Slip
Pop / Alternative
Contemporary avant-rock trio The SLIP formed when bassist Marc Friedman and brothers Andrew and Brad Barr (drums and guitar/vox, respectively) moved to Boston together after graduating from high school, where they had met and first began playing music as a group.
In 1996, the trio of recent Berklee dropouts put out their first studio album as a self-release and began establishing a dedicated fan-base through relentless touring in and around the northeast. A late-nineties blend of extended roots pop compositions and experimental rhythmic approaches, the band developed and found their sound through an extremely supportive local scene of artists, musicians, and actors - coupled with a rigorous, and soon national, tour schedule. An eclectic new brand of exploratory roots psych-rock emerged; Van Morrison meets Coltrane meets Talking Heads.
By 2001, the band’s tour schedule had brought them to sold-out headlining shows at NYC’s Bowery Ballroom, successful tours in Japan, and a record deal with Rykodisc.
While the band’s line-up remained consistent throughout the next few years on the road, their sound developed considerably and the instrumentation expanded radically. The SLIP grew from young, earthy avant-gardes to strong, dynamic rock composers, creating a new sonic landscape that drew equally from CAN, U2, and new interests like Built to Spill, Flaming Lips, and Wilco.
By 2003, the trio’s non-stop touring produced Alivelectric and Aliveacoustic, a companion live set that also represented the inaugural release of their own independent record label, 216 records.
Aliveacoustic presents a rustic and intimate, voyeuristic snapshot of the band unplugged, on a rainy night at Club Helsinki in the Berkshire Mountains. Equal parts Let it Bleed, King Oliver, and 11 Golden Country Hits-era Ween, the album contains a tender honesty that carries through from tent-revival stomps to humble and dusty lyrical psalms.
Alivelectric, on the other hand, is almost exclusively instrumental, with a deep resonance and a wide breadth of analog and digital effects. Culled from an equally wide array of performances throughout the U.S. during the fall of 2002 and the summer and spring of 2003, Alivelectric gave 216 a chance to showcase the band at its grander, more expansive and ethereal live moments. The album presents an articulated side of The SLIP much closer to Explosions in The Sky, Tortoise, electric Bill Frisell and Squarepusher albums than the dusty americana present on its companion release.
These two records represent the most coherent articulation of the bands’ distinct sides to date, and have sold a combined 14,000 copies so far. The band has sold a total of over 50,000 albums to date.
The past couple of years have also seen The SLIP play long tours throughout the U.S. and Canada, including memorable runs with new friends Apollo Sunshine and Au Revoir Simone, as well as high-profile festival performances at Bonnaroo, SXSW, and Seattle's Bumbershoot.
During this period the band additionally made what were now their 5th and 6th trips to Japan, where they continued to collaborate and perform with good friend and Japanese cult superstar UA - at one point playing for over 1,300 people from 3AM until dawn in Shibuya, Tokyo.
The spring of 2005 saw the band spin through the northeast accompanied by Nathan Moore on vocals and guitar as collective avant-folk band Surprise Me Mr. Davis; a modern alt-country supergroup combining the raw and intimate vocals of a Tom Waits or a Nebraska-era Bruce Springsteen with the bluesy grit of the Black Keys or The Band - all layered with lush 3- and 4-part harmonies and shout choruses. Selections from a late summer Montreal recording session formed a well-received limited edition EP entitled Only in Montreal.
In the five years following their last SLIP studio release, the band also spent more and more of their time off the road in their home studios, gradually honing a new and innovative approach to recording and distilling an overall songwriting vision. So pervasive a transformation has occurred in their approach to recording and performing, in fact, that the three have even recently been accused - perhaps appropriately - of ‘changing everything short of their name’.
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