When PJ Harvey tried to join Slint
While still in their teens, Brian McMahan, David Pajo and Britt Walford formed Slint from the ruins of a former band, Maurice. With Ethan Buckler making the group a foursome (although he was later replaced by Todd Brashear), they began making music inspired by a blend of hardcore punk, noise rock and post-punk.
Their first album, Tweez, emerged in 1989, and it failed to make a significant critical and commercial impression despite Steve Albini acting as producer. It’s a good album, although it was soon trumped by their second record, Spiderland, which has now become a seminal post-rock recording. Produced by Brian Paulson, the record is unsettling, with guitars creeping up on you before exploding. McMahan typically speaks rather than sings, telling stories with a dark and menacing sensibility.
One of the album’s best tracks is ‘Good Morning, Captain’, which opens with McMahan saying, “‘Let me in,’ the voice cried softly/From outside the wooden door/Scattered remnants of the ship could be seen in the distance/ Blood stained the ice upon the shore.” The song continues a bleak narrative, with McMahan’s voice eventually giving way as he screams, “I miss you.”
His vocal delivery isn’t exactly sprechgesang, usually found in post-punk. Instead, it’s more brooding and straightforward. Apart from odd moments of singing, McMahan spends most of the album talking before allowing himself to be usurped by noise, which moves between raucous energy and carefully crafted moments of restraint.
Before Slint could release Spiderland, they split up, although the back cover of the record teased a future for the band that would’ve sounded slightly different. The back sleeve included an address for female singers to apply to provide vocals for the outfit, and this enticed one young singer who would quickly become an icon of 1990s alternative rock.
The group received an application from PJ Harvey, who had been honing her craft as a member of Automatic Dlamini for a few years. Due to the demise of Slint, she didn’t get the chance to front the beloved band. However, that same year, she released her debut single, ‘Dress’, followed by her critically acclaimed album Dry in 1992. From then on, she has consistently made incredible records, winning two Mercury Prize awards.
Pajo recalled her letter in an interview with Loud and Quiet, stating, “We were going to re-print the letter she sent us in the photo book as it was really cool, but we asked her first if it was okay, and she said it was a personal letter and she would prefer it if we didn’t, so out of respect for her we didn’t want to talk about that too much.”
He added, “We found this letter from PJ Harvey, and I don’t think she had put out any records yet, but there was a big poster of a picture she had taken with her guitar, and she wrote in there that she’d had some difficult times in her life and all she could listen to for a long time was Howlin’ Wolf and Spiderland and she asked if she could be our singer, but we didn’t see this until much later, but we wrote her and thanked her for that letter.”
If Slint had stayed together and Harvey had been given the chance to become their singer, things might have looked very different. Instead, Slint remains the elusive late ’80s/early ’90s band with two albums to their name and a dedicated cult following, and Harvey sits as a reigning figure in modern music.
