Silkworm —> Bottomless Pit

In the mid ’90s, I got really into this band called Silkworm after stumbling upon an LP in a friend’s collection called His Absence is a Blessing. The sound was really Chicago, if that makes any sense, and the fact that they earned fans in Malkmus, Albini and Matador Records wasn’t a surprise at all. The songs focused on the rhythm section, drums and bass loping together through quick, jerking tunes that never wasted a minute. Andy Cohen’s guitars and vocals were particularly Alibini-esque: metallic, obtuse and jangling. I fell in love with the band immediately, and snatched up Firewater and Developer immediately. Silkworm followed me, as they were one of those rare bands that kept putting out records and touring no matter how recognizable (or not, as the case might be) their name became. Their seemingly endless pool of energy and inspiration ran out in 2005 when their drummer passed away … but this year, there were rumors of a reformation, under a different name, with new members. Indeed, Andy Cohen and bassist Tim Midgett have assembled a group (together with ex-Albini employees bassist Brian Orchard and drummer Chris Manfrin (Seam, Archer Prewitt).

The new group is called Bottomless Pit, and the record is out, entitled Hammer of the Gods. It’s perfect, exactly what one would hope the next Silkworm record would have sounded like. They are expected to tour in Spring of 2008, and a documentary about Silkworm is forthcoming (see preview here). I highly recommend checking out both Silkworm and Bottomless Pit, have a listen to their stuff and order the record at Comedy Minus One.

Bottomless Pit MySpace
Listen @ Bottomless Pit’s site.

did you ever see skwm? i was fortunate enough to catch them a few times during pavement’s spring 1997 tour (with shudder to think) and they were absolutely phenomenal - michael dahlquist hit the drums about as hard as anyone i’ve ever seen.

also worth checking out are the solo records by ex-skwm frontman joel r.l. phelps.

I actually did see them - on that same tour, in fact - in Philly. I have the ticket stub still, as it was my first time to see Pavement, so it was an extra special show.

Whatever happened to lineups like that?

Also, apparently there is a live recording of Malkmus sitting in with Silkworm live, and he sings a couple tunes … I’d kill for that bootleg.

One batch of live Malkmus/Silkworm recordings were released under the name The Crust Brothers. If you can’t find the cd (Marquee Mark) on-line, let me know and I can send you some mp3s. - JS

Thank you Jon!

I’ve got that Crust Bros. record as well. A lot of it is them covering stuff from Dylan’s Basement Tapes. “Million Dollar Bash” is particularly sweet, if I recall.

Silkworm opened for The New Year in Dallas back in 2003 on a Sunday. I had to skip out on the show because it would have been a two hour drive plus I had a final the next day. I should have skipped the final.

My friend Seth is making a Silkworm documentary - here’s the 8 minute preview trailer (you may have already seen from Pitchfork - if so, sorry!)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6457678518537766305&q=silkworm&total=370&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=6

During that Silkworm/New Year tour, Matt Kadane was playing keys with Silkworm in addition to his New Yearing, at least at the Emo’s show I saw. I heard he was a permanent Silkworm fixture at the time, but maybe he was just playing with them on the tour. Either way, that show kicked a lot of ass. Silkworm’s live show energy…damn infectious.

Silkworm was my favorite band, period. I saw them play probably 10 times (whenever they played in Seattle, which was increasingly infrequently as time went on). I never got to see them as a 4-piece (they played in the town I went to college in, Bellingham, WA, but I wasn’t old enough to get into the bar!!), but the awesome shows I saw after that certainly made up for it. I even got to interview Tim and Michael before their show opening up for Mission of Burma a few (OK, 6) years ago. Here’s the link if anyone’s interested. http://www.splendidmagazine.com/features/silkworm/
Thank goodness for Bottomless Pit.

[…] they’re scheduled to play a handful of shows with Bottomless Pit (more on them from me here), which is essentially Silkworm. This is … […]