Maurice (Pre-Slint) Demos Now Available

If you've read my book on Spiderland, you know that one of my main arguments in the opening chapter is that the significance of Squirrel Bait in the pre-Slint soup is somewhat overstated, considering David Grubbs wrote the majority of that band's music and lyrics and that Brian McMahan and Britt Walford were not really in the band at the same time. But there's a recorded documentation of Squirrel Bait and all those names are in the liner notes, so there you go. Rather, in my interviews for the book, it was made pretty clear to me that another band had a much more direct tie to Slint: Maurice.

Maurice was a heavy, aggressive metal band originally started by Britt Walford, Brian McMahan, and Ned Oldham and featuring Sean "Rat" Garrison on lead vocals. That early incarnation lasted not very long—Oldham was replaced by a guy named Mike Bucayu (who along with Rat would later form Kinghorse), and McMahan was replaced by David Pajo. I've written a little about this on the blog before, and you can still read an excerpt from the book detailing the earliest period in Slint's history at the 33 1/3 blog.

The thing about Maurice, though, is that they never did any proper recordings, so their place in Slint's history is easy to overlook. That's why I'm happy to report that David Pajo has recently made their one and only demo—recorded on a boombox at the specific request of one Glenn Danzig—available  to all.

As with most things Slint-related, you should prepare yourself for something that sounds nothing like Slint whatsoever. Maurice was a metal band. The songs on the demo hardly hint at the Slint you most wish you could have more of (ie, Spiderland). Here and there, like toward the end of "The Struggle," you can hear small hints of things to come on Tweez—Walford's insane drumming and Pajo's compulsive need to play as many artificial harmonics as possible—but even so it's not made transparant that this band might turn into Slint. (It is a fact, however, that the final song Maurice wrote became the first Slint song, "Pat," but this demo predates that song. To my knowledge, the Maurice version of that song was never recorded.) It is worth keeping in mind, though, that everyone playing on this demo was about fifteen years old at the time.

Not to be a shill (okay, a little bit to be a shill), but there are a lot of great stories about Maurice in the book, if you haven't read it, including their brief tour with Samhain, with Will Oldham in tow. (Oldham came close to joining Slint right after the group splintered off from Maurice—can you imagine?) So, you know, go buy the book. And buy the Maurice demo here.

Comments

[Tmj]

I have a feeling that you may have been a major reason for this to now appear, so I appreciate that. I purchased the book and really enjoyed it. Having lived in Louisville during that timeframe, it brought back many a memory. You may have learned of this already, but Trash Flow Radio had a Derby Day special this year that played some rare Louisville stuff, such as live Languid and Flaccid. They even archive it through their Facebook page. It is worth checking out if you have not to this point.

[scott pgwp]

Thanks TMJ.I have no idea if I'm the reason but in any case I'm really glad it's out there. I didn't know about the Trash Flow Radio show! Off to seek it out.

[Davis Payload]

Hey Scott it's Pajo! Just to add, I actually found a copy of Maurice playing what became the first Slint song-- we called it "New Dave" at the time (cuz it was my new song, ha!). It's all clean guitar and Mike Bucayu is doing his best to play that bass line, with awkward pauses and tuning to D, etc! It's the last song after a terrible set at the The Jockey Club in Newport KY (opening for Scratch Acid?). We are being heckled the entire time and Rat doesn't really sing, he spends the set apologizing for not being punk rock enough! I have some other Maurice recordings that shows the transition to Tweez pretty obviously-- the demo is a full year before the transition. Maybe all this stuff will be properly released someday... I just wanted to get that demo out first, for people to check it out for themselves. Oh yeah, The Struggle chugga chuggas resurfaced in Slint as Glenn, from the untitled 10". Jam on.

[scott pgwp]

Awesome, thanks David! I was just talking with someone on ILM (I think it was Drew but under an alias) about The Struggle - clearly a connection there.

Man, I would LOVE to hear that Maurice version of Pat.

Thanks for commenting!

[Hank]

It's also worth mentioning that for a long time one of the only tastes of Maurice out there was a cover version of "Dare to Feel" by local Louisville band Dybbuk (who were not much older than Maurice when they recorded it).

Unlike the Maurice version, it was recorded well, by Howie Gano at Louisville's Sound on Sound studios, and released on the band's long OOP full-length as well as a local compilation.

Underlining the incestuousness of Louisville's music scene, a proto-Rodan band recorded a Slint (and Midnight Starr) medley for the same comp.

http://www.slamdek.com/releases/25-merry-christmas.html

[John Toombs]

Actually, I was the inspiration for the Maurice recordings being released. I've been bugging Dave, etc for awhile about releasing some of the Maurice stuff (FSBL demo, rehearsals, live gigs of which there are many) in some form or another. After getting the FSBL "original" rehearsal/demo tape from Britt, I digitized it and provided it to Dave, who weaved his re-mastering magic. You can hear the results for yourself. There are at least 2 instrumental rehearsals from the 1985 and 1986 respectively, as well as a number of live shows from 1985 & 1986, including several from the Samhain tour in April 1986 and the Scratch Acid gig where they performed Pat. There is at least one other live recording of that song a well.

[John Toombs]

By the way Scott, most if not all of the the Maurice guys were well older than 15 when they recorded this rehearsal demo.