SlipLive

Posted: **Mon Nov 20, 2006 3:50 pm**

http://www.timmcmahan.com/theslip.htm

This was printed in The Reader, Omaha's weekly arts/culture magazines.

The Slip: Out of a Jam

Story by tim mcmahan

Nov. 17, 2006

There's one thing that the Boston/Montreal trio The Slip wants to make perfectly clear: It isn't a jam band.

The odious tagline has hung over the band like a dead, rotting albatross for years, thanks to their beginnings in the early '90s when the band was known for its experimental avant-jazz stage sessions -- i.e., jamming.

But those days are long gone, which anyone could tell by taking a listen to the band's just-released Bar/None debut, Eisenhower. Instead of wonky instrumental hippy noodling, the album consists of a tight set of intensely melodic, layered indie rock that recalls bands like Death Cab for Cutie, Built to Spill and Wilco. But despite that, The Slip continues to be bundled in with all those dingy jam bands.

"It hounds us," said drummer Andrew Barr while huddled -- along with the rest of the band -- around a speaker phone in a Holiday Inn on Hollywood Blvd., mere hours before their set at LA's Knitting Factory.

"We've been a band for over 10 years now," said singer/guitarist Brad Barr, Andrew's brother. "When we started out, we were still figuring out what kind of music we were making. It's our love of jazz that brought us together, though it's not cool to admit that these days. We weren't devoted to punk or jazz or rock, so we kind of let it all creep into our live show, and that's how the (jam band) label probably got adhered to us. We never felt akin to that stuff. "

Their musical direction, however, shifted five or six years ago, when bassist Marc Friedman stumbled onto music from a Pacific Northwest indie rock icon. "When I discovered Built to Spill, I found a different universe I had never heard before," he said. "I'd gone from listening to improv music by Coltrane and Bill Evans, to one day putting on a Built to Spill CD and saying, 'That's what I want to do.'"

"Marc turned us on to Built to Spill," Brad said, "Bands like Wilco and Built to Spill come from a punk-country place, but once I started digging into that stuff, it occurred to me that it's all modern electric folk music. It didn't seem that different to me than what Van Morrison or Dylan was aiming for. Blending that style with our writing style was natural. It wasn't a conscious shift, really."

On Eisenhower, The Slip take recognized indie reference points and bend them in a new direction that acknowledges their jazzy past. Opening track "Children of December" is a sweet, back-beat meditation on birthdays filled with personal shout outs done to a tune that would be right at home on the last Death Cab album. Follow-up track "Even Rats" leans heavily on roaring guitar riffage and intricate melodies reminiscent of Keep It Like a Secret-era Built to Spill. While lush set pieces, like the soaring "If One of Us Should Fall," recall Trip Shakespeare or its brethren, Semisonic. The only time the band retreats to its instrumental-only days is on the proggy "The Original Blue Air," which sounds like King Crimson meets 90125-era Yes.

Friedman said adhering to a more stringent song structure hasn't dampened the band's ability to stretch out on stage. "Ten years ago we were doing a lot of soloing and avant-garde whatever," Friedman said. "When we're playing songs off the new album, there's so much more going on musically. We may not be ripping into a solo. Instead, there are a lot of textures and attention to detail, with enough room to be as improvisational as we used to be."

Ironically, The Slip comes to indie rock at a time when the term is beginning to show signs of age. The band, however, seems proud to be associated with the ambiguous musical movement.

"I don't mind being called an indie band, but I do mind being called a jam band," Friedman said. "The term 'jam band' has a horrible, underlying theme to it that makes you want to run away and grab a fire hose. It claims to be open and free and spontaneous, but the music sounds the same, and listeners approach it all in the same way. Perhaps the drugs induce that feeling. Indie rock just has a nicer ring to it."

Still, Friedman and the band would prefer to avoid being lumped in with any trend or style. "They all eventually die out," he said. "In five years, people will be sick of the term indie rock."

Posted: **Mon Nov 20, 2006 4:22 pm**

The term 'jam band' has a horrible, underlying theme to it that makes you want to run away and grab a fire hose. It claims to be open and free and spontaneous, but the music sounds the same, and listeners approach it all in the same way. Perhaps the drugs induce that feeling.

great quote. nice work Marc.

but say what you will about the new Slip direction, but (mercifully) it does not sound like Death Cab.

