Hi everyone,




so as I write this, Lost & Found, the Slackers retrospective cd is in production at the cd factory.




If everything works out, we should have copies on the road with us in Europe.  At first it will only be available thru us on tour, but after that it should be possible to get it through our usual distributors, interpunk.com in the states/canada, phonocaster.com in europe, and disk union in Japan.




SO what is this album?  Is it "new" or "what?"  Well, it is in the sense that none of these tracks have been released before.  Its a compilation of tracks that we have had sitting around since 1998 thru to 2007.  Some of them were complete and just never got mixed or we didnt figure out how to fit them onto the album we were working on at the time.  Some of them had a "mistake" on them that we couldnt fix back in the age of analog tape.  Others were just skeletal rhythms and needed to get worked into final form.  Hence, the title, Lost & Found.  These are songs that were in need of a home.




Track 1: IF YOU SEE MY BABY
This track goes back to 2000.  Its an American RnB/RocknRoll meets BlueBeat kind of tune.  Its full of southern references in the same way that Henderson Swamp and The Nurse are.  At the time, we were playing down south a lot more than we do now.  Also, Vic was beginning his love affair with the Band (the group) and was listening to a lot of other hippies who made southern influenced music.   Im not exactly sure where or why this song fell off the radar.  The vocal tracks were left incomplete back in 2000.  Probably had trouble getting the right takes back then..... but with the magic of cubase and having a home studio, it was very easy to finish them in 2009.  Jay came up with a great idea of combining the different takes and makes this very John Lennonish double-lead vocal track out of them.  Check it out!




Track 2: It Will All Come Back
This track was originally recorded around 2005 by Vic and Ara.  That is, it was just keyboards and a drum rhythm.  Vic called it, 'whatcha gonna do' and probably had an idea for lyrics.  OF COURSE, he never remembered to come back to it.  So it languished until this year when we started adding tracks to it one by one.  Marcus added some bass.  Jay some guitar.  Suddenly the rhythm started reminding me of the Jimmy Cliff songs my dad used to listen to when I was a kid.  So I wrote some lyrics and me and Glen finished the song up in his living room.  Its theme is about the cyclical nature of life.  Which I guess is appropriate for a recycled song. hehe.  Its funny cause this track is the least "live" of all the tracks on the album but it has the most "organic" feel to me.


I got to give the rhythm section some props on this one.  It lurches and almost stumbles at first but when the train gets going it really gets going.  Powerful stuff.


Track 3: What Went Wrong
Of course, as everyone knows the more famous version of Glen Pine's opus, What Went Wrong, was on the 2006 Peculiar album.  This version however, is the follow up of an old suggestion by Vic.  He had been wondering what would happen if we played WWW all the way up the whole time.  Like Stevie Wonder did on "Uptight" or Sly did on "Dance to the Music."  So when we got a couple of xtra hours of studio time in 2007, we decided to find out!




Track 4: Tonight
The original of tonight was done back in 1996 for Better Late Than Never.  I think I wrote the song about 2 years before.  I guess I was younger and cockier and enjoying partying in New York City.  Pretty silly lyrics.  But this one also dates to a couple of xtra hours of studio time in 2007.  Whereas the other one was an post-adolescent romping ska, this one is a groovy rocksteady that tries to lure the unsuspecting listener into its seductive trap.  Shades of the heptones I think.




Track 5: Lonely Nights
This is a fun track.  Vic has done it before on one of his solo albums.  I think it was "Hamburguru."  I had been listening to the album and encouraged him to bring it into the studio with us when we were trying to finish Self Medication.   We tried to do it as swing.  Tried it as Ska.  Nothing seemed to work.  Finally, we tried it as a slow meters-esque New Orleans groove.  This seemed to have some promise but try as we might we couldnt get all the chords and bass lines to line up.    We were in a rush to finish Self Med so this song was tabled for later, plus its slow and Self Med already had a bunch of slow songs.


But coming back to this tune when we were searching through the archives to make this record I was struck by how groovy the drums were.  It really doesnt sound much like anything we had done before.  So we strarted cleaning up the rhythm section building around the drum groove.  Vic added harmonica and cut the lead vocal.  We had some call and response horns.  Suddenly, it really started sounding like Dr. John might do.  A personal favorite.




