But they all had careers after Slint: Pajo in Tortoise and Papa M and even in Billy Corgan's post-Smashing Pumpkins band. Zwan. McMahan formed the For ('arnation. and all the members of Slint played with Will ()ldham’s l’alacc. It was ()ldham who took the famous photograph that was used on the front cover of .S'pidt'rlaml. of the four hand members semi- immersed in a lake (pictured right).
Slint reunited in 2005 to curate the All Tomorrow's Parties music festival but insisted it was a one- off. However. they regrouped again this year to perform Spider/arid in its entirety at Primavera Festival in Barcelona and the ABC this month.
l‘nlike Sonic Youth (pictured left. with Jim ()‘Rourke who has now left the band) and Dinosaur Jr. Slint‘s role in the emergence of grunge was peripheral since they were relatively unknown at the time. It‘s impossible to predict
how they would have fared at grunge‘s peak. Pajo said later: ‘I never think about what would have happened. We may have just existed like a normal band.‘ Sonic Youth. meanwhile. have hung on for 27 years. but like
Slint were at their most influential just before the breakout of grunge. In 1991 they toured with the then relatively unknown Nirvana. E
which was recorded in the film
The Year Punk Brake.
Their evolving sound was grounded in guitar noise — Thurston Moore would back at his fretboard with whatever came to hand from drumsticks to screwdrivers. Their cult status led to appearances on The .S‘imps‘mis' and despite signing to a major label. Geffen. on which they released their 16th album Rather Ripped last year. they have always
SLINT
been regarded as the torchbearers of alternative rock. Here they come to celebrate their 1988 magnum opus Daydream Nation
DINOSAUR JR
which. like Spider/and. will be played in its entirety over a two night residency. While it 3 remains their defining moment and even the most committed of SY obscurists could debate its value in their canon. it is the sound of a band who have never stood still. harking back to their most crowd pleasing moment.
Dinosaur Jr was the group that gave the world J Mascis and Lou Barlow. although Barlow was thrown out of the band in the late |98()s and went on to fomi the infinitely more genteel and ramshackle Sebadoh. They too were among the most influential of the pre-grunge groups — they pioneered the melodic-lead-line-over-distorted- guitar-riff sound that defined the genre — and Mascis had further success until Dinosaur Jr disbanded in 1997.
Smashing Pumpkins were an integral part of the grunge scene at its peak. however lead singer Billy Corgan always maintained they had nothing in common musically with the likes of
l
90$ REVIVAL
l .I f,
Nirvana and Pearl Jam. They were the most colliltiereittlly successful of the four (their 1995 double album .‘llt'llun ('ollit' am/ Illt' Infinite Sat/Hess topped the Billboard ('harts) but (‘organ's much publicised bouts of depression and band infighting culminated in their demise in 2()()(). He has tried reinvention twice but nothing has come close to the Smashing Pumpkins brand for appeal.
It is surely no more than a jolly coincidence that these four bands will descend on Scotland within days of each other or that three of the four have chosen now to reform. What‘s certain is that they are more popular today than in their heyday. having picked up a whole new generation of fans who tapped into post-rock in its second cycle at the end of the l99()s and early noughties. but who never saw the post-rock pioneers first time around.
The original line-up of Dinosaur Jr have a new album to plug as well as the recent re-release of their first three albums. as do Smashing Pumpkins. Slint are only just beginning to savour the adulation and monetary profits of their legacy. The fans who grew up with these bands are now hitting 41) and can afford to indulge their mUsical tastes on (‘1) and MP3 rather than in the obsessive tape—swapping. music sharing of the impoverished 811s student. That they are offering something new while revisiting familiar material suggests this is less about a creative dead end and more an opportunity to make the most of.
It is an unlikely revival. but for all those grown- up miserablists who still remember where they were the first time they heard Slint‘s ‘(iood Moming ('aptain‘. it will surely remind them of feeling youthful and vital. It‘s not just ABBA fans who want to feel young again.
Slint, ABC, Glasgow, Mon 20 Aug; Sonic Youth, ABC, Glasgow, Tue 21 8. Wed 22 Aug; Smashing Pumpkins, Carling Academy, Glasgow, Wed 22 Aug; Dinosaur Jnr, Liquid Room, Edinburgh, Mon 27 Aug.
16—23 Aug 2967 THE LIST 1 ‘l