Posted: **Mon Nov 20, 2006 4:33 pm**

Androo wrote: "It hounds us," said drummer Andrew Barr

Brad wrote:....and that's how the (jam band) label probably got adhered to us. We never felt akin to that stuff. "

Brad wrote: "I don't mind being called an indie band, but I do mind being called a jam band," Friedman said

I know the term "jamband" has connotations that certain bands don't like and that it fell out of fashion a few years ago, when all these bands started saying "we're not a jamband, don't label us a jamband." However, I think it's kinda disrespectful to the fans to say things like "it hounds us" and "we never felt akin to that stuff," etc.

I mean, were they akin to it, when all the jamband fans were packing in their shows at $20 a head? Was that label hounding them when they played to full rooms of bearded jam-band hippy fans? Did they complain about all that shit to the promoter when they got paid? I doubt it.

I just find it disprespectful to the fan when a band basically says it's okay for you guys to pay to see us night after night, shit even follow us around tour, but we don't want to be lumped in with you guys. We'll take your money, but don't call us a jamband because we don't want to be associated with all you dirty fucks.

And why is being called an "indie band" any cooler? Indie has taken on the same wide, non-specific meaning as "jamband." There is virtually no difference.

.02

Posted: **Mon Nov 20, 2006 4:40 pm**

also, the great irony in this is that when I saw Built to Spill earlier this year, they closed with a 25-minute plus noisy mess that could only be described as a jam. it was, however, the least interesting part of the show.

Posted: **Mon Nov 20, 2006 4:52 pm**

i don't think they are dissing the fans by saying they don't like the term "jamband". they slip have always loved their fans and showed respect/gratitude by mingling in the audience after the shows. they've always been gracious to the people who support them.

disliking the label is a totally separate issue. every label has its inherant limitations and the slip don't like the limitations associated with this one.

i for one wish we as artists could live without stamping a label on.

lately i've been using "ecclectic folk-pop" for my music. i hope it's more inclusive than most.

Posted: **Mon Nov 20, 2006 5:01 pm**

yeah, Built To Spill basically makes it okay to be a jamband fan. The new BTS cd is very jammy. The middle of Conventional Wisdom sounds just like something out of a moe. song.

And I kind of agree with headnugg on this. They can say they're not a jamband. That's all well and good, but they definitely used to be one. If they decided to switch from being an improv oriented band that tours incessantly and switches up the setlists every night, to focusing on song writing and concise music, I'm not surprised. Most of my friends who used to be big Phish/jamband fans have gone straight to the indie scene in search of meaningful lyrics and songs with more obvious substance. Listening to extended jams every night can certainly get tedious and boring for everyone involved.

But all that being said, you have to remember where you came from. They put a bad connotation on their history, when it was really all a learning experience.

If I could predict the future of this band, I would say they delve into this sound for a couple more albums before venturing back into their jazzy roots.

There's something to be said for change, and just like The Slip have changed from a band that played outside Phish shows (they did that right?) to this indie state, they'll certainly change again. But when they start playing salsa music, are they going to make fun of all the armcrossed indie fans with old bicycles and plaid shirts who don't know how to dance?

Posted: **Mon Nov 20, 2006 5:40 pm**

i think the line between jam bands and indie is blurring, a lot. i mean on one side, the bands that made indie cool again, like The Strokes, well who still listens to them. and on the other side, Phish and SCI are gone/will be gone soon, and personally I couldn't sit through an Umphreys or Widespread Panic show without wanting to bash my head against something. meanwhile the new BTS CD that launched them back into the spotlight has a lot of something like jamming, Trey's solo stuff is going into some kind of singer/songwriter mold, and festivals at Bonnaroo and Langerado are putting everyone together in one big clusterfuck and getting tens of thousands to pay for it. i guess maybe the hipsters got sick of people who can't play their instruments and the the hippies got sick of music going nowhere at all.

Posted: **Mon Nov 20, 2006 5:50 pm**

they were very aware of the music they were making and the audience they were trying to reach. it was an absolute conscious shift away from the music they once played, that interview says as much. i just hope it was a heartfelt switch and not a choice to follow an alluring business model.

don't
follow
leaders
-bob dylan

Posted: **Mon Nov 20, 2006 6:17 pm**

music is music is music is.... music

Posted: **Mon Nov 20, 2006 6:49 pm**

Not wanting to be labeled a 'jamband' and jamming at shows are not mutually exclusive. I can understand that they would rather not be pigeonholed and labled. Also I see their recent music as an evolution, not a straight-out renunciation of the past, though recent interviews have had that kind of edge for sure.

