TWEEZ

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There really isn’t much of a valid argument for lumping Slint in with any subgenre of progressive music as far as I’m concerned. These guys were a disjointed blend of post-punk, garage band and primal grunge at a time when none of those sounds would have been considered very palatable by most music fans.

Don’t get me wrong - ‘Spiderland’ was a great musical experience and I have no doubt it was an influence on post-rock pioneers like Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky and probably even Efrim Menuck. Maybe it even was, as so many have claimed, the first post-rock album (although Bark Psychosis’s ‘Hex’ would get my vote for that label).

But in any case this debut album from the band does not factor into any discussion about post-rock and Slint’s influence on it. This is nothing more than a handful of undeveloped, poorly produced and scruffy half-assed recordings by some very young and not very talented Kentucky musicians a couple years before they would finally get their act together. And it’s really an EP, not an album. Other than “Kent” which shows some recognition by the band that drone and feedback can be used to sculpture and song, there is nothing here that remotely resembles what they would release next. The minimalist alternately reminds me of the eighties German band Trio, Dead Kennedys, and the Dead Milkmen. It’s just hard to take seriously.

If you are a completionist and a Slint fan your task is a pretty simple one since they only have two albums. But in reality you’d only be buying this one to be able to say you have everything the band recorded, and that’s not a very good reason to spend money you worked hard for. ‘Spiderland’ is worth hearing, but this one isn’t. One star and not recommended.

peace

Although SLINT is much more known for their second groundbreaking album "Spiderland" which paved the way for the whole plethora of post-rock acts that followed, their oft snubbed debut TWEEZ hardly gets an ounce of recognition and serves as merely a footnote in comparison with the behemoth followup that is universally recognized as the veritable intermediate that connected Talk Talk's initial post-rock innovation with the army of followers who diversified the sound. TWEEZ is NOT a post-rock album in any way shape or form, but that does not mean it is of no interest. In fact, i exercise a reverse polarity with the majority in regards to the two SLINT albums finding the debut the more interesting of the two. True "Spiderland" is influential and all but for me that doesn't mean it is the best at its game. I much prefer the Sigur Ros, the Mogwai, the Godspeed! You Black Emperor, well you name it. If it came after "Spiderland" i probably like it more as that album was a mere blueprint and not the be all end all that it is made out to be.

TWEEZ on the other hand is one of the most unique post-hardcore albums i've ever heard. It truly resonates on a musical frequency that no other album ever has. It exists on some strange bandwidth of sonic expression that i have never encountered. It is a strange little album that at times reminds me of Jane's Addiction's "Nothing's Shocking" era mixed with the typical post-hardcore, noise and math rock of the early 90s sometimes bringing Sonic Youth to mind, sometimes more punk inspired bands like NoMeansNo and sometimes just a plain old alternative rock band that for some reason brings Camper Van Beethoven to mind as an example or even like a pre-grunge band well before the Nirvana 90s. The guitars are highly distorted, the bass and drums fairly regular and the band seems to find a way to walk the line between disturbing dissonance and melodic funky beats. The attitude is more of a punk band but the music reels you into a more alternative rock mode. There are times it also reminds me of Jimi Hendrix with riffs and feedback fuzz, there is also a kind of black metal filthiness to the sound and the signals are definitely set to a very mixed grab bag! My kinda weirdness!

TWEEZ is not an album i sought out. I was only marginally impressed with "Spiderland" finding it a decent listen but not something that shattered my concept of originality but TWEEZ does seem to do that. This album found me! This is a short album at only 29:31. I understand why the lover's of the proto-post-rock "Spiderland" do not give this debut album enough love. It is nothing like that more subdued release. This album is filthy, aggressive and unapologetic. It's a hitherto unexplored form of neo-punk that really hits me in the right way. Personally i would have loved to hear this sound develop but i can't say that i'm sorry SLINT moved on to the post-rock territory that allowed all those wonderful bands that i love these days to follow. I probably won't convince too many that this debut album is actually better than "Spiderland" but in my world i find myself really excited to listen to TWEEZ, much preferred to the more influential followup. All i can recommend is not to write this album off just because of the low rating. If you have any interest in raw and dirty indie rock and post-hardcore then this is an album you won't regret checking out.

They say that first impressions are everything, but in the case of "Tweez" it's context that's been everything. You'll probably remember "Tweez" as the diminutive brother of the stone classic post and math codifying opus "Spiderland", described as prototypical and paleful, for listeners an afterthought. But context!

In 1989, this was revelatory music. At the time, there were many proto-math bands, post-hardcore rockers deep underground who felt it best to crimp Crimson for odd time signatures to spice up their riffs. Now, these bands don't have a snowball's chance in Tartarus of getting into PA, and for good reason: their stuff was barely into the kind of face melting forms that Crimson themselves perfected with the likes of "Fracture" and the title track to "Discipline"; exhibit A is "Umber" by B*tch Magnet. But then a handful of math obsessives, such as the members of BM, got their hands on this little puppy straight outta Louisville, and were blown away. Here was a faceless, mysterious band that weren't afraid to rock hard and weird. We're talking the kind of math that wouldn't be seen again until Don Caballero. They were ahead of their time and timeless.

The album starts out strong with "Ron", tumbling through the embryonic form of "Nosferatu Man" fast and hard as someone complains about their headphones. This epic display leads into a quick moving and flowing sequence of tracks, sometimes rather short, blistering with speed, heaviness, and signature shifts. The album as a whole feels triumphant yet boxed in, dark, and unknowable. The vocals are the only thing here prototypical to "Spiderland", coming out randomly and strangely, not yet in line with the dour first person narratives of the follow up. But that matters not, as the music continues to bend and excite for a half hour - my only complaint is that there isn't more of it.

Excepting "Discipline", this is the founding document of math rock, socks knocking and worthy in its own right.