The Slip Eisenhower Label: Bar/None Release Date:11/07/2006

The Slip have been around for a healthy 8-10 years, mostly as a touring band, and have acquired a wealth of beautiful noise to share, and somebody has deemed them worthy of spilling a buck or two on them in a fully-loaded studio. Sounding reminiscent of a critical-darling mutant combining the Flaming Lips, Wilco, a bit of Radiohead, and a few generic dashes of the current Indie shooting stars, the curliques and ornamentation adorning Eisenhower do more to hide the talented band underneath than to highlight their strengths – which are mainly wandering emotive jams, and creative arrangements with the ton of quirky textures had by any tour-worn indie band worth their salt. A sunny California vibe shines it’s light on a few tracks, mixing it up amidst vibrato’d melancholy crooning and sweeping blue washes of sound. But where the band really shines is in funky organic arrangements borne of their eclectic growth as a touring machine spitting out everything from jazz fusion to Dave Matthews-bar band jamming. The changes turn on a dime, and not the studio’s dime either, morphing standard rock into uncharted territory that is totally theirs.

Their prior recorded output is another full length released in 2001 I think, and some live recordings with a heavy emphasis on instrumentals, and listening to the strengths on this record make me want to pick up the instrumental live stuff. The pure rejoicing in the music is readily evident as song after song loses its path from the formulaic and grows organically into epic soundscapes with their own wordless story to tell. It’s not epic in scope, but in the huge well of untapped creativity sub-surface bubbling up when they stop trying to make a pop record and stretch their songs out to unimaginable lengths like saltwater taffy through the window at VBeach – just when you think it’s gonna break, it goes a little longer and comes back for more.

As for the Slip finally making it after paying their dues - “Even Rats,” a damn good song in a very wilco-esque rocking vein is on “Guitar Hero 2,” and Eisenhower’s getting good buzz all over the map, and they deserve every minute of it.

The Slip - Myspace

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 21st, 2006 at 5:51 pm and is filed under CD/LP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.