Posted: **Mon Nov 20, 2006 9:21 pm**

What is jazz? What is "peanut butter and jelly sandwich"? I mean peanut butter and jam (how about fruit preserves instead)? Jazz, jam and jive...they're all j-words. I like jizoint, that's a good 'j' word. The word "jam" has so many connotations and denotations, people like to use it because it's so overloaded (Like hip). Would you call a band "hip"? "Cool", "Groovy"...alright, now let's try to talk about the music. The label itself is only a few letters in the middle of all these incoherent sentences. If it takes a three-letter word like that to make an anchor (focal point), then the writer needs to go back to college.

Here's another J-word I've heard to describe Dead fans: "Jerry-atric".

What ever happend to rock? We almost never hear that word these days, and it never seemed to insult bands as much as the "jam" word.

Some times I can't grok language. But I do like the "punk country" or even "alt prog country" ideas. At a certain point, comparisons will fly (or flee, or have already fled). Elvis has just left the building.

-Phrazz

P.S.: The Slip is definitely not Phish. If we can hear why, then maybe we can start to understand how The Slip was never really a "jam band". Until "journalists" (I use this term loosely) can learn to distinguish nuances that delineate a certain "style" or essence, they're always going to fall back to the convenience labels -- largely out of ignorance and laziness.

One way I try to think about music is to compare it with food (which we all have at least a passing familiarity, perhaps moreso than many kinds of music). For instance, if The Slip were a kind of food, are they more of an asparagus, or more like a mango or a guava? I heard songs that made me think of ice cream (Rhythm and Gold comes to mind...).

Posted: **Mon Nov 20, 2006 9:52 pm**

My favorite song at the narrows was cowboy Up. That's a really crunchy groove.

My second was black telephone. Definitely along the lines of these new songs like the ones on IKE. Remember Thunder Rose? Glad they threw that one away. But Black Telephone has a real catchy "ring" to it.

There's good and bad songs that come from this new direction, but the best part is, they keep coming and they're all so hard to quantify that we can have these discussions without getting board.

If the slip were a food. Hmm. I'm gonna have to go ahead and say: before they were a mango, fresh fallen from the tree in an indian jungle. Now they're more of a pomegranet I bought at wholefoods.

tote

Posted: **Tue Nov 21, 2006 1:46 am**

i think the guy wrote this had some conception before he sat down to write it that he wanted to put down the whole "jam band" thing and contrast it with the "indie" music he seems to adore.

But those days are long gone, which anyone could tell by taking a listen to the band's just-released Bar/None debut, Eisenhower. Instead of wonky instrumental hippy noodling, the album consists of a tight set of intensely melodic, layered indie rock that recalls bands like Death Cab for Cutie

this seems to imply that a.) the slip's music used to be "wonky instrumental hippy noodling (who uses words like wonky, anyway?) b.) that it's a good thing they're not playing the earlier stuff (i'm sure i'm not the only one who prefers Gecko or Does, as much as i love eisenhower)

also, the writer twists the words that marc said over the phone.

The band, however, seems proud to be associated with the ambiguous musical movement.

"I don't mind being called an indie band, but I do mind being called a jam band,"

i have to say i don't really get "pride" out of that quote. it seems like he's putting words in their mouths. i don't think any one of them would say they fealt pride over some really general, meaningless label someone slapped on their beautiful art

Posted: **Tue Nov 21, 2006 9:29 am**

I don't grok the word "indie."

It's a ridiculous way to describe a type of music. Way more so than jamband.

If I had to define jamband, I could do it way easier than indie.

But as far as The Slip not being Phish. Of course they're not. But, did they not start out playing to the same audience that Phish was playing to?

I think the audience has a lot to do with how bands are labeled.

Posted: **Wed Nov 22, 2006 8:54 pm**

Comparing the Slip to Deathcab is one of the saddest things I've seen regarding their music in a long time. Deathcab? Are you serious?

SlipLive

Interview: Omaha Reader

Interview: Omaha Reader

Re: Interview: Omaha Reader

Was a "jazz" band?