GutterPutter

CONTENT WARNING: DEALS WITH MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES AND SELF-HARM.

Highlights

Origins

To put it simply, the 1980s isn’t an ideal time as an American. With the economy in recession back in 1982, the arms race with the Soviet Union reigniting fears of nuclear war, and the sense of growing corporatism leaves little room for optimism. While the rise of MTV shows anyone with a knack at making music could be raised up to global superstardom, the amount of attention that’s been garnered from major music labels has made such endeavour illusory. All these little tidbits serve as invaluable inspiration for many punk bands to experiment with their music, leading to what we now know as indie rock. For all its innovation, it doesn’t always translate well to profit when most listeners would find the content to be ‘unlistenable’ in their opinion.

What especially makes the life of an underground artist hard is the obsession with whatever is trending. One decade, people were fixated on new wave as the music of the future and another decade sees a punk-like middle finger under the guise of grunge. Ironic given that a lot of record deals tried to exploit the genre’s unexpected explosion in popularity in the early 90s. Thus, while you end up having Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and many others becoming famous, that comes with the curse of celebrityhood as more and more fans beg for new information about their personal lives. Not that ideal of a dream if you prefer to keep things private, right?

Luckily, there is one alternative that is almost a full inversion to the grunge wave. With its sludgy, slow-tempo song structure with depressive lyricism and an outside-the-box percussion patterns, another genre was in the making back in the late 1980s. With bands such as American Music Club or Galaxie 500, another variant of the indie rock wave is on the rise. 

Rise in Acclaim

What many would cite as the first slowcore album is The Restless Stranger in 1985 which was released with mixed reception. However, the defining breakout came four years later when Galaxie 500’s On Fire arrived with its dream pop and psychedelic sounds. This ethereal combination enables the album to become one of the most beloved underground releases of the 80s. Peter Clark described it as “encircling the unwary listener with snaking lines of guitar, restrained percussion and a confessional- style vocal.” (1989, 140) Many artists cited it for its morose feeling and overall sense of alienation with enchanting instrumentals to further add to the genre.

Following on from the album, the 90s is when the genre really starts to take the form of its own identity as a peculiar variant to indie rock. For example, Codeline’s debut album after On Fire was identified by its similarities to what we now recognise as post-rock for its focus around the textures of each song. Its sense of melancholia is very apparent which helps to ingrain the lyrical theme of depression into the key characteristics of the genre. With that, Low’s debut, 1994’s I Could Live in Hope, rose up and launched straight into underground attention as what many would argue as the first perfect slowcore album. The changing, harmonic vocal performances between married couple Alan Sparhawk and the late Mimi Parker gives diversity in the tracks as its dreaminess and economical songwriting gives weight to every word and every note that’s played.

What helps to give slowcore credibility for how authentic it is is through its origin – one that is recorded on the Sunday Times. Sparhawk had once mentioned on the Paper Crane podcast that Low came around by deliberately playing their songs in such a slow tempo that irritates a lot of their grunge-obsessed band. It’s a middle finger to the overexcited impression of the trend. It helps that the genre continues to thrive as a niche favourite long after the 90s while grunge was now tied deep as a likeable, yet aged mark of its time. Helping with that case is that, due to slowcore’s simple and vague look into sad and minimal instrumentation, the likes of Duster and Cat Power would emerge out with their own style during the decade. Respectively looking into space rock and singer-songwriter folk, the two acts muster up their own following for their unique musical style.

Creative Peak

The genre continues to march its way through the 2000s in cultivating its already niche fanbase. Low continues to stand out as one of the best bands of its genre as 2001’s Things We Lost in the Fire was hailed as a significant milestone and a potential magnum opus for the duo. Hailed for perfecting the vocal harmonies that is a key part of the band’s music, it’s one of the many highlights that shines up within the genre as more bands opt to release their own take. Compare that to the peak of emo which sees a lot of focus being placed towards pop punk influences for better or for worse. Slowcore’s priority on disillusioned, relatively older adults tends to pay off in dividends for how sincere it feels.

For example, Matt Elliott’s most well-known record, 2005’s Drinking Songs, is a concept album. Its theme focuses on harshly condemning the US’s foreign policy and its tendency to go to war at the cost of many recorded PTSDs, depression, and death for corporate gains. Meanwhile, Songs: Ohia’s Didn’t It Rain expands on the melancholic lyricism and adds narrative-driven anecdotes around distrust, ennui, and travelling with such vividness that is comparable to magic realism. Supported by the likes of lowercase and the For Carnation, slowcore makes up its obscurity through its flexibility and its relatability to anyone who’s feeling down. 

That being said, there is one album that not only would I argue to be my favourite out of all the records in the genre, but it’s also a platonic ideal in its own way. That is Songs About Leaving by Carissa’s Wierd; a hushed, hopelessly withering record that tackles suicide, self-loathing, and emptiness. Being inspired by the classical violin and piano from chamber pop, it gives the album a unique identity by retaining a peaceful sensation with a riveting emotional potency underneath. With highlights like ‘So You Wanna Be a Superhero’ or ‘Sofisticated Fuck Princess Please Leave Me Alone’, the whole album takes the feeling of desolation to its maximum. There is virtually no self-love to be found. It’s miserable, it’s beautiful, and it’s tranquil in its own style that makes it harbour a loyal following – myself being one of them. Don’t listen to it if you want to preserve your happiness.

Legacy

Following the 2000s, the genre’s peak in artist activity mostly died down as many of their most acclaimed names opted to explore different alternatives. Low, one of the seminal acts throughout slowcore’s history, dabbled more and more with experimental electronica and noise pop which culminated in 2021’s HEY WHAT. Songs: Ohia’s frontman Jason Molina decided to embrace his folk/country influences which took him to 2003’s Magnolia Electric Co., his most acclaimed and beloved record. He then worked as a full-time singer-songwriter up until his unfortunate passing in 2013. Carissa’s Wierd and Duster disbanded just before 2005 with its members heading off to different projects with the latter having reformed only back in 2018. 

Nevertheless, artists like Have a Nice Life’s Dan Barnett opts to give slowcore under a go. Under the musical project of Giles Corey after the victim of the Salem witch trial, his self-titled debut record was released in 2011 with positive reviews. To this day, slowcore never finds the commercial peak that it would’ve reached up towards. Instead, it makes up for it through its alluring following, diversity, and humane connection. That is something that neither grunge or emo managed to develop in its peak as many start to write them off as being too commercialised. The two genres do manage to find its footing to pass off as being real about its emotions, yet they are never able to consistently push for it the same way slowcore has done since the very beginning.