| "Web in Front" | |
|---|---|
| Single by Archers of Loaf | |
| from the album Icky Mettle | |
| Recorded | February 1993 |
| Genre | |
| Label | Alias |
| Songwriters |
|
| Icky Mettle track listing | |
| |
Web in Front is a song by American indie rock band Archers of Loaf, originally released as a 7" single on Alias Records in 1993. It was their first release on the Alias label, and their first single from their debut album Icky Mettle.[2][3] The original single also included the tracks "Bathroom" and "Tatayana".[4]
"Web in Front" launched Icky Mettle to high-ranking positions on the college charts, including #18 on the CMJ New Music Report Top 150.[5] The single was played regularly on both college radio and MTV,[2] and its music video was featured in an episode of Beavis and Butthead.[5] Additionally, the track was featured in the 1995 Kevin Smith film Mallrats.
When "Web in Front" was originally released, music critics often compared it to Pavement and Superchunk.[3] For example, Charles Aaron wrote in Spin that the song was "...a less fettered and more frolicsome rewrite of Pavement's "From Now On" (from Perfect Sound Forever).[4] The New York Times' Neil Strauss described the song as frontman Eric Bachmann's "...own tongue-in-cheek version of a love song, and a perfect combination of weirdness with pop intuition."[6]
In a review of Seconds Before the Accident, a 2000 Archers of Loaf live album, Pete Nicholson described "Web in Front" as a "pop classic".[7] In 2012, Pitchfork Media's Matt LeMay wrote that "..."Web in Front" is quite simply among the finest indie rock songs ever written. That a song whose lyrics are all but impossible to parse literally comes off as so immediate and relatable speaks both to Bachmann's skill with words-as-sounds, and to his bandmates' ability to put force and nuance behind his voice."[8] Also in 2012, Pitchfork's Paul Thompson wrote that the song "...isn't just their finest song, it's their defining moment, their rocket-shot into the canon."[9]
Pitchfork ranked the song as the 77th best track of the 1990s in a 2010 list.[10]
Punk rock band Alkaline Trio covered the song in 2010 for The A.V. Club's A.V. Undercover web series.[11]
Chris Carrabba of the rock band Dashboard Confessional covered the song in 2011 for a Daytrotter session.[12]
editors
This is the start of the #editors chat. #editors is a chat channel to discuss collecting and organizing hub content.
