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The Slits

  
  

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Regrettable Juvenilia
13:43 / 31.03.03
Ever have one of those albums that you seem to discover at just the right time, and yet which you also can't believe you've gone all these years without hearing? Cut by The Slits is fulfilling that role in my life right now. It's been on heavy rotation for the last couple of months, and I can see that it's only going to be played louder and more often as the amount of sunshine in the day increases. I intend to subject as many people to it as possible over the summer.

Here are some thoughts about some songs on the album (and I only got about 3 hours sleep last night so it's all a bit disconnected):

'New Town', with that building... building... building! chorus, plus all the weird neologisms like "taking footballina". Plus the dub/reggae influences here are the most acey.

'FM' - it's just really catchy.

'Shoplifting' - punk in the best possible sense, in that it must surely annoy all the right people... "ten quid for the lot - we paid FUCK ALL!"

'Love Und Romance' - probably the best song on here, utterly fucking classic, amazing shout-a-long chorus, and the verses ain't bad either - "call you every day on the telephone, breeeeak! your neck! if you ain't home..."

'Typical Girls' bounces along in a slightly manic way. Spiky and political and fun - the blueprint for so much stuff, I think. Great piano, really poppy, melodic, accessible - yay!

'Ping Pong Affair' - look, I wanted to talk about how Ari Up has the best voice ever, and nowhere is this more true than on this track when she goes "listen to the raaaay-dee-ohhhh, schmoke a cigarette!" - up there with Bjork's "little jetto-blaster".

'I Heard It Through The Grapevine' is possibly the greatest cover version ever recorded, in that it takes a song that was already fabulous and just does something completely new and unexpected with it. Everthing about this song is utterly marvellous - from the "I bet, I bet, I bet!" at the start through the lyrical alterations - the cute little "heard it through the bassline!" bit and the queering/genderfuck bits ("I know a man is supposed to cry", wow, you could get so much out of that one altered line) - to the terrace-chant of "Grapevine, grapevine!"

Yeah, um, so you join in now. This is a very timely album to discuss, I think, because it's influence is very apparent on a lot of current acts, from Chicks on Speed to Erase Errata...
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
14:07 / 31.03.03
Hey Flyboy, have you heard their song "In The Beginning There Was Rhythm"?

If you haven't, you absolutely must. It's on par with their "Grapevine" cover and "Love Und Romance". It's been released on a compilation of the same name, which is well worth purchasing.
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
14:08 / 31.03.03
About "Grapevine" - how great is it when Ari Up adlibs "I heard it through the bassline!" towards the end?

A: Really fucking great.
 
 
Goodness Gracious Meme
15:46 / 31.03.03
Re the abstract, quite right too.

Cut is a wonderful album, and you've just inspired me to dig it out, there will be much raving when i've soaked in it again.

The Slits are definitely a major influence on the recent crop of girl-focussed electro/punk bands(as well as the Riot Grrl/Queercore scenes). Along with Poly Styrene, they're massively underrated. And, I think, were probably as good as anyone at working dub/reggae and punk sounds together and making something interesting out of results...
 
 
Sexy Legendary
15:58 / 31.03.03
Not heard "Grapevine" but music taste is 78% abrasive guitars and shouty ladies this week, so seems as good a time as any to pick up "Cut".
Flux, youse is bang on about "In The Beginning There Was Rhythm". It IS utterly fantastic as is compilation of the same name. I know every dullard media bore and their whoredog's droning on about post punk, angular guitars and 1981 at the moment, but that doesn't mean that anyone else reading this shouldn't go out and buy the "In The Beginning..." comp RIGHT NOW. You owe it to yourselves.
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
02:40 / 01.04.03
It'd be nice if just one of the bands "influenced" by the Slits sounded anything remotely like them.
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
06:03 / 01.04.03
Well, there's a specific guitar sound that occurs on Cut (one track in particular but I can't remember which one, don't have it to hand as I write) which seems to be the basis for much of Erase Errata's first album. I suspect I do know what you mean though - something to do with the way The Slits' songs tend to be slightly laid-back, breezy, very melodic, with just that little bit of an abrasive edge? That they're not afraid to be pop? Mind you, I think some Le Tigre stuff would fit that definition, the first album anyway, although in other ways they don't sound similar... But we don't want bands to sound just like their influences... Hmmm, now I think about it, just what do you mean?
 
 
rizla mission
12:15 / 01.04.03
Yeah, the Slits are a definite prime influence of Erase Errata - they sound a bit like if the reggae influence on 'Cut' had been replaced with a big Beefheart-esque spazzo-jazz influence and a touch of hardcore.