Track 6: We Can Work It Out
This is a cover that some of you may have heard us playing live over the last couple years.  We had half completed this version.  Glen was having trouble getting the vocals right.  Then as we were working on this collection, he had an inspired moment.  What if I stop trying to sing it like the original and instead sing it in a more reggae style like Horace Andy would?  15 minutes later we were rushing towards a completed track. 
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Track 7: Prophet
This is an alternate version of Prophet done in the now ever popular "skinhead reggae" style.  Ah.  My old cries for biblical retribution upon those who would take my royalties.  Will I ever get my "stew?"  My mind says no! but my expanding belly says...take it easy on the stew man!




Track 8: Wasted Days
When Ara had to miss gigs due to other committments, Glen Hackett came aboard as an off again - on again substitute.  He started playing Marcus Geard's theme song, Wasted Days, in a fundamentally different way.  When we had a chance to record with Glen in 2007, it was inevitable that we got this track down as a memento to a moment in time. 


Glen Pine had been wanting to tackle this song for a while and his exuberant vocal style is in marked contrast to Vic's wistful approach on the original.  Whereas, Vic sounds like he is trying to convince himself that he hasnt done anything wrong to his woman in the original, on this version, Glen Pine is completely convince of his innocence! 




Track 9: My Way
This track was originally released as "Funk Week" on Boss Harmony.  This version brings it back as a distorted vocal romp...Im not even sure what to call it....shades of Fishbone...or Iggy Pop....Glen uses a megaphone to create an almost psychotic effect on the track.  Maybe a little bit of an early 90s influence creeping back into the band?


Y'know this song began as a joke in the band, "this ain't funk week."  I think it started with Ara talking about his youthful days with the band, "Das Booty."  Hehe.  I smile everytime I think about that band name. 


Speaking of funny band names. I was in a band called, The Donkey SHow.  You all know what that is.  TJ used to be in a band called Jah Wombat.  Glen was in a band called "Maelstrom" that played around Boston in the early 90s.  Ah...our chequered past.


Track 10: Two Blues in One
This is another very old track.  It goes back to around 1998 from the Question sessions.  This track was always frustrating for me.  We had tried the song back during the Red Light session and it never managed to jell.  


This version had a lot of spirit.  Simon Chardiet even came by and sat in on it.  Probably about the same time as he cut his solo on the Mummy.  However, his solo was cut in the same space as Glen's trombone solo.  No one had bothered to do the 2nd solo spot.  A typical slackers comedy of errors.


So bringing this tune back and bringing out the strength of the original groove became my mission.  You can judge for yourself whether I succeeded.




Track 11: Estranged
This is a demo version of Estranged that was done sometime around 2005-2006, right before we recorded it with the entire band.   It had vic playing acoustic guitar and glen harmonising with himself on two tracks on top of it.  Jay was wondering what it would have sounded like if a Sitar player had been hanging out too...so he just had to go there!




Track 12: Two Face
This is a haunting reggae version of the Better Late Than Never ska romp.  Vic's harmonica is especially nice and chilling.  Come to think of it, he plays a lot of harmonica on this album.  Hmmmm.
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Jay really has a great sense of how reggae his supposed to sound and this take really showcases his mixing skills.  Its pumping and bumping. 




Track 13: Cupid
Cupid was originally done by Sam Cooke as a plaintive love song.  Glen does it like a powerful command that demands the listener's attention.  This is another one that people will recognize from our live shows.  




Track 14: Watch This
Watch This was our calling card for many years.  Our most popular tune off of the first Give Em The Boot compilation.  This is an alternate ska version that reminds me a little bit of the early Wailers.  2 minutes of magic.
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Track 15: See You In My Dreams
This a slow RnB track that me and Vic originally recorded as a duo.  That version was lost when a laptop was lost.  I guess that's another story.


