Quicksand – “Slip”

DB HOF NO. 28

The making of Quicksand’s “Slip”

released: February 9, 1993

label: Polydor

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Quicksand are as easy to classify as any band in our ever-expanding Hall of Fame: The New York quartet was post-hardcore in every sense of the term. Drummer Alan Cage and guitarist Tom Capone cut their teeth together in Beyond, bassist Sergio Vega in Absolution and Collapse, and perhaps most famously, frontman Walter Schreifels skated the -edge in Youth of Today and Gorilla Biscuits. Right around the time Nirvana were unwittingly concocting hair metal genocide in the early ’90s, the barely legal quartet quietly took huge strides away from the turgid verse/chorus/mosh part conventions they were weaned on. After assembling a gritty self-titled EP on Revelation in 1990, Quicksand found themselves in the great American alt-rock feeding frenzy and hooked up with Polydor in 1991. The resultant full-length debut, Slip, was a jaw-dropping anthem factory, fusing equal parts Helmet staccato, Soundgarden sack and My Bloody Valentine dreampop into something entirely its own; even the vast parameters of “post-hardcore” didn’t do it categorical justice. Although the album sold in the low six figures and the label was faithful even through harsh-tokin’ sophomore follow-up Manic Compression, the band called it quits after a 1998 reunion tour opening for Deftones, one of the countless hybrid acts they’d indelibly influenced. It’s about time this inexplicable bargain bin staple (just 99 cents used on Amazon, kids) got the props it deserves, unfulfilled dreams and visions notwithstanding.

—Andrew Bonazelli

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