Pre-Slint

Walford and McMahan met in their pre-teens and attended the Brown School, a Louisville public school founded on a pedagogy of self-directed learning.^[8] They began performing music together at an early age, forming the Languid and Flaccid with Ned Oldham (later of The Anomoanon) while still in middle school.^[9][10] In their teens Walford and McMahan played together in the seminal Louisville punk band Squirrel Bait. Walford left the band following their first recording session while McMahan went on to tour and record Squirrel Bait's two albums before the band's dissolution in 1987.^[11]

Pajo and Walford (and, briefly, McMahan) were in the punk/prog-metal band Maurice with future members of Kinghorse. After being influenced by the music of the Minutemen, Pajo and Walford's musical direction became too obtuse for the other members of Maurice, who parted ways. Maurice's later material would form the basis of some of Slint's early compositions.^[12]

1986–1989: Founding, Recording of Tweez, and Ethan Buckler's departure

Slint formed in the summer of 1986.^[13] Walford and Pajo were joined by the slightly older Buckler (age 18 at the time) for a show for a Unitarian Universalist congregation on November 2; performing under the name Small Tight Dirty Tufts of Hair, most of the congregation left during the band's first two songs.^[14] They were soon joined by McMahan and named themselves Slint after one of Walford's pet fish.^[12]

Slint's first album, Tweez, was recorded in the fall of 1987 by Steve Albini, whom the band had chosen because they were fans of Albini's recently defunct group Big Black. Though Slint's members had composed the album's music during rehearsals in Walford's parents' basement, most of the lyrics were created in-studio, and included between-song sound effects and ad-libbed conversations with Albini.^[12] During mixdown, Walford requested that Albini "make the bass drum sound like a ham being slapped by a catcher's mitt," and then spilled a cup of tea on Albini's mixing board.^[15] Without formal song titles, eight of the album's tracks were named for the band members' parents, and a ninth for Walford's dog, Rhoda. Once completed, Buckler was dissatisfied with the recordings and left Slint to form the group King Kong, initially made up of all of Slint's members taking up different instruments. All of Slint's original members recorded the single "Movie Star" as King Kong in Steve Albini's studio while he was away on a trip in 1989.^[16]

1988–1991: Todd Brashear joins, release of Tweez, 12" Single, Spiderland, and dissolution

Buckler was soon replaced by bass player Todd Brashear. Slint had hoped that Touch and Go Records would release Tweez, but the band did not hear back from the label.^[12] A friend of the group, Jennifer Hartman, paid for the album's release for a tiny run on the imprint Jennifer Hartman Records in 1989.^[17] By then the group had returned to the studio with Albini to record two instrumental tracks. Original copies of Tweez included a flyer advertising a 12" single of these songs to be released on Jennifer Hartman. But by now, the band had succeeded in catching the ear of Touch & Go Records's founder Corey Rusk who agreed to release the group's next album. The master tapes to the proposed 12" were then shelved, making Tweez the sole release on the Jennifer Hartman label.^[12]

By the time Tweez was released, most of the group had gone off to college and would return to Louisville during breaks to write and practice new material. Returning to the Walfords' basement, the group would spend hours repeating the same guitar riff and then adding in layers of nuance on top of it.^[15] After rehearsals, McMahan took practice tapes home and worked on vocals with the use of a 4-track tape recorder. Sitting in his parents' car made it possible to record softly spoken vocals over the band's loud music.^[12] After developing these new songs, Slint's members wanted a cleaner sound than that of their first LP, so they approached Minneapolis producer Brian Paulson who had recorded two albums with McMahan's former bandmates' group Bastro.^[12] On a trip to visit Bastro and Paulson during the recording sessions for their final studio album, Sing the Troubled Beast, McMahan was in a near-fatal car accident. While in the ambulance, a paramedic called in "Code 138" and the immobilized McMahan regained consciousness singing the Misfits song "We Are 138."^[12] McMahan's brush with death left the young musician feeling depressed, a condition that would affect the recording and aftermath of Slint's next album.^[15]

Paulson and Slint met over a weekend to record Spiderland in Chicago. All of the music was recorded live, with vocals overdubbed afterward in no more than two takes and with little to no rehearsal on the part of McMahan.^[15] The group used two different microphones to record vocals: one for softer, spoken voices, and one for louder, sung voices. During mixdown, Paulson and the group would try adding different effects, but all these were rejected, resulting in a very pared-down production sound.^[12] The day after Spiderland's recording session ended, McMahan checked himself into a mental hospital where he was diagnosed with depression, and subsequently left the band a few months later.^[15]

Longtime friend of the band Will Oldham took numerous photos of the group as potential album covers. Some of these were taken in a nearby quarry and one was chosen with Slint's four members' heads bobbing above the surface of the water.^[18] Touch and Go released Spiderland in 1991.^[19][20] The album was unlike anything else that the label had released to date. Slint was to have gone on a European tour after its release, but with the band no longer together, there were no tours, interviews, photo or video shoots to promote the album.^[12] Despite this, the album's repute grew and it continued to sell several thousand copies annually in the years following its release, a considerable feat for an indie record by a defunct group and a mystique around the record, and the artists who made it, began to grow.^[12]

Spiderland is considered a seminal work,^[21] characterized by dark, syncopated rhythms, sparse guitar lines and haunting subject matter. The record's impact was such that many fans and critics consider it a foundational post-rock album,^[18] helping to usher in a new wave of bands seeking a move away from the unfettered aggression of hardcore punk but not its underlying ethic.

1992–present: Post-Slint

Slint at the 2007 Pitchfork Music Festival

The band briefly reformed in 1992, and again in 1994. During this time, Touch and Go Records reissued Tweez in 1993, and in 1994 an untitled 10" EP of the two songs from the shelved tapes recorded between their two albums—one a reinterpretation of "Rhoda" from Tweez, and the other a track called "Glenn".

Members of Slint have since appeared in a number of bands. In 2009, former guitarist David Pajo performed with Yeah Yeah Yeahs as a live back-up musician. He briefly played in Stereolab, took up bass in Interpol, and performs under the moniker PAJO and occasionally with his band Papa M, also known as Ariel M, or just M.^[22] Pajo has also been a member of Dead Child, Tortoise, Palace, The For Carnation, Household Gods, the short-lived Billy Corgan-fronted rock band Zwan, and as of 2021, Gang of Four. Guitarist Brian McMahan formed The For Carnation in 1994 and also played with Will Oldham in Palace. Britt Walford played drums in Evergreen, and for The Breeders under the pseudonym Shannon Doughton on the album Pod, and as Mike Hunt on the Safari EP. Ethan Buckler has released several albums with his group King Kong featuring an ever-shifting cast of members who have occasionally included David Pajo.

Core members

• David Pajo – guitar (1986–1990, 1992, 1994, reunions)
• Britt Walford – drums, guitar, vocals (1986–1990, 1992, 1994, reunions)
• Ethan Buckler – bass (1986–1987)
• Brian McMahan – guitar, vocals (1986–1990, 1992, 1994, reunions)
• Todd Brashear – bass (1988–1990, 1992)

Former touring members

• Michael McMahan – guitar (2005, 2007, 2013–2014)
• Todd Cook – bass (2005, 2007)
• Matt Jencik – bass (2007, 2013–2014)

Session musicians

• Tim Ruth – bass (1994)^[7]

Timeline

Studio albums

• Tweez (1989)
• Spiderland (1991)