This version is a slow plaintive love song.  I like to picture it as having a bit of that old RCA room sound.  Y'know the big rooms that they used to record bands in up until the 1970s.  They have this great echo, but its warm.  Songs like "I only have eyes for you" have this kind of echo.   This one of my favorites of vic vocal tracks on the album.




Track 16: Lost & Found
This song began as a rhythm from a 2005 demo session.  The band played an Ethiopians inspired bass line in a blues pattern.  We never really figured out what to do with it.  No one could write any lyrics so we re-made it into an instrumental.  It has a nice blues meets Lee Perry attitude.  A forgotten track, it became the mascot for the session, hence the name.




Track 17: Area 51
This one also dates back to the late 90s.  Vic says he wrote it on a Rancid tour and the Tim Armstrong influence is palpable as are the conspiracy theory references which en vogue at the time.  I dont even remember recording it, but I am noodling away on saxophone so I must have been there in some shape or form!  Im also not sure why it didnt get included on the question.  Probably cause we had 19 other tunes vying for space already.


There were also a bunch of technical errors that we didnt have the money to spend on studio time to fix back then.  Of course, with cubase it took about 5 minutes to solve that problem.  My personal favorite were the 4 different bass tracks that were laid down and then finding the correct one, it had been labeled "timbale!"


At first, I thought this song was a little smug.  A young guy who knows it all singing about conspiracies but as I listened to it, I started wondering...is Vic saying that the heroine of the song is as dangerous as the conspiracies that are supposedly threatening us?  Whoa!


Track 18: Mommy
This is another demo recorded in Glen.  Its just vic & glen harmonizing around a guitar.  We played this version of Mommy for a little while as an intro the Ska version that appeared on Close My Eyes.  It has a haunting quality that was helped by the fact that it was recorded in a blackout.  IF you listen you can hear the cars going by on the BQE in the background.  Talk about atmosphere!


So there you go.  Lost & Found.  Coming this Fall.  Also coming this fall, will be more live releases on whatevski.org and yes, the rumors are true, we are re-signing to Epitaph for another studio album that should be out in spring of 2010.

Hey everyone,
just wanted to let you know what's been going on with us. 
First of all, thanks to everyone who came to our texas/louisiana shows.  It was a blast.  We got a lot more shows coming up this year...so keep your eyes open for the Slackers.


Speaking of texas, we just put out a new DVD entitled, "Live at the Flamingo Cantina."  It was filmed at our 2008 austin show.  It looks real nice. Decent quality sound (although the saxophone is never loud enough! hehehe) and is a real good example of what a slackers show feels like.  
Right now you can order it through www.interpunk.com, and www.stubbornrecords.com
Shortly, it will be available in europe through www.phonocaster.com
and we are working on a japanese release through DISK UNION.


Also just in, SLACKER VINYL!  Yes, Self Medication is finally back from the plant.  Once again, it should be available through www.interpunk.com, www.stubbornrecords.com and www.phonocaster.com


Well, so what do the slackers do when we are not on the road?  Yes...besides eating?(check out jays' brilliant video series, wake and bake, on this).   We make more music.  Right now, Jay, Glen, and I have been working on a project tenatively entitled, "Lost and Found."  The slackers have piled up around 30 tracks that have never seen the light of day.  And some of them are pretty good.
  Many are from the last 2 recording sessions but many others are from farther back in the day.   So right now, we are working on finishing the music on some of these tracks before we hand them over to Vic to finish the vocals.  Hopefully, these songs will see the light of day sometime in the early fall.


And...the slackers have been doing a little bit of songwriting rehearsals.  We have been working on new tunes towards a new studio collection/album/whatever to come out at some point in the future.
We might even put some of the rehearsal tracks up on the myspace...so people can hear how we are doing.


