PERFORMANCE ALERT!

The Slack plays tonight at the City Tavern in downtown Dallas, on Main Street.  The Charming Gardeners will open the show around 9:30pm, led by Marc Solomon and Amy Curnow…followed by the amazing Kenny Withrow and his Electro-magnetics…and finally, we Slackers will take the stage whenever they’re done.  And we will play until we are told to leave.   Or until we get sick of each other.

Please do us all a favor and attend.  Or else.

CH 2/5/10

Performance alert! We’re playing TONIGHT at Good Records (on Greenville Avenue), starting around 7:30pm.

We go on right after the legendary Exene Cervenka and we’ll be playing a set to further hype our new record.  Please come out and join us!

CH 1/28/10

Hey, check out the video of us from KXT last Thursday.  It was early.  We look tired.  But we brought the folk…unfortunately without our boy Sluth, who was rehearsing with Earth Wind And Fire for their upcoming tour.

But hey, three outta four ain’t bad.

CH 1/26/10

Good morning, good morning, good morning-ah!

Many, many thanks to everyone who came out to Sons Of Hermann on Friday to help us celebrate the Deep End release party.  And extra thanks to those who watched us the following night in Denton.  I’ve gotta admit, it’s pretty fun to get out and play with this band again.  It seems like it’s been forever.  And though we certainly had a few kinks along the way, it felt pretty good.  My new Gretsch is a bit of a beast to control, but I’m starting to get the hang of it.

For those who missed it, or just had no idea what we were playing, here’s the setlist: What If, Infatuations Never Last > The FIne Art Of Bleeding > Truth And Fiction, The Deep End, You Deserve Better, Fair (with horns), Follow On (with horns), The Talk (with horns), Indier Than Thou > Pipe Dream, Uncle Pen, Frostbite, Feeling Stronger Every Day (with horns), Maybe Heaven, Rocks Off (with horns).

In addition to our new album tracks (and one measly cut from the first record), we pulled out covers by Ben Folds, Bill Monroe, Chicago Transit Authority, and the Stones.  Our horn section deserves a huge round of applause: Micah Bell and Tyler Mire on the trumpets, as well as A.G. Robeson and Michael Lawson on the trombones.  And of course, some seriously deep gratitude goes to our boy Sluthy for his hard work arranging and transcribing the horn parts.  Hopefully we’ll find some Youtube clips of that stuff soon.

Speaking of Youtube, now that The Deep End is officially out, hopefully we’ll have an ending for our movie.  Yes, our movie.  Check it out…for those who haven’t seen it…here’s a trailer for a Slack documentary on the making of The Deep End, filmed by our friend Kevin Huckabee.  I don’t know when it’s gonna be finished, but now we have an ending.  I guess we just need to include the new songs :)

Finally, we’ll be at Good Records this Thursday evening, around 7:30, playing a set.  We go on right after the legendary Exene Cervenka (from X), so get there early and stick around for us.

Thanks again!

CH 1/25/10

EMBARRASSING QUOTE UPDATE: Isn’t it funny how I say that “the best band in the world is probably some band that nobody knows” and it sounds as if I’m talking about us?  Now that’s comedy.

This is your final reminder.  Tonight is The Deep End cd release party.  Sons Of Hermann Hall.  Elm Street in Deep Ellum.  Dave Little Meltdown at 9:30.  Slack at 10:30.  Rock and/or roll will be made.

Please join us.  Thank you.

CH 1/22/10

And off we go. The Deep End is officially released in stores today. Maybe we’ll sell one.   You could be that one sale.   What’s it gonna take?

While you ponder, there are many things brewing.

1. We’ll be on KXT this Thursday morning, January 21, at 10am, playing live in the studio.   They’ve been kind enough to give us some airplay lately, and we’re really excited to be able to do some radio promotion.  Kinda makes us feel important.

2. We’ve been getting some press for the record.  Check out the following links:

http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2010/jan/18/album-review-slacks-em-deep-endem/

http://www.star-telegram.com/entertainment/story/1873584.html

http://ghostofblindlemon.blogspot.com/2010/01/cutting-idol-records-some-slack.html

3. I’ve been making the rounds, talking about the record with various radio folk. Here’s a track-by-track podcast I just did with Paul Slavens at KXT.

http://www.kera.org/artandseek/content/2010/01/18/track-by-track-the-slack/

And an interview I did with Winston Edmondson for CNN Radio (it’s about 8 minutes in, after all the Obama bashing)…

http://projectinnovation.net/2010-01-13.cfm

Finally…PLEASE come to our cd release show this Friday night at Sons Of Hermann Hall in Dallas.  It’s gonna be a great night.  Many thanks to my buddy Darin for making the posters.

See you there.

CH 1/19/10

Hey everyone, check out CNN Radio 1190 AM today at 3pm, as I’ll be talking to Winston Edmondson on-air about The Deep End.

You can listen online at:

http://www.facebook.com/l/42e85;cnn1190.com

Thanks!

CH 1/13/10

Hey, look at us!  We’re on the cover of the Quick.  Thanks to Hunter for writing nice things about us.  Go check it out.

And buy the album already!  (Thanks!)

CH 1/7/10

ALBUM OF THE DAY: The Deep End (now available!)

Yes, yes, people. Our new album is now live on I-tunes, Amazon, etc etc. Please go buy it and fill our pockets with gas money. And, you know, write a nice review if you feel so inclined. That never hurts, and we greatly appreciate any and all support. It’s a big pond, you know.

www.itunes.com/theslack/thedeepend

http://www.amazon.com/The-Deep-End/dp/B0031W585G/ref=sr_shvl_album_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1262717134&sr=301-1

Many thanks to Erv K for all his hard work. We’ll see you at the cd release on the 22nd in Dallas. More music to come.

Thanks for listening!

CH 1/5/10

Song Of The Day: “The Rug”

Happy new year! My break was nice and long and I spent a good bit of it either drunk or sick or both. When not working or playing Madden football with bandmates. I did buy myself a new guitar, which I’m giddy with excitement about. Pics to come on that one. And I wrote a lot of new songs while holed up in my hotel room. The isolation therapy of a two-week road gig can really do wonders for the songwriter. In other words, boredom breeds creativity. Or in my case, redundant melodicism.

So, back to the ol’ blog thingy. I realize that there’s one song left to preview from The Deep End, and that is “The Rug”. Please don’t pee on it. This song evolved from an experimental drop-A tuning I was messing with while in the throes of boredom one day…see?? It works! I wound up using my perpetual love of Abbey Road to incorporate some of the album’s other melodic motifs in, and voila! It really ties the album together.

That being said, I don’t think we can really do it live. Cause to pull off the segue into the next track, we’d have to utilize at least three guitars, and all would have to be tuned differently. On “The Rug” itself, I think there are four or five guitar tracks, and none are tuned exactly the same way. Shitballs. Guess I should have considered live performance before tracking it. Oh well. I guess it is what it is. This was the final tune to be included on the album and I’m not sure Eric and Sluthye even knew about it until I played them the track. They just said “oh what’s this? We don’t have to learn it? Okay…” Perfect!

So…I’m sure I’ll need to point out that The Deep End will be available on I-tunes TOMORROW! Sweet. Thanks to Hunter and The Ghost for noticing. As for the rest of you…hey, look at me look at me!

Oh, and another thing.  I hate the fuckin’ Eagles, man!  GO COWBOYS!!

CH 1/4/10