C/D - Slint: "Tweez" and The EP

There is a lot of live stuff on slsk these days. Quite a few pre-Spiderland shows, in fact. You definitely at least need to hear their legendary cover of "Cortez the Killer". Do you have gmail, poortheatre? Let me know and I can sort you out.

but in general, i ahve to agree with the above-voiced sentiments: anyone who says they favour Tweez over Spiderland is likely either lying or mental.

Here's a question - did Jennifer Hartman put out anything else other than Tweez?

i found myself in louisville the other night while they were doing their reunion show, but i didn't have a ticket... how odd....

i like tweez prolly better of the two, btw. but mainly because it's the first thing i heard.

I was always under the impression that it was recorded between the two albums. Dunno if that's correct though.

Saying you like Tweez more is like saying that Star Booty is better than Umber.

you people are fucking mental.

I heard Tweez first and I still think I like it a little more, still Ron, Darlene, and Nan Ding are my favourites and they're the most Spiderland ones so....

"Spiderland" will always hold a very, very special place in my heart. "Tweez" is pretty good, but the EP's stellar (esp. Rhoda).

I really wish they'd release a proper version of that new song with the really awesome krautrockish jam at the end

I've been on a big Tweez kick lately, coincidentally. I re-bought it earlier this month and listened to it for the first time in years. I feel like I heard it on its own terms for the first time - and not "this is by the band that did Spiderland," which is a perspective that will only bring disappointment. It really is a wondeful but very strange record, best enjoyed without trying to align it with their other album. It's really just a bunch of teenagers making bizarre music because they don't know much better.

Also, in answer to the question from a few years ago upthead - yeah, the EP was recorded in 89 or 90, before Spiderland, but wasn't released until 94. Actually I think if you listen to "Glenn" with the understanding that it was the first song they did in their new style, the transition from Tweez to Spiderland is a little more perceptible. A little.

from SLINT, MATMOS - 3/10/2005 - Great American Music Hall - San Francisco, CA

"My primary draw to the band is Britt's absolutely propulsive drumming, he's an amazing rhythmic element that makes the band so intense. His technique (which was inferiorally aped by the entire midwest throughout the 90s) of stalls on the high hat, absolutely the sharpest snare cracks, and slaying the floor toms i have always recommend for anyone interested in drums. But I had no idea he sang so much of Spiderland (2 of the 4 vocal songs). His ability to shift gears was amazing, i had forgotten how math-y their songs are. A thought occurred to me as the band switched between Tweez and Spiderland songs... that Spiderland is Britt's album, and that Tweez was Slint's."

Nobody likes to talk about how fun Tweez is to listen to, I forgot how much it absolutely swings in places (oddly on all the "dad" songs: "Ron", "Kent", "Nanding", "Warren"). "Pat" is a straight-up Minutemen econojammer.

As for the EP, "Glenn" would be most bands' apex, but here it's just a rarity. On drums it's an excellent way to get a calf cramp (a la "Kashmir").

They both fucking rule

I went back to lville, where I grew up in the 70s and 80s, last week for a family emergency. I spent some time with three childhood friends who are in awe of Slint. One of these guys in particular, and less so the other two, is into Slint, Bastro, Gastr Del Sol and Squirrel Bait to the exclusion of all else, barring the 70s-80s classic rock —LZ, Stones, Hendrix— that anyone who did drugs drank and partied during that time would have done that shit to. It is somewhat reflective of the Louisville scene since the 80s that came out of those acts…like a lot of bands and concertgoers in town are so focused on the Slint/80s post-hardcore ethos that they do not have much interest in anything that doesn't hark back to that…

Having been witness to the birth of the band —saw the 2nd and 4th shows, my own band played on the same bill as they, which was their 3rd show, and me and my friends would listen to a recording of that show, which was comprised of all the Tweez material except for "Carol" and "Rhoda" all the time— I can tell you that its clear that Tweez is Pajo's record, Spiderland is McMahon's, but both are McMahon's.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C8uhcOWp-EN/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Tweez 35th anniversary reissue coming October 25.

