Neil says:
"In 1995 I was in my sophomore year in college. At that point I was mainly into heavy metal and alternative music. Tool, Faith No More, and Smashing Pumpkins were some of my faves. I had also started to discover hardcore music thanks to my roommate who played me Minor Threat, Swiz, Judge, and Fugazi. With those genres all coming together I had discovered and became a fan of a band called Helmet. I liked them, but wasn't a super fan. One thing they did have though was a very active chat room community on the internet. Each night while procrastinating my studies I would log on and talk to people about music. It became a daily obsession and I would learn so much about new underground bands that spanned all genres. One day a person mentioned a band called SLINT. I had never heard of them, and neither had most people in the chat room. But this person was swearing by them. A couple weeks later I flew out to Colorado to spend a week with my parents. We stopped off at a Best Buy and I headed straight for the music section while my parents were shopping. I decided to go look for this Slint band (mind you this was before things like youtube and streaming music online so I couldn't just listen to this music. I had to either buy it on CD or go to a store where they would let you listen before buying). Low and behold Best Buy had Slint's CD for "Spiderland" (which is crazy in hindsight that Best Buy even had indie music much less an obscure band's CD). I bought it with such excitement I couldn't wait to get in the car and give it a listen. We left the store and my parents put the CD in. After the 3rd song I was extremely confused. "What is this?!" I thought. It was kind of bumming me out actually. I was ready for riffs or some more formulaic form of music I had been used too. This was weird. No real traditional song structures. Spoken word over sporadic drumming and mountains and valleys of volume. I think we shut it off after the fourth song. I didn't know how to take it.
A couple weeks later I was back at school studying. I decided to throw the CD back on in my Discman, put on my headphones and give it another shot with undivided attention. It is then that I started to understand the approach. I was hooked. I was obsessed. It broke down everything I understood about how music was created, recorded, represented, and distributed. It opened up a huge can of worms for me. The radio was boring, MTV was bullshit, underground independent music was really where it was at. From there I became obsessed with Touch and Go, Jade Tree, Dischord, Sub Pop, and other small labels. I started going to so many more underground shows and I started buying 7"s from all the bands playing. I bought a record player and would go down to Rhino Records in Claremont and Bionic Records in Fullerton on a weekly basis. Most importantly, I starting taking music business classes in college that would lead to a career in the industry.
Slint was that band for me. They're records amaze me and surprise me to this day.
Over the weekend I was asked by my good buds Sean and Bennett over at FYF if I wanted to DJ at Slint's event on Wednesday knowing about this story and my fandom. It's come full circle for me and I couldn't be more excited.
If you can, please join me tonight at The Silent Movie Theater for Cinefamily's screening of "Breadcrumb Trail" a documentary about Slint that will feature a Q&A session with the Director, Lance Bangs, members of Slint and David Yow (Jesus Lizard). This will be a night I remember for the rest of my life."
Here are the deets:
Cinefamily and FYF Present "Breadcrumb Trail: A Slint Documentary"
Wednesday, March 12th @ The Silent Movie Theater
611 North Fairfax Ave, LA, CA 90036
930pm - DJ Set, 10pm - screening, Q&A after | $12
If you can't make it tonight the movie will be screening on 3/15 (No Q&A), 3/17 (No Q&A), and 3/18 (No Q&A)
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