For better or worse, they're both completely ace records.

Responding to the topic abstract, 'Cut' wasn't their only proper album. There was a follow up, which I think is (brilliantly) entitled "Revenge of the Giant Slits" or something like that. It's never been reissued and is hard to find, but I've read reports that it's a complete 'forgotten masterpiece' kinda thing..

I also really want to get the album of their Peel sessions, which is supposed to be absolutely brilliant and shambolic and punky..
 
 
Saveloy
12:46 / 01.04.03
Yeah, the Peel Session versions of tracks that were featured on 'Cut' were recorded earlier (I think) and are a great deal rougher. It's not just the lower-fi production, they're generally, erm, punkier. That was my intro to the Slits so I was quite surprised by the laid back sound on 'Cut'. Both great. The session album has a smashing version of In The Beginning and a lovely tummy on the cover too so you've got no choice but to go out and get it now, really.
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
12:56 / 01.04.03
I would think that an essential component of the Slits' sound was humor and fun, which I don't think is a very big part of Erase Errata's sound, and to a lesser degree, Le Tigre. I can see how those bands have taken elements of The Slits sound, but I don't think either of them really sound like them at all. None of these groups ever seen to borrow the R+B and raggae parts of the Slits' music too, which really changes things. Erase Errata and Le Tigre sound so uptight compared to the Slits.

So, what I mean is: I wish there were more rock bands who were as loose and weird and sexy and clever as The Slits. I wish more folks were as willing to be as different as Ari Up. Ari Up is like no one else but herself, which is a very refreshing thing compared to someone like Karen O, who is like everyone but herself, just a composite of "rock star" cliches.
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
13:37 / 01.04.03
I think that's a bit harsh on Karen O, and you may be turning into an old man who wants his soup. Mmmm, soup. But I do agree with you about the sense of fun thing. It's really interesting, there's an interview here with Ari Up where she says the following:

"Because I've been living in Jamaica most of my life, I've only been listening to hip hop and dance hall, I mean reggae music... I know everything about Jamaica, and also with hip hop cause hip hop is a sort of cousin to reggae, they're kind of melded together. The dance hall thing, that's not been very exposed, because with white people it's been, stop with reggae or stop with dub, they didn't catch on to the rest. But I've been very deeply involved with the nineties reggae which is the hardcore dancehall. So white people have been totally turned off for some reason along in the eighties- they haven't caught on yet to the really hardcore stuff in Jamaica. But you know, Bob Marley's dream came true because the Black Americans finally caught on. Now, they're really into what's happening with dancehall in Jamaica. So sometimes on Hot 97 we hear a lot of reggae joints coming across in hip hop... But I've certainly heard the music scene [in England] and it's just whack. Punk, pop, and drum and bass over there, ugh."

Now, I don't know when the interview was done, but I think it's very telling. I just take it as further evidence that punk was so totally misunderstood, and I concur wholeheartedly with Jon Savage's view (as expressed in England's Dreaming, the best book about pop culture and music ever written) that it all went wrong when the 'rock' tag got added...

Anyway, that's all off topic. I think Le Tigre do try to add some sexiness and fun in there, and I do think they succeed to a degree - however, bearing in mind the above, it occurs to me that they're influenced by old school (and/or current 'alternative', ie largely white) hip-hop, funk and disco but not really by contemporary hip-hop or r&b to any real extent. I wonder if you could generalise and say that many punk-influenced bands are scared to show their love of pop too overtly - forgetting just how accessible and poppy most of the songs on a classic 'punk' album like Cut are - that album was directly influenced by the latest things to happen in black music (reggae & dub - see also the Clash), and these days the pernicious, insidious idea of the old school being better and the new stuff being shallow and diluted - it infects everything, even Le Tigre.

Which is not to say that I don't really like and appreciate 'Fake French', 'Well Well Well', or a lot of the remix EP, as examples of the above. (Hey, now the DFA - I bet Cut gets played once a day in their Williamsburg loft.)

And in fact this could all be me projecting a Grand Unifying Theory on disparate individuals.
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
15:54 / 01.04.03
I don't know, Flyboy. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have their moments, but is there anything at all unique about Karen O's persona? It just seems like she's following a "How To Be A Craaaaaaazy Rock Star" manual. Does she bring anything new to the table at all?

