written and structured breakdown of the Louisville music scene in the 80s and the creation of Spiderland. Super informative and not pretentious as some other 33 1/3 books can be. Renewed my interest in Tweez. And now I'm going to start exploring the side projects and offshoots (but there's nothing quite like Slint).
August 20, 2022
Very deep back story for a record I love. Complements the various video biographies which are also great. Touches on the numerous side projects and other recordings (eg Tweez).
Figure it was about half the country on a flight, no complaints. Any more would likely have been too much.
Figure it was about half the country on a flight, no complaints. Any more would likely have been too much.
August 22, 2018
Insane amount of detail about Slint before and during Spiderland. A must for any Slint fan.
January 14, 2019
Goodreads not merging editions properly again.
Review is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Review is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
June 6, 2020
Some interesting details and well researched info are gathered here, but author spends too many lines just describing tracks his own way.
August 22, 2022
I HEARD THE FORTUNE TELLLLERR
SCREAMING BACK AT MEEEEEE
SCREAMING BACK AT MEEEEEE
March 25, 2023
artig liten bok om et av mine absolutt favorittalbum. masse info om Louisville hardcorescenen på 80tallet som jeg frankly ikke brydde meg spesielt mye om, men i guess viktig for historien til bandet
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