 The name Spiderland originates from McMahan 's younger brother , who thought that the record sounded " spidery " . The album 's black @-@ and @-@ white cover photograph , which depicts the members of the band ( Brashear , McMahan , Walford and Pajo , from left to right ) treading water in the lake of an abandoned quarry , was taken by Will Oldham . An article in The Stranger credited the cover for creating a mystique surrounding Slint , noting " [ m ] ost people only had seen Slint as four heads floating in a Kentucky quarry on Spiderland 's cover . Listeners pondered the band 's sparsely adorned black @-@ and @-@ white covers as if they were runes bearing secrets . " Chris Gaerig of the Michigan Daily wrote , " the cover of Slint 's masterful Spiderland captures the joyous fear and violence of the album so precisely it shakes souls . The group — submerged in a lake to their chins with deranged smiles — seems to be stalking you , hovering out of the black @-@ and @-@ white façade . " Several other promotional images have been taken from the same photo session with Oldham . 