The more I think about Karen O, the more I find her utterly depressing and completely at odds with some of the best ideals of punk, rock n roll, and the DIY aesthetic. For the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and scores of other current artists, it seems like it's more about playing dress up and embracing rock star iconography and archetypes rather than any attempt at being themselves and making something new. I'm more excited about people defying all of the exceptations of what a "Rock Star/Pop Star/___ Star" should be and forcing people to accept different types of "____ Stars."

It's a peculiar form of conservatism, I think. Ideally, I think that punk should make people feel a sense of "I could do this. I'm a big weirdo, and I don't fit into any musical stereotypes, but I can go up there and be myself and do it." I don't think the Yeah Yeah Yeahs would give many people that feeling - to be like the YYYs, you have to dress and act and behave in specific ways that people identify with some shallow marketer's notion of what rock music looks, acts, and sounds like. That's depressing to me.
 
 
_pin
19:02 / 01.04.03
Erm... I wouldn't agree with that. I'd say that their drummer is possibly the least YOU ARE NOT COOL ENOUGH TO BE ME guy in the world. But then he is a "proper" musican... And the guitarist is pretty anti-fashion tips too.

I really don't think the two men are doing any kind of anti-empowerment thing at all. I can see where you're coming from with Karen O, as she has her own personal designer, but then she seems to be pretty "do it yrself" anyway. I just honestly don't feel alienated by the band at all. They really do make everything seem easy and fun.

Really, dude- shouldn't you be picking on Interpol?
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
19:06 / 01.04.03
Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Raveonettes, etc etc. There's a lot of bands out there that my criticism is aimed at, not just the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
 
 
Goodness Gracious Meme
20:57 / 01.04.03
I think. Ideally, I think that punk should make people feel a sense of "I could do this. I'm a big weirdo, and I don't fit into any (musical) stereotypes, but I can go up there and be myself and do it."

My emphasis in quoting flux as punk was much more than not being able to fit into musical stereotypes, it was a wholesale attack on/rejection of stereotypes/cultures/lifestyles in culture in general. that's why the influence of punk stretches way beyonhd stylistically similar/invested scenes.

But my mention of Riot Grrl and Queer/Homocore fits perfectly with yr definition. they were *all about* this and often very punk in soound. And had alot more invested in it than alot of the original punk bands... due to seriously compromised/rstricted/dangerous lives due to gender/sexuality

Bikini Kill were a bunch of women personifying yr quote, basically. Specifically, as the Slits were, an 'I can go up there, by myself, a woman punk muso in a male scene, and do it on my terms' thing. Ditto Huggy Bear, L7. (quel surprise, only very derisory coverage in the Inkies, on this side of the Atlantic, anyways)

Sister George, another grand example of the inclusivity/invitation 'get up and do it, we're not stars' vibe and 'we hate the scene that bred us'/we critique where we came from' stuff...a fucking wonder *swoooon*.

And very Slits-ish, musically, at times- in that they were a musical/class/race/gender product of where they came from, while very capable of having a great time. V bouncy, and very much a product of their east end/london roots...Mixed race/generation, mixed sex, mixed sexuality, music that was a product of all of this. (surprise, almost no mainstream coverage ever. and v.equivocal pinkpress mentions. they pissed people off.)

Mind you, Im not terribly surprised, as these scenes, which were very active in the early/mid 80s on both sides of the atlantic (excuse my refs being more uk-based, they were hard to find out about) were utterly ignored by the 'mainstream' indie press as the didn't fit in, and were a little too 'outsider' for people to be interested/appreciative.

And yeah, there's resentment in here, as I remember UK inkie coverage of these bands, when I was still very influenced by the NME/MM telling me essentially that it was crap as it was all over emotional/too political/tuneless/screaming/can't play their instruments women.

This last being the big problem, as men who screamed about their angst, out of tune, with basic chords were all the rage just then...

Which was/is a v.personal thing of where i started to diverge from/ to question all this stuff...
discovering patriarchy/mysogyny in music journos then was no great trick...

And also hence my use of the word 'influence' rather than the phrase 'sounds like'...

And to answer fly's qu I don't neccessarily want my favourite bands to spawn lots of identical sounding bands, they're very rarely going to be as good(they won't be a surprise for a start and will have adapted their version of a deeply personal stance evolved from specificity(of band members, place, time, nationality, race, influences etc)) , but to impart their attitude/broader style in such a fashion that people extend and can mess with it...

how about blondie? pop, smiley, smidges of punk and reggae/calypso, girl-fronted/identified...