Disc 1 - remastered version

Disc 2 - Ethan Buckler, who famously hated Albini’s mix, took the masters and made his own mix of how he thought it should have sounded all along.

Liner notes from both Albini and Buckler.

Have to say, I’m excited to hear both!

super curious about the remix!

I've always been a big Tweez fan, esp in the late 90s/early 00s when seemingly every single band had some very pronounced Spiderland influence, though it really hasn't been until recently that it has dawned on me just how weird a record it is, so I'm a little wary of Buckler's remix, let's keep weird records weird, though I suppose if Buckler's take is that the whole record could/should have sounded more like the 10" recordings, that might be cool.

yeah I feel the same way, pretty much

Was it after Tweez that Albini decided he was an engineer rather than a producer? In the Slint documentary, I seem to recall him acknowledging that he may have been too heavy-handed in influencing its sound, but don't remember how he was being credited, etc, prior to it. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to the Buckler mix.

I don't know if he ever mentioned a specific moment but it does seem to track that he moved to more hands off approach after Tweez & Surfer Rosa, which despite the release dates, were recorded nearly back-to-back, with Tweez I think might have been first

At least I can't think of examples of the studio dialogue/banter edited into songs after those two

Also I'm not sure how much "blame" Albini deserves for the record given Britt "I want the bass drum to sound like a ham slapped with catcher's mitt" Walford was also there

Walford was there but all those guys were teenagers and they idolized Albini / Big Black. So I don't know how much pushback they would have given him. In any case the only guy who ever went on record as saying he didn't like the way it sounded was Buckler. And yeah I agree there is something to be said for the similarities between some of the gimmicks on Tweez and Surfer Rosa, as two albums extremely early in Albini's career as an engineer.

The Tweez songs are weird no matter how you slice them. Even if you make the production less tinny, it will forever be a strange record. I actually wonder, if you gave the album a more "traditional" production job, if you'd wind up with something a lot more amatuerish sounding. I don't know. I'm super curious to hear a different take even if it winds up being something I only listen to once. I'm also eager to hear the original just fully remastered.

https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=431777889293562

1 hour with Ethan Buckler & Britt Walford on Tweez, hosted by Brett Ralph

this is absolutely riveting. I'll have more to say when I'm done watching, but this is experiencing three guys I was far too intimidated to speak to at the time they're talking about elucidating shit that I and all my friends were utterly in awe of…

Thought of you when I posted this!

1. you know how people say "when I saw this band when I was 13, I thought 'I can do this too!"?? When I saw this band first, I was 15, it was their second show, opening for Killdozer, the flyer for which is included in the video. And once they had completed "ron," I thought "I can never ever do anything as good as what i am witnessing these guys, only two or three years older than me, are doing right now. I cannot do that. I never will remotely approach this as a musician."

2. Generally speaking, that Ethan Buckler is quite voluble and thoughtful herein, and Walford struggles to communicate at a basic level, is the opposite of what one would have predicted 40 years ago, as Buckler is the Jonathan Richman of Lville, and Walford is about as original a musician as I have ever encountered at any level, and one might expect a talent as such to be articulate. Or perhaps he is all show and no tell.

Similarly, EB mentions that the band listened to Husker Du, the Mats, Meat Puppets, Dinosaur, Television, Sonic Youth and Big Black at the time of the music's inception. Only the latter three remotely sounds anything like the band (and Television? Not much!), which again attests to the unprecedented, Beefheart and his Magic Band level of originality of this music. He mentions that the music was not conceived as anything other than instrumental, and that's how they played it live except for "Don't worry about me, I've got a bed," and so I think it was ill advised for them to put vocals on it at all. And by 1988, when I heard Discipline, I damn well thought Slint sounded like King Crimson! But it is very clear to me that those guys, particularly Walford and Pajo, developed this shit with almost no reference to any previous music at all, certainly not KC.