Finally, the band has been busy with our side projects.  Jay's crazy baldhead cd continues to scorch up the charts.  Im (dave) almost done with a new rocksteady 7 album and a new blue greens album.  Vic/Marcus/Ara just put out a new sic n mad cd on the stubborn records label.  I think vic just finished a new cd with phil vandereyken/pascuale cangiano called tremoflex2000 or something.  he's out on the road down south for a week to promote it.
So there you go.  On with the band.  On with the show.  Hope to see you out there at some of the live gigs we got coming up.
take care,
Dave 

damn right... loads... down loads... hot loads... sic and mad is new and unimproved...
the band that spawned the slackers and the slackers respawned
fresh and regurgitated all new tunes written by happy
from the band that told you punk is not dead... we are telling you,  punk was dead until now... again...   this aint no pop shit man.... this makes the velvet underground look like pop man.... this makes sonic youth hold their ears man.... dolomite is punching people in the face when he hears this music man.... it aint right.... "IT JUST AINT RIGHT!!!  MAN!!"   
   that's what dolomite is sayin as he's punching california neck tatoo fashion pretty boys in the face and turnin them out on the streets to make some money for him.... biaaatch!!!
  right now dolomite is dropkicking some ohio kids that moved to brooklyn and think they're hard now... "move back to ohio biatch!!  thats hard man!!!  the dead boys came from cleveland man!!!    the devo came from  akron man!!!  can you dig it man????    get off my case and stop dressin like me biatch!!   polyeter is MY SHIT MAN!!!!"    
thats what dolomite says   now go to stubbornrecords.com or whatever it is   STUBBORN RECORDS    .....    YOU HEARD???     get the new sic and mad shit and quit bein such a goddam pain in my ass and learn some goddammm manners....

For the last 10 years we've been playing a place in Austin, Texas called the Flamingo Cantina.  Its not a particularly big place but its come to be a little home away from home for us over the years.  (www.flamingocantina.com)
A couple of years ago, we started making 2 night runs at the flamingo.  To capture the feeling of these runs, Angela, the proprietor arranged for a film crew to shoot one of the nights we did in January of 2008.
These are the songs that are gonna be featured...
Face in my Crowd
Feed My Girl Ska
Eviction
I Still Love You
Keep Him Away
Body Double
Ska Boheme
Married Girl
No Love
This is the Night
Dont You Want a Man
Walkin On
Work Song
What Went Wrong
Bin Waiting
Dont Forget the Streets
Keep It Simple
Wasted Days
Have The Time
Propaganda
Yes Its True
Ill Stay Away
Pedophilia
Old Dog
Sarah

Check.. a previ..ew of.. "..Live at The Flami..ngo Canti..na":
http:../../..www. youtu..be. com/..watch..?..v=..Ka5MZ..p5whl..M

The DVD will be for sale immediately at our merch table and at www.interpunk.com (in about 2 weeks).

Jan 29 2009 8:..00P
White.. Rabbi..t - San Anton..io, Texas..

Jan 30 2009 8:..00P
Flami..ngo Canti..na - Austi..n, Texas..
Jan 31 2009 8:..00P
Flami..ngo Canti..na - Austi..n, Texas..

Feb 1 2009 8:..00P
Merid..ian - Houst..on, Texas..

Feb 3 2009 8:..00P
Drago..n’s Den - New Orlea..ns, Louis..iana

...YOU MIGHT BE A HIPSTER.
(Who the cap fit, make them wear it.)

If you tell everyone in Brooklyn you're from where you're actually from, like California, Florida, Ohio, Massachusetts etc...; and tell everyone outside Brooklyn, you're from Brooklyn...
...YOU MIGHT BE A HIPSTER.

If, when you say "I remember back in the day, when this neighborhood was cool.", you mean 5 years ago...
...YOU MIGHT BE A HIPSTER.

If you have a lumberjack beard but the closest bunch of trees to you is in McCarren Park...
...YOU MIGHT BE A HIPSTER.

If your American Apparel V-neck shows off your man-cleavage...
...YOU MIGHT BE A HIPSTER.

If you're showing more ass-crack than a refridgerator repair-man...
...YOU MIGHT BE A HIPSTER.

If you have to cover your tattoos and/or remove your piercings for your day-job at the office...
...YOU MIGHT BE A HIPSTER.

If you have to show-off your tattoos/piercings for your day-job at the tattoo/piercing shop...
...YOU MIGHT BE A HIPSTER.

If you think you're "poor" because you don't have enough money to go out drinking, see The Shins, buy a new iPhone, get that new tattoo/piercing, go vintage clothing shopping AAANNNDDD pay your $700 a month rent...
...YOU MIGHT BE A HIPSTER.