Elastica - female post-punk bouncy pop sound, lots of attitude?

Can I have people like Peaches, Miss Kittin, Smokin' Jo on the merging soundstyles, having fun, being female and getting up there and doing it tip? The late, very much lamented Kemistry, and Storm? Lil kim? Depends very much what you think the Slits were as to where you see their influence.

Erase errata sound fun, someone tell me about them.

'the best book about music and pop culture'. off the top of my head:

Time Travel-also John Savage, Seduced and Abandoned-Richard Smith, Feminism and Youth Cultures(I think) - Angela McRobbie, Altered States - Matthew Colin, Manchester, England - Dave Haslam, (if we include tv- the rhythmn divine-Smith/Savage/Sheryl Garrat. There was meant to be a book of this, which was pulled. arse.). oh and there's an amazing book about dub/reggae dancehall which i've lent out and the name of which escapes me, might be called 'blood and fire'.

ED *is* great. bold claims tho'

(Christ, you can't tell I dream of being Jon Savage/Richard Smith. Can you )

Sorry, Fly, seem to have gone off on one on coverage of women in the Indie scene. couldn't help it. it's so tied for me with listening to the Slits, and with the comments that have followed about their influence.
 
 
Goodness Gracious Meme
21:05 / 01.04.03
'the best book about music and pop culture'.

would actually be the one I'd write about boy bands, housewives' choices, riot grrl, dancehall, jungle, hardcore, r 'n b/hip hop and autonomous female space/interventions in male space. Ha. except you know I'll never get around to it, and don't have the skills/cash. ah well.

And I'm pretty sure Angela McR is already doing a far better job as we speak.

*sigh.*
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
09:16 / 02.04.03
Quick thoughts ( have answered Flux's comments on the YYYs in the YYYs thread):

Elastica rarely occur to me as an example of a 'politicised' band even though there were some fairly obvious ways in which they were (primarily to do with gender roles, sex etc) - is this a class thing? IE Justine Frischmann, posh girl, dad built the Centrepoint (and not with his hands), therefore however much time I had for her and the band there will always be that "rich people have the luxury of dressing up as androgynous rock stars" thing? Pre-empting any accusations of double standards, I do have the same reservations about the Stones, the Strokes etc.

(Cue separate Elastica thread...)

As for Lil'Kim, Peaches etc - I'd definitely put them in the same venn diagram, for want of a better word, as The Slits, along with a few other people, especially in hip-hop: Eve, Missy, Princess Superstar, and probably a few others. But you just *know* that there's a bunch of people out there who'd see the cover of Cut as really clever and empowering, and the cover of Notorious K.I.M. as exploitative, pandering to men etc without being able to offer a cogent explanation as to why - but this has been covered before a few times here and is one of my pet peeves, blah blah unconscious racism blah blah, so I'll say no more on this for now...

Note to self: Bikini Kill/Slits compare and contrast later.
 
 
rizla mission
10:29 / 02.04.03
Erase errata sound fun, someone tell me about them.

They're barrels of fun.

Not that you'd know it from their fantastically minimalist website.

Here's the coolest review I could find:

The `Errata girls came out onto the stage wearing florissant outfits illuminated by a black light looking like post-apocalyptic war survivors. "Mad Max" gladiators searching for Cherry Coke on a barren western desert… The angular guitars and odd yanking of the bass strings, mixed with the scattered but continuously beats and vocals projecting into the audience makes Erase Errata one of the more refreshing bands to come out of California these days. Their socially charged lyrics about mindtrips of liberation, societal breakdowns, and the conflict of the inner are subjects that interest me and seem to standout well in punk rock. After a noisy display of guitar plucking and feedback, they busted out into a jagged exhibition of raw action. Erase Errata aren’t a wild and frantic punk band, but rather a cool, confident collective that slowly boils over in yr face, scarring yr eyes and yr ears. They performed songs off Other Animals LP, like my fav, "Billy Mummy," and "Marathon" and "Delivery," and a mess of others that are either new or on their 45s, which I don’t own because Erase Errata is a band that needs a good half-hour of yr undivided attention. I was very interested in seeing how their songs are played, because most of the sounds Erase Errata makes seem so foreign to me that I can’t distinguish between the guitars and the bass on some tracks, or whether or not they used extra instruments… Needless to say, they performed all of their songs with only a guitar, bass, drum set, and trumpet with precision and vigor. After give the audience ten songs of ingenuity, Erase Errata left the stage, mercifully giving our brains a rest from the attack.
 
 
bio k9
10:35 / 02.04.03
Revenge of the Giant Slits wasn't released in the US but you can find it on soulseek...
 
