Breadcrumb Trail

Lance Bangs's 2014 documentary is about the band Slint and their 1991 album Spiderland. The group formed in Louisville while most of its members were still in high school, and the album drew almost no attention when it appeared. In later years it came to be counted among the founding records of what is called post-rock. What the documentary does best is show the ordinary texture of that scene. How small the circle in Louisville was at the start of the nineties, the rehearsal spaces, the trading of tapes and the way the bands fed each other are all covered in detail. The members speak at length for the first time in years. The difficulties during the album's recording and the process that led to the break-up are addressed openly, including one member's mental health. The documentary does not turn that into sensation. Who it's for: Slint listeners and anyone curious about the nineties American independent music scene. Who it's not for: viewers new to the band; the documentary assumes context and does not go into the music theoretically.