If you think your band is really innovative because your ripping-off some OTHER band nobody's ever heard of...
...YOU MIGHT BE A HIPSTER.

If you think you're "Old School" 'cause you DJ off a laptop instead of an iPod...
...YOU MIGHT BE A HIPSTER.

If you really like 80's music 'cause you weren't actually around in the 80's and didn't have to hear it every fucking day, everywhere you went...
...YOU MIGHT BE A HIPSTER.

If you sit on the floor of the subway platform, against the wall, because you haven't been in New York long enough to know that's where people used to piss up until a few years ago...
...YOU MIGHT BE A HIPSTER.

If you think you're "ghetto" because you live in Bed-Stuy or Bushwick (or LES, Washington Heights, Echo Park, The Mission, Brixton, Hackney, Kreuzberg, etc)...
...YOU MIGHT BE A HIPSTER.

If you're wearing something Pat Benatar threw out in 1983...
...YOU MIGHT BE A HIPSTER.

If you're wearing something Axel Rose bought in 1986...
...YOU MIGHT BE A HIPSTER.

If you're wearing an Iron Maiden t-shirt...
...YOU MIGHT BE A HIPSTER.

If you don't want to see pictures of last New Year's Eve 'cause that's when you were in your "coke" phase...
...YOU MIGHT BE A HIPSTER.

If you don't want to see pictures of New Year's Eve 2 years ago 'cause that's when you were in your "experimenting with homosexuality" phase...
...YOU MIGHT BE A HIPSTER.

If you don't want to see pictures of yourself in high school 'cause that's when you were into Ska...
...YOU MIGHT BE A HIPSTER.

If you wish New York was sketchy again, like it was in the 80's, 'cause you weren't here to know exactly how fucking sketchy it was...
...YOU MIGHT BE A HIPSTER.

If you spend most of your time complaining about hipsters...
...YOU'RE DEFINETLY A  FUCKING HIPSTER!

Sincerely,
Agent Jay (...might be a hipster) myspace.com/crazybaldheadband     myspace.com/wake_and_bake_films

P.S. (written several hours later)

Thanks for all your replies to my latest blog. I never got so many before. Glad to see we have a sense of humor about ourselves, our generation, our silly lifestyles. I'm actually NOT being sarcastic.

The vast majority of you get it...

 

Obrigado, Brasil!  You fucking rule!  I just had one of the most fun tours of my life in your country. 

An hour after landing in Sao Paolo, I found myself in the Mercado Municipal eating some kick-ass picanha with Vic Rice.  The next day saw us getting wasted all day with the guys from Sepultura.  Later we went over to Vegas on Rua Augosta to hear some classic Studio 1. 

The rest of the Slack showed up on Wednesday.  Rodrigo from Firebug (Sao Paolo) took Alejandro (Satelite Kingston-Buenos Aires), Glen Pine and I back to the market to buy some Brasilian hot sauce.  That night, we brought some new friends over to Bleecker St. on Via Madelena to catch Vic Ruggiero's solo gig. (Video forthcoming...)

The tour started the next day with a trip down to Curitiba.  Vic Rice set up the Strikkly Vikkly dub sound-system, complete with reel-to-reel tape machine, and did a killer live dub set.  Machado and Firebug did their thing next; showing why they're one of the few new ska bands we like.  B Negao sat in with us chatting in Portugese over Propaganda.

We returned to Sao Paolo the following day for a 2-night stint at Inferno on Rua Augosta.  The gigs were a blast.  The AntiFa skin crew made me feel more than welcome.  (Stay in touch-myspace.com/crazybaldheadband). The party lasted 'til dawn at the bar across the street.  Vic Rice resembled someone out of a Ralph Steadman drawing. 

Sunday, we drove up to Rio de Janeiro.  The gig was in Lapa; which is a great neighborhood that reminds me of the way the East Village, here in New York, used to be in the 80's.  Our friend, Lily, showed us around her hometown where we found some late-night, Brasilian pizza.  Of course, it will be featured in an upcoming Wake and Bake episode... (myspace.com/wake_and_bake_films)

As usual, Bruno from Radiola Records took amazing care of us and ran a great tour.  Valeu, Hermao!

