Five artists inspired by Slint album ‘Spiderland’
There have been a handful of seminal years for music, and 1991 was one of the most vital, second only to the immense experimental explosion of 1967. Although most of the dialogue concerning those consequential 12 months centres on the arrival of grunge following Nirvana’s game-changing sophomore effort, Nevermind, there was much more going on than purely it. From Massive Attack to Metallica, an array of essential groups released influential albums that year, with one of the most impactful being Slint’s Spiderland.
Unlike many albums that immediately impressed themselves upon the cultural psyche in 1991, Spiderland was not an overnight sensation. It’s a darkly atmospheric, unconventional, and heavy record—both emotionally and sonically—an essence typified by Brian McMahan’s mixture of spoken word, singing, and shouting and his narrative lyrics conveying anxiety, loneliness, and depression. Yet, despite Generation X dancing so closely with darkness in their music during this era, it failed to resonate at the time.
Spiderland was a stroke of genius and far ahead of its time, just like the industrial sounds of the 1970s, which also sought to institute a new approach to music. Not long before the album’s release, the band, who were just out of their teens when they recorded it, broke up due to McMahan’s depression. However, the light would eventually shine through the mire, with the record gradually developing a cult following in the UK thanks to positive reviews.
Over the years, it would become one of the ultimate cult albums for those in the know worldwide, with its unique blend of experimental and post-hardcore prompting a compelling sense of intrigue and dread. Thanks to its pacing, interesting time signatures, and intricate guitars, it would also become a cornerstone of the emergent post-rock and math rock movements. Ever since, it has continued to spread its reach and find greater resonance with generations who weren’t even born when it was released, the sign of a true classic, which isn’t bad going for four angsty youths from Louisville.
Find five artists inspired by Spiderland below.
Five bands inspired by Spiderland:
Mogwai
We said that Spiderland made a splash in the UK before anywhere else, and one of the first notable bands to be inspired by its sound is Glaswegian post-rock pioneers Mogwai. While the band has continued to develop its sound, the inspiration of Spiderland can be heard clearest in its rawer, earlier works, with its spirit persisting as time went on in its piercing guitars, tight rhythm section, and weaponisation of space.
Band leader Stuart Braithwaite has spoken extensively about Spiderland and told The Guardian in 2014 that he was astounded when he first heard it, as it was undeniably unique. “They cultivated this sort of psychic playing,” he said. “It’s way above other bands and is really emotional. When I heard Spiderland, it was unlike anything I’d heard before. I still don’t know if I’ve heard anything else like it, now.”
Black Country, New Road
The UK has seen various groups spring up over the past decade that have all, in one way or another, been deferential to the unmistakable sound of Slint’s Spiderland. While the madcap frenzy of Black Midi’s early work was the first to kick off this wave of Slint fans, it was their spiritual musical cousins, Cambridge via south London’s Black Country, New Road, who toed the Spiderland line much more closely in their early days.
There are several similarities, whether it be the angular, dovetailing guitars, resting on one mediative rhythm or utilising dissonance. In one of their songs most evocative of Spiderland, 2020’s ‘Science Fair’, they even explicitly reference the Slint comparisons. Former frontman Issac Wood says: “Just to think I could’ve left the fair with my dignity intact / And fled from the stage with the world’s second-best Slint tribute act”.
Fugazi
There’s no doubt that Fugazi and Slint were kindred spirits. Fugazi leader and former Minor Threat mastermind Ian MacKaye features in the 2014 Spiderland documentary Breadcrumb Trail, and discusses knowing the band and their hijinks in the early days, with him famously saying: “The people of Louisville are just fucking crazy, right. They’re just insane.”
Yet, looking past both outfits’ hardcore ethos, it’s evident that the sound of Spiderland made an impact on Fugazi as they developed their sound over the 1990s. Interestingly, they were another band to release a classic album in 1991, Steady Diet of Nothing, their second and one of their best, but as they went on, their spiky, experimental proclivities à la the Louisville band became more apparent, as sensed across ensuing records such as In on the Kill Taker and Red Medicine. Spiderland is also heard in their sixth and final album, 2001’s The Argument, on tracks such as ‘The Kill’.
PJ Harvey
PJ Harvey is one of the finest rock experimentalists to emerge in the early 1990s. She is also an astute purveyor of atmosphere, so it’s no surprise that she’s an avowed fan of Slint and Spiderland. As we all know, the band split before the album was released, but, the back sleeve of the record when it was released included an address for a female singer to apply to provide vocals in the future that never happened. One of the applicants was PJ Harvey.
Although Harvey had much experience as a musician with Automatic Dlamini at the time, as Slint split up, she didn’t get the chance to join her favourite band, who she told them in the letter that all she could listen to was Howlin’ Wolf and Spiderland. That year, though, she released her debut single as PJ Harvey ‘Dress’, and her acclaimed debut album, Dry,the following year. Her early material is brimming with the emotional rawness and essence of Spiderland.
Lou Barlow
Dinosaur Jr and Sebadoh legend Lou Barlow has always been a lover of underground music that pushes rock forward. After all, he’s had a significant hand in the genre’s development, with the former outfit fusing hardcore and Stooges-esque hard rock to widely influential effect. As he is a master of crafting fuzzy, dissonant and often atmospheric music, it adds up that he should be a fan of Slint and Spiderland.
Regarding the brilliance of Spiderland, Barlow once said: “It was quiet to loud without sounding like grunge or indie-rock. It sounded more like a new kind of music.” This was a tact he certainly took at points on his records as the decade wore on, and Sebadoh pushed the limits of rock further.
