Watch The Only Known Live Footage Of Pre-Slint Band Squirrel Bait
One of the best qualities of Breadcrumb Trail — Lance Bangs’ fantastic documentary on Slint, released earlier this year — is the wealth of rare footage Bangs’ unearthed, and how naturally it flows into the story. No mention is made of the great effort required to obtain that footage; Bangs simply includes it where it needs to be, and lets it speak for itself. When the film’s focus turns to Squirrel Bait — the pre-Slint band featuring Brian McMahan and Britt Walford (as well as a pre-Gastr Del Sol David Grubbs) — there is naturally some old video of that band playing. However, this was actually the only known live footage of Squirrel Bait, and now label Drag City has made it available to watch online. The clip was shot by David Hintz in 1985 in Newport, Kentucky, and restored by Bangs. It features the band playing the song “Sun God” from their self-titled EP, and offhandedly mentioning another show opening for Big Black — which makes sense, as only a few years later, Steve Albini would help Slint record their debut album, Tweez. Watch it below.