 
Mister Six, whom all the girls
16:06 / 02.04.03
Have you heard of ESG? Very nice if you like the Slits.
 
 
Cosmicjamas
18:59 / 02.04.03
The dance hall thing, that's not been very exposed, because with white people it's been, stop with reggae or stop with dub, they didn't catch on to the rest. (did that work - my first attempt at bold text!)

Wow! I never knew people wouldn't expect me to like Ragga and Dancehall, I've been quietly picking up dub plates here and there since the beginning of the '90s. I just think it's fantastic, happy music and when its used to make a point or message its so effective. I can't really remember how I got to be able to understand heavy patois but I suppose my love of Jamaican music started with Ska and kept up from there.

I remember The Slits when they began, and I loved the way they, and some other punk bands and particularly DJs at punk gigs would blend dub sounds in with the music.
 
 
rizla mission
11:37 / 03.04.03
This thread's inspired me to dig up my copy of 'Cut' and play it loudly, with particular regard to the tracks that passed my by to some extent when I listened to it previously..

'Heard it on the Grapevine' is fucking ammaazzinngg .. I mean, a punk band doing a reggae version of a classic soul number - by rights it should be absolutely hideous - but wow! They just manage to, like, effortlessly combine the best bits of all three genres into absolute mad cool genius..
 
 
illmatic
17:34 / 03.04.03
Y'all heard of this, the Soul Jazz comp. of post-punk funky weirdness?, named after the ladeez in question? I've heard a couple of people slag this album off for being too trendy for it's own good, but so fucking what, it doesn't make the music any less interesting, does it?

It is/was a pretty fascinating musical time musically. Ari Up crossed over into the whole On-U Sound wacked out reggae thing, and did a couple of albums with New Age Steppers, which I'll dig out. You may well get birthday tapes, Flyboy (if they're any good that is- can't remember).
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
19:10 / 03.04.03
That compilation isn't solid in my opinion, but it does contain a handful of songs that I believe to be utterly essential - The Slits title track, "She Is Beyond Good And Evil" by the Pop Group, "Knife Slits Water" and "Shack Up" by A Certain Ratio, "Coup" by 23 Skidoo, and "24 Track Loop" by This Heat.

It's a great place to start. The Disco Not Disco collections are similarly fantastic.

If Flyboy doesn't have this stuff, he really ought to!
 
 
jackamo
23:43 / 06.04.03
its interesting how scenes you were invoved with 20 years ago get
repackaged as some kind of "coherent" movement when the whole punk,funk and disco cross over was anything but -

throbbing gristle - esg - 400 blows - the pop group - delta 5 - acr -
au pairs - gang of four - slits/new age steppers - liquid liquid -
early on-u sounds - the fast label -cabaret voltaire - the peech boys

it was one of the few scenes that the media simulacra forgot about in the rush to embrace electro once house music had been spliced into an infinity of micro-forms.

the souljazz compilation is ok,but it only represents a fraction of the music of the time and even then the music isnt all that representative of the bands ( which is the nature of any so called scene defining compilations anyway)

just listening to the au-pairs "playing with a different sex" lp -from 1981 - if ya like the slits,check em out...

jackamo
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
20:29 / 07.05.03
Ari-Up & the True Warriors will be performing some new material as well as classics from The Slits on Pat Duncan's show on WFMU on Thursday night (May 8th), 11 PM - 2 AM New York time.

A realaudio archive of the show will available sometime the following day, and will remain there on the link above.
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
20:31 / 07.05.03
In the meantime, you can hear a live Slits performance from 1981 broadcast on an episode of Pat Duncan's show from last year here.
 
 
rizla mission
09:53 / 09.05.03
Apparently, The Slits are playing a gig in London next month .. anyone know what the hell is up with that..?