Sorry if I forgot to mention anyone.  The tour is something of a blur for me.  Some names have been left out to protect the guilty.

Thanks again, Brasil!  Until next time... Todo Bem!

The Slackers are really excited to be coming back to brazil once again!  We are going to be playing in curitaba, sao paolo, and rio!  It may be hard to do but we want it to be even better than last time.

When we first fly in, we are having a party on 8/20 in Sao Paolo on bleeker street.  Vic is gonna play acoustic. Agent Jay is gonna spin and Dave is gonna sit in with Sao Paolo's own King Rasan.

Then we go to work!!!!!

The Slackers in Brazil!!!

8/21 - Curitiba @ Era Só o Que Faltava.... (with Firebug, Strikkly Vikkly and BNegão)
8/22 - São Paulo @ Inferno Club (with Firebug, Strikkly Vikkly and BNegão)
8/23 - São Paulo @ Inferno Club (with Firebug, Strikkly Vikkly and BNegão)
8/24 - Rio de Janeiro @ Teatro Odisséia (with Coquetel Acapulco, Firebug, Strikkly Vikkly and BNegão)

 

see you out there!

FRI AUG 1 Modesto/Stockton? 157 w adams, VALLEY BREW 7pm
>> SAT AUG 2 BERKELEY, CA ASHKENAZ
>> WED AUG 6 SEATTLE, WA EL CORAZON
>> THUR AUG 7 PORTLAND, OR SATYRICON
>> FRI AUG 8 ORANGEVALE, CA CLUB RETRO
>> SAT AUG 9 RENO, NV confirmed venue TBA soon
>> SUN AUG 10 SAN JOSE, CA NICKEL CITY ARCADE
>> ___________
>> Vic and Kepi acoustic senace...
>>
>> *Mon Aug 11th SAC, CA more info soon
>> *Tues Aug 12th SAN FRANCISCO, CA AMANTE 21+ Free! 8pm
>> *(Phenomenauts not playing)
>> ___________
>>
>> WED AUG 13 SAN LUIS OBISPO DOWNTOWN BREW
>> THUR AUG 14 HOLLYWOOD, CA THE KNITTING FACTORY

   The Slackers want to thank everybody that came out to the first SLACKERS' SOUNDS party in Brooklyn, Saturday night.  The idea was to have a night where we could play music that we're into that isn't necessarily ska related and where we could hang out with the people without the stress of a high profile gig.
   If you missed it, you blew it.  Vic did 2 killer sets of solo material plus a great version of The Slackers', "AND I WONDER".  Dave Hillyard sat in for some tunes including a rendition of  "NEVER GO BACK HOME"; a tune Vic penned for The Stubborn All-Stars almost a decade ago.  There's some photos up on www.myspace.com/theslackers, "Slackers' Sounds" Album.
To check out more of Vic's solo stuff go to: www.myspace.com/vicruggiero

   Glen Pine and Dave Hillyard took over the DJ controls for a while and spun some classic and rare 45's.  I was psyched to play some Afro-Beat, Indian-Funk, Tropicalia and Psychadelic stuff I rarely get to break out.  Of course there was some Ska, Dub and Soul thrown in for good measure.
www.myspace.com/crazybaldheadband

   We also saw a great set by Brooklyn garage-rockers, MIGHTY FINE.  They went over big and I'm sure we'll be playing with them again.
www.myspace.com/mightyfine

   Special thanks to Lee from Dead Flowers Production who set up the night and totally believed in the idea when I first pitched it to him. 
www.myspace.com/DeadFlowersProductions

   And, of course, we wanna thank the crew at SOUTHPAW in Brooklyn (125 5th Ave. @ Sterling, Park Slope) for having us.  Please support local NYC venues.  www.spsounds.com

   The next SLACKERS' SOUNDS should be sometime in September.  If you made it out, be sure to tell your friends; if your friends were there, get some new friends.  Thanks again-Agent Jay