Sunday, December 3rd, 2006

Sunday Cleaning – Volume 58

The Slip / Eisenhower (Bar/None)

Eisenhower is meant to be The Slip’s emancipation proclamation from the jam-rock pigeonhole into which they’d been stuffed over their career thus far, and on it they seem to be diving into the broader musical buffet like a man coming off a long fast. Over the course of eleven songs they offer up pop-culture quoting pop anthems, string-laden orch-rock, power ballads, and all points in-between. While are still traces of their patchouli-stink past, mostly in their impressive instrumental chops and not-quite-conventional song structures, they also demonstrate some solid pop songwriting chops that may well have been lost on the Bonnaroo crowd. The production is a little glossy and bland for my taste, but if they’ve set their sights on some radio crossover action, then they’re on the right track. They’re at the El Mocambo this Saturday, December 9 and I’m giving away Slip stuff till Tuesday.

MySpace: The Slip

We Landed On The Moon! / We Landed On The Moon! (independent)

Incongruity is the watchword for this Baton Rouge outfit. The name is twee as fuck, the music is alt.indie-approved jangle and singer Melissa Eccles has the pipes and brassiness of a full-on rock diva. Oh, and their bio ill-advisedly credits the band’s existence to the recent Dukes Of Hazzard film. Don’t ask. But they make it work and work well, with their debut album an impressively tight and polished, self-produced effort. Their songwriting seems tailored to showcase Eccles’ range, from brash rockers to more restrained, introspective numbers and while it only makes sense to play to your strengths, it can also encourage oversinging and in some cases, melodrama ensues. But considering the youth of the band and the obvious potential therein, given the time to refine and focus their sound they could well turn out some terrific stuff. Pity about the name, though.

MP3: We Landed On The Moon – “Everything Is Fine”
MP3: We Landed On The Moon – “Simple Steps”
MySpace: We Landed On The Moon

np – Aimee Mann / I’m With Stupid

By : Frank Yang at 9:25 am
Category: Uncategorized
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  1. 12/3/06 4:04 pm

     Paul says:

    I can’t take The Slip seriously as long as they have a guy playing a fretless bass.

  2. 12/4/06 12:13 am

     Alan says:

    C’mon, I expected better from you. "While are still traces of their patchouli-stink past, mostly in their impressive instrumental chops and not-quite-conventional song structures, they also demonstrate some solid pop songwriting chops that may well have been lost on the Bonnaroo crowd." – You ever been to Bonnaroo? It doesn’t sound like it. I’ve attended many of the the big festivals in North America, and Bonnaroo is the only one I’ve been to 4 times and had a blast, seeing so many diverse bands that aren’t "patchouli-stink" or whatever stereotype you wanna throw out there. Maybe you wanna check out the lineups and attend before slagging. And your Bonnaroo comment is a bit out of date, The Slip last played there in 2003.

    Anyways, thanks for giving the Slip some airtime, just got back from the Boston MMJ / Slip show and it was fantastic. The Slip is gonna be great on their upcoming mini-run through Ontario. Hope you can get out to see the show and review it without resorting to the above comments.

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