I missed the opportunity to see them live last year and Manchester's Albert Hall, and considering this was one of only rare UK gigs they did, I was pretty gutted. So when I heard about the film on Friday afternoon, I got tickets straight away. Me and Richard went down to the nearly sold out screening at the Cornerhouse that evening, which also included a Q&A from the director Lance Bangs.
Without giving too much away, I loved this documentary for the following reasons:
- They were so fucking young - this was consistently emphasized throughout. Everyone who was interviewed from Steve Albini to Ian McKaye kept talking about how they were "just kids wanting to do something different." Which is what made the thing they did even more extraordinary. They got through their teenage years on a string of inside jokes and rehearsals while never taking themselves too seriously.
- It was slow and thorough but with messy qualities - I'm not sure how many other viewers I speak for when I say this and maybe I should have done a bit more research before I watched it, but I still barely have a clue who's involved with Slint because there were so many names being thrown around! The line up chopped and changed so many times between Maurice, Squirrel Bait and Slint and although I could have done with like a chronological timeline of what went down with those bands, I quite liked all the different perspectives and stories from all the musicians thrown together.
- It's a beautiful watch - In between interviews with the band, producers and parents, you're treated to grainy film footage of car parks, old Super 8's of high school battle of the bands competitions, adolescent photos contributed by Will Oldham and videos of the band rehearsing songs from Spiderland in their basement before they were put to record.
Unfortunately it was cut short due to technical difficulties (there was an awkward 5 minutes or so where everyone was just sat listening to the film with no picture while Lance described the visuals.) There was then a short post-screening Q&A hosted by Everything Everything's singer Jeremy Pritchard. Lance discussed letters sent to the band regarding the note on the back of the Spiderland record requesting a female vocalist, the future of Slint and the possibility of him making a Neutral Milk Hotel documentary.
It's a fascinating, funny and gorgeous insight into the making of a fantastic record and the Louisville music culture it emerged from and I'm finding it hard to take my Spiderland LP off the record player now.
It's a fascinating, funny and gorgeous insight into the making of a fantastic record and the Louisville music culture it emerged from and I'm finding it hard to take my Spiderland LP off the record player now.
