Aerial M – in session for John Peel – March 3, 1998 – BBC Radio 1 –
Aerial M in session for John Peel tonight. Recorded on March 3, 1998 and broadcast on April 2. Aerial M also goes by the name David Pajo. As David Pajo he has had a wide and varied career, as a founding member of Slint and currently, a member of Gang Of Four. As Aerial M he has released a number of solo albums and side-projects, loosely fitting into several other genres such as hardcore punk, math rock, post-rock, electronica, folk rock and indie pop.
A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Pajo played with three Louisville hardcore and hardcore-inflected bands in his early career. The first band in which he played was called Obscene Routine, after which he performed as guitarist in Maurice, but it was with Solution Unknown that he made his first recording. He rose to prominence, however, for his work with the influential post-rock band Slint. Since the breakup of Slint, Pajo has seldom held positions in other bands for very long, moving from one to the other quite often. As a result, he has contributed to many line-ups, playing and recording with Will Oldham, The For Carnation, Tortoise, Stereolab, Royal Trux, King Kong, Bush League, Zwan, Peggy Honeywell, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Interpol.
He has also performed and released music as a solo artist using various monikers, as Aerial M, M, and most notably, Papa M. Among his 7″ and splits with various bands, he has released (as Aerial M) 1997’s Aerial M, and (as Papa M) 1999’s Live from a Shark Cage, 2001’s Whatever, Mortal, and 2003’s Hole of Burning Alms.
In February and March 2005, he joined his old bandmates from Slint, Britt Walford, Brian McMahan and Todd Brashear for a reunion tour, and in April released his first solo album not bearing a pseudonym, simply entitled Pajo. The follow-up to Pajo, entitled 1968, was released in August 2006.
Around the middle of 2005, he helped to form the band Dead Child, with Todd Cook (from Shipping News, Retsin, The For Carnation, and Aerial M—and who also played guitar on the 2005 Slint reunion tour), Michael McMahan (from The For Carnation, Starkiller, and Phantom Family Halo—and who also joined Slint on the reunion tour), and Tony Bailey (from Anomoanon, The Party Girls, Verktum, Lords, and Aerial M).
On October 18, 2021, it was revealed that he would be playing with the Gang of Four on a 2022 North American Tour.
Crank it up and relax.
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