The Slits / American Radio Interview


The Slits’ brief catalog is full of oddities bookmarked by two full-length LPs, their acknowledged dub/punk classic Cut and the misunderstood and very underrated Return of the Giant Slits. (If you have not yet done so, get these albums now.)

This 1981 7″ came packaged with the (Europe only?) Return LP, and it’s a perverse piece of promotion to say the least. Side B features the less-than-essential ‘Face Dub,’ but the real attraction here is the twelve-minute A-side, from a call in college radio show recorded in Madison, Wisconsin. The Slits are exhausted from touring, and clearly sick of America. Resembling some sort of mythical, technologically-mediated encounter between a coven of witches and a mob of townspeople (most of them men), this “interview” is hilarious, profound, and scary all at the same time.

Listen: American Radio Interview (Winter 1980)

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