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Who shaped them

Slint

Slint

Since 1986 · United States

Slint formed in Louisville, Kentucky in 1986, its members drawn from the hardcore band Squirrel Bait, and spent several years developing a sound that had almost nothing in common with their hardcore roots… Their story

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Who they shaped

Behind them, left to right: Minutemen, Minor Threat, Steve Reich, Big Black.

In front, left to right: Mogwai, American Football, Blur.

The bigger the face, the stronger the proof: they said it themselvesreporteda critic, or widely accepted

Spiderland cover

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Spiderland (1991)

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Spiderland moves at the pace of a held breath: long stretches of quiet, interlocking guitar figures suddenly broken by eruptions of noise that feel less like choruses than controlled detonations. "Good Morning, Captain" builds a spoken-word narrative of guilt and drowning toward a final scream that remains one of the most viscerally effective moments in American underground rock. Brian McMahan's murmured vocals and David Pajo's spidery guitar lines create a sense of narrative dread the band never has to spell out. Barely noticed on release, it became the foundational text for post-rock's whisper-to-roar dynamics.

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Slint

Spiderland · 1991

Slint formed in Louisville, Kentucky in 1986, its members drawn from the hardcore band Squirrel Bait, and spent several years developing a sound that had almost nothing in common with their hardcore roots: long, quiet, intricately interlocking guitar parts that built with agonizing patience toward sudden, controlled eruptions. Brian McMahan's near-whispered vocals and David Pajo's spidery guitar lines gave the band's music a claustrophobic, narrative quality closer to short fiction than to conventional song structure.

Spiderland (1991), recorded when the band's members were barely out of their teens, was met with near-total indifference on release and the band had effectively dissolved before it was even reviewed. Its rediscovery through the 1990s made it one of the most influential records in American underground music, its dynamics — the held-breath quiet followed by sudden noise — becoming a foundational text for post-rock and for the more atmospheric wings of emo and math rock alike. Pajo went on to Tortoise and a long solo career; the band's brief, complete existence has only added to its mythology.

Since 1986 · United States