3. The second time I saw them was at a battle of the bands at my high school. My own band played (my band was so bad, playing suckass covers, that I could barely make eye contact with them afterwards) as well as two of the other guys Ethan played with in Dot 39, who had moved on to Stevie Ray Vaughn blues rock by this time. The third time was at a VFW hall alongside Big Black and Urge Overkill; the flyer for this show is included in the video also. In the interview, you can see that EB is still stung by albini's '80s pigfuck dogmatism and doesn't entirely endorse Ralph's assertion that albini backed off from pigfuck dogmatism as the 90s progressed. Ethan has a show on Art-FM, the WFMU of louisville, and he often makes reference to the lower mid frequencies that "feel good" in music in his telling on his show, and so, while I wouldn't call it holding a grudge, he takes great exception to albini's dogged, unbending edgelord (and in my view childish) proclivities as an engineer. And yes I know he became a "do what the band wants" absolutist later, but again, it's a great contrast to see that EB wasn't entirely in awe of the guy, which the other guys who strayed in band were, to their detriment. Ethan is a great, absolutely intuitive broadcaster, BTW, listen to his show!

So cool, thank you

killer post vm

But it is very clear to me that those guys, particularly Walford and Pajo, developed this shit with almost no reference to any previous music at all, certainly not KC.

I consider Slint's non-rock influences such as Rachmaninoff and the always amusing...
https://i.imgur.com/3Q4sZH4.png
as a big piece of their "post-" ness: minimal, dark, edgy, repetitious...

thanks for that post veronica.

I am SO curious about the Ethan mix. I think I am more eager to hear this than I was to hear the bonus tracks on the Spiderland reissue.

what's the context for the Glass pic?

They posted it on Facebook a few years ago, it was evidently at a book signing in Louisville

awesome

new mix up on platforms… just diving in

Only listened to it once so far, in some spots it is an interesting alternate view, in others it doesn't sound that much different. Overall it feels more in line with some of the arty SST records of the era (Slovenly). I don't think its better but that's cuz I've always loved the original, even when I was tired of hearing Spiderland for a long time and I recently become very wary of the whole trend of "fixing" weird records that sound weird, everyone's trauma with making the record aside

I guess I do like the new vers of "Kent" more

I find this mix fascinating and I’m really glad they did it, even if it doesn’t ultimately replace the original.

Something about this mix really underscores that these guys were barely out of high school. All these songs are both ambitious and amateurish at the same time. Stripping away Albini’s fingerprints makes that more explicit to me. There is still something unique about what they were trying to do, but it’s less “weird”—removing the stray sounds and studio chatter, and yeah the bad tinny mix too—just underscores that it’s all those elements that made Tweez sound so alien and odd.

mehhhh, spiderland truthers are kinda boring imho.

it's odd forgetting (or dismissing) that these guys had been in 3-4 bands (Squirrel Bait, Maurice, etc.) by Tweez, had been in touring/recording bands since they were 11yo, toured with Samhain as jr. high schoolers... and then pretending like Tweez appeared out of thin air? lmao, these guys were essentially underground veterans/supergroup in LVKY.

albini removed 66%* of ethan's freq from the mix. i welcome ethan reclaiming his role in the band and the album... and i'm happy that britt/brian/david agreed to the remaster, plus i think anne did an amazing job.

*citation needed. is somebody gonna match my freq?

Who’s pretending Tweez appeared out of nowhere?

legitimately asking here: what touring/recording bands were the slint guys involved with at the age of 11 in 1980/81?

They weren’t, at that age. But they were in high school during the Squirrel Bait / Maurice years, and the early Slint years.

the albini-isms are what has always turned me off about this album so this is cool to me. it showed up on my youtube today and i had no idea what it was. will listen later. for someone who just wanted to "record" bands albini sure could get his big fat fingers in the pie a lot of the time.