In other news, I recently found a copy of the Au Pairs 'playing with a different sex' in a forgotten Welsh record shop for £3, and it's utterly great - highly recommended to fans of the Slits, as I believe Flux said earlier on in this thread..
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
14:36 / 11.05.03
Oh my god! You all really need to hear the Ari Up and the True Warriors live on WFMU. She plays several Slits classics with her new band, along with some very exciting new material. Ari Up is so cool and personable - she talks to the listening audience, chats with the band, talks about the Slits and tells stories. If Ari Up is playing near you, go see her play. This is fantastic.

The WFMU setlist:

Baby Mother / True Warrior / Kill Them With Love / Love Und Romance / World of Grownups / I Heard It Through The Grapevine / Bashment / FM / Mi Done / Baby Father / New Town / Alergic
 
 
illmatic
11:55 / 13.11.03
Fantastic interview with Tessa Pollit, Slits bassist.
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
12:05 / 13.11.03
It'd be nice if just one of the bands "influenced" by the Slits sounded anything remotely like them.

Dude - I just realised - the new Chicks On Speed album! I think on the best cuts, 99 Cents manages to sound a lot like The Slits - best example probably being the title track or 'Wordy Rappinghood'.
 
 
Hydra vs Leviathan
15:31 / 06.10.06
Not heard any other Slits material (tho i think i'd like to hear their take on "Man Next Door", especially after their brilliant-for-all-the-reasons-already-mentioned version of "Grapevine"), but "Cut" is definitely among my favourite (post-?)punk albums... bought* it initially because it was produced by Dennis Bovell, and perhaps expected it to be more overtly reggae-influenced than it actually is (i.e., it's not just Aswad or Steel Pulse but with punky female vocals), but the influence is just subtler and needs slightly deeper exploration to find... my first impression was a much more lo-fi, more chaotic, more DIY version of the 2-Tone sound, particularly The Selecter (who i suspect were influenced)...

Think my favourite songs on "Cut" are probably "Shoplifting" (one of punk's perfect short blasts of attitude, without needing the stereotypically masculine thrash-guitars thing) and "Ping Pong Affair" (just for the wit and energy of it), as well as the "Grapevine" cover, but i tend to listen to the whole album as one long thing rather than as seperate "tunes"... the slow version of "Liebe And Romanze" is dubliciously deconstructed and weird as well...

Very interesting interview - Pollitt mentions Burning Spear as an influence, alongside free jazz artists, and i can actually see that - The Slits bear the same sort of relationship to the more linear song structures of The Clash and the Pistols as Spear does to the likes of Marley and Tosh, if that makes sense...

Good that someone's mentioned the Au Pairs - i've only heard a couple of their songs ("She's So Cool" (or is it "We're So Cool"?) and "Headache For Michelle"), but read a really good article/interview in FACT magazine a few years back... i'm thinking of getting this anthology, which as i understand it contains all of both their albums... the songs i heard reminded me of the Slits but with more of a "punk-funk" (or indeed just plain funk) influence - for those that have heard more, is that in keeping with the rest of their material?

* yes, i know in keeping with the spirit i "should" have shoplifted it
 
 
grant
15:16 / 09.10.06
"Cut" is definitely among my favourite (post-?)punk albums...
... my first impression was a much more lo-fi, more chaotic, more DIY version of the 2-Tone sound, particularly The Selecter (who i suspect were influenced)...

Somewhere I have a book that came out in, like, 1979 about punk rock. The Slits are one of the featured bands -- trivia I remember is that most of them were in a band with Sid Vicious before he joined the Sex Pistols (band called "Flowers of Romance," if memory is working right), and that Palmolive used to break drumheads because she'd use knitting needles insted of drumsticks. So not post-punk, really. Pre-punk, if anything.

The book doesn't explicitly talk about the cross-fertilization between reggae and punk, but there's definitely a lot of references to people listening to reggae on tour buses and that. The sound pops up on lots of Clash albums, too.
 
 
Mmothra
14:06 / 10.10.06
Since no one has mentioned it yet...Slits reunion tour!

The Slits
When
Saturday, November 18, 2006
8:00 PM


Where
Mezzanine

444 Jessie Street @ Mint
San Francisco, California 94013
(Yahoo! Maps, Google Maps)

Category
Music
Description
The Slits are having a reunion tour...

http://www.cmj.com/articles/display_article.php?id=17547261
 
 
Hydra vs Leviathan
22:01 / 12.10.06
Just ordered the Au Pairs anthology on the strength of this review... hope they're as good as it makes them sound like they are...

(as this is a thread about the Slits, the Au Pairs probably should have a different thread... if no one else starts one, i will when the CD reaches me...)
 
  

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