I attended the premiere last night of Breadcrumb Trail, a riveting documentary that profiles the short-lived but hugely influential band Slint, especially their iconic “post-rock” album Spiderland that was released in 1991 shortly after the band had broken up. On April 15, Touch and Go Records will be releasing a new remastered limited-edition deluxe box set of Spiderland, complete with a DVD of the documentary, previously unreleased outtakes and demos, and a 104-page book about the band with a foreword by Will Oldham.
The wildly entertaining Breadcrumb Trail was a labor of love for filmmaker Lance Bangs, who has created videos for Sonic Youth, Death Cab for Cutie, Kanye West, The Black Keys and many others. Bangs has been working on the film since the early 90s when he first started making the 500-mile drive from his home in Georgia to Kentucky to document the almost mythical story of the Louisville-based Slint.
Slint’s Britt Walford and Brian McMahan began performing together when they were kids in middle school. They formed the band Languid and Flaccid and later played in other bands such as Squirrel Bait, Maurice and Small Tight Dirty Tufts of Hair. Together with David Pajo and Ethan Buckler, they formed Slint in 1986, while still in high school, and came out with their first album Tweez the following year. Buckler then left the band and was replaced by Todd Brashear. A few years later, the still impossibly young and somewhat eccentric band members recorded Spiderland in a single weekend. The film documents the incredible story of how this album, by a largely unknown band, ultimately grew through word of mouth to become a seminal work revered by critics and music fans alike.
I spoke to author Scott Tennent who wrote a great book about Spiderland as part of the acclaimed 33-1/3 series and who introduced the film last night at Cinefamily in front of the enthusiastic sold-out crowd. Like many people who came to love Slint, he discovered them years after their break-up. “It was 1994,” Tennent told me, “and I was still a high school kid in Fresno — a place that was not even remotely connected to the Louisville music scene. I was hanging out at Tower Records and I remember reading a review of another band called Codeine in The Alternative Press. The review mentioned Slint who sounded really fascinating to me so I went to the S section in the store and found Spiderland. The first few times I played it, I thought it was kind of weird and different. I liked it, but it wasn’t like love at first sight. But I spent time with it and I distinctly remember one night a few months later when I was playing the album in my room while doing my homework. There’s this moment after the third song ends where it’s exceptionally quiet. For some reason, that quietness made me stop what I was doing and I just sat there listening. The next song, “Washer,” started and I just listened really deeply, completely free of distraction. That was my religious moment. By the time that song was over, I knew this band was on to something.”
Many of Slint’s diehard fans told similar stories last night in the post-screening discussion with director Bangs and three of the original band members who were in attendance. The elusive band members still seem amazed that something they made many years ago when they were so young continues to resonate so deeply with people. “Jaded” and “cynical” would be the last words that I would ever use to describe these guys, and it’s fascinating to see the footage that Bangs dug up from their earliest performances as well as more recent interviews that finally shed light on many of the mysteries related to Slint including why the band broke up just before the release of its legendary album. Bangs and the band members will be on hand at tonight’s 10 pm screening at Cinefamily as well and the film will also screen there on March 15, 17, and 18. It then moves on to Philadelphia, San Francisco and other cities.
While the members of Slint went on to play in many other bands including Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Palace, Tortoise, Zwan, The For Carnation and The Breeders, the reputation of Spiderland continues to follow them and only seems to grow as time passes. Breadcrumb Trail includes fascinating interviews with music aficionados such as Ian Mackaye, David Grubbs, David Yow, James Murphy and Steve Albini who recorded Slint’s first record Tweez and famously wrote a review of Spiderland in which he gave it “ten fucking stars!”
Whether you are a rapturous Slint fan or have never heard of the band, you will be utterly captivated by this documentary. Take a look at the trailer: