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 The Slackers's Profile |
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"SELF MEDICATION" in stores April 29th! |
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| Location: | New York, New York |
| Country: |  United States |
| Last Login: | Jun 12, 2008 (116 days back) |
About Me |
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BIOGRAPHY ”The Slackers are part of an imaginary universe. It wasn't their fault, well not completely. The caterpillar told them not to eat the mushroom on the right. But they did and for 15 yrs now they've had to play Imaginary-Jamaican-Rock-and-Roll, and try to explain that to everyone who passes. One asks,"Are you a reggae band?...where are your dreadlocks then?" Another says,"YOU DONT SOUND LIKE PUNK-ROCK WITH HORNS AT ALL!!" One elderly gent says,"Why it sounds like a lot of music I used to like, but I don't think any of you boys look addicted to HEROIN!" Doomed to try and explain themselves to a world full of hungry club-promoters, style-police, genre-slaves and the generally confused, they wrote bio upon bio, hoping to snag someone...ANYONE!...who might understand...here is attempt 6,364…” - Vic Ruggiero, The Slackers The Slackers sound is Jamaican rock n roll. While they have been influenced, and even personally taught by Jamaican ska/reggae originators, like the Skatalites and the Upsetters (Original backing band for the Wailers), the band sees its music through an American lens. This band is equally appreciative of old blues, 60s soul, rock, and Rnb as it is of reggae, rocksteady, dub, and Ska. It is as if the Rolling Stones or the Yardbirds had grown up on Bob Marley as well as Muddy Waters. From their 1996 release, Better Late Than Never through to last year's, Peculiar, the NYC-based band, the Slackers have established themselves as America's premiere interpreters and innovators of Jamaican music. In their new release, The Boss Harmony Sessions, they take this unified eclectism one step further. They revisit a rock standard, 'Mama Told Me Not Come', and infuse it with Trojan era reggae, psychedelic organs, and a coltraneish sax solo. 'Wanted Man' by Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash becomes an outlaw reggae ballad. 'Minha Menina' by Jorge Ben (Os Mutantes) is in Portuguese, very Brazilian rock yet very reggae, and even has a sitar solo! The originals, 'Robots' and 'Body Double', refer thematically to our dystopian present. One instrumental, 'Funk Week' makes a nod to Afro-Beat while the other 'Ska Boheme' makes a nod to opera. 'Yer Still Blue' is pure New Orleans while 'Lil Joe', 'Feed My Girl', and 'Mind Your Own Business' feature old school Jamaican sounds. For this new release, the Slackers turned to LA based DJ, Boss Harmony, to filter through their music. He selected the 12 album cuts from the 30 songs that the Slackers have recently recorded. He added some ambient sounds, transitional dialogue, lined up the tracks, and tweaked the overall sound. The effect is that this disc has the warm intimacy of a good friends mix cd of some of his favorite music. A cd that someone might pass onto you and say, "hey check this out!" Their previous release, Peculiar, was an artistic triumph. Aversion.com called it "the best American ska record to appear in a long, long while (well, at least since the Slackers last one)." Alternative nation described it as "protest music made for dim, sweaty basements, The Slackers would sound at home supporting Rancid as well as some grizzled New Orleans electric blues trio." In 2006, the band supported Peculiar by performing in 20 American states , 12 European countries, 2 Canadian Provinces, Mexico, and Brazil. As the prescient reviewer predicted they actually finished up 2006 opening for Rancid for a multi night run in San Francisco! In addition to Peculiar, the Slackers have released 11 other cds. Their first was Better Late Than Never (1996), featured a raw, direct vibe that The New York Times was quick to declare is "The Sound of New York." Upon signing with Tim Armstrong's, Hellcat Records, in 1997, the band released Red Light, which saw them evolving into a smoother, more melancholy and soulful unit. They have followed up Red light with 5 more releases on Hellcat. 1998’s, the Question, was proclaimed to be “the new Exile on Main Street.” Wasted Days from 2001 was praised by Maxim and the Village Voice and reached 8 on the Amazon.com sales charts. Close My Eyes from 2003 was praised by the Kerrang!,BBC, Pulse , and the LA Weekly which said, “it captures their unfettered energy, unerring skankability, and playful anger to a tee!“ The Slackers have also made several self-produced albums that have focused on different aspects of the band. The band paid tribute to their roots on Slackers & Friends, which features the Slackers as a backing band for American and Jamaican recording artists such as Glen Adams (the Upsetters), Cornell Campbell (the Uniques), Congo Ashanti Roy (the Congos), Doreen Schaeffer (the Skatalites), and Ari-up (the Slits). International War Criminal was a political-themed ep that was put out to coincide with the 2004 presidential election. Afternoon in Dub is an all reggae album that sounds like the title. The Slackers/Pulley split is a punky reggae party with their friends from Deconstruction tour in 2004. Since the release of Red Light, the Slackers have headlined 16 major US Tours and 11 European tours. They have appeared on the stages of the Warped Tour (1998), the Lowlands Festival (1999), Pukkelpop (1999, 2004), CMJ (2000), Montreal Jazz Festival (2000), the Bourges Festival (2001), the Dour Festival (2002, 2007), Deconstruction Tour (2004), Augustboller (2005), Streetbeat Festival (2005), Popkomm (2006), Summerjam (2007), Mighty Sounds (2007), and Ilosaarirock (2007) . They have shared stages with Rancid (1999,2003, 2006), Hepcat (1999), Joe Strummer (2002, 2003), Floggin Molly (2002), Jimmy Cliff (2002), the Beat (2002), Pennywise (2004), Toots & the Maytals (2005), The Pogues (2006), and John Spencer’s Heavy Traffic (2007). They have sold out numerous headlining gigs including such famous venues as Slims (San Francisco), Lee’s Palace (Toronto), The Garage (London), CBGBs (NYC, 2 nights in a row in 2006), Troubadour (LA, 3 times in 2006), the Knitting Factory (NYC, 5 times in the last 4 years), the Melkweg (A-dam), SESC Pompeia (Sao Paolo, 2 nights in 2006), and the Loft (Tokyo). The Slackers began 2007 by releasing Big Tunes!, a greatest hits compilation for the Japanese market, and this was followed by a tour of Japan and Korea. They followed this up with a tour of the Midwest & Canada which had them breaking many of their own attendance records. A summer European tour had them playing to festival crowds up to 10,000 people! A recent fall tour of California had them packing out rooms from San Diego to LA to San Francisco. In mid-2007, the band also released its first official DVD entitled, “The Slackers: A Documentary.” This DVD follows the ups and downs of the band over the years and contains a combination of live footage with one-on-one interviews between band members and the filmmaker, Ben Levin. Discography: Better Late Than Never (Moon – 1996; Special Potato re-release 2002) Red Light (Hellcat – 1997) The Question (Hellcat – 1998) Live at Ernestos (Hellcat – 2000) Wasted Days (Hellcat – 2001) Slackers & Friends (Special Potato/Select Cuts – 2002) Close My Eyes (Hellcat – 2003) Upsetting Ernestos (LAE - 2004) International War Criminal EP (Thought Squad/Disk Union)(2004) The Slackers/Pulley Split CD (Do Tell, 2004) Afternoon in Dub (Special Potato/Select Cuts/Disk Union – 2005) Slack in Japan (Disk Union – 2005) Peculiar (Hellcat – 2006) Big Tunes (Greatest Hits CD) (Disk Union – 2007) The Boss Harmony Sessions (Special Potato/Rockers Revolt/ Aktive/Universal – 2007) Websites: www.theslackers.com www.myspace.com/theslackers |
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My Interests |
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Music:Member Since: 9/3/2005Band Website: theslackers.com Band Members: You can preorder SELF MEDICATION from: INTERPUNK (Free poster with purchase) NEWBURY COMICS (All pre-ordered copies will be autographed) AMAZON (No bonus... :( ) Ara Babajian - Drums Marcus Geard – Bass David Hillyard – Saxophone Jayson Nugent - Guitar Glen Pine – Trombone, Vocals Vic Ruggiero – Lead Vocals, Organ BOOKING USA/Canadian Booking: John Pantle at United Talent. Johnpantle@aol.com Sean Flowerdew at Jamdown Booking sean@pamainternational.co.uk Holland Bertus at Mojo B.de.Blaauw@mojo.nl Belgium/Luxembourg Peter Verstaelen peter@peterverstraelen.com Germany/Austria/Eastern Europe Jens at Phonocaster Music Email: jens@phonocaster.com Japan Akira Sato Email: akira-sato@mte.biglobe.ne.jp Other Booking/Publicity Requests: Steve Bordin @ Big D Productions bordinst@aol.com NEW T-shirt design by Mr. T-Bone available to European fans!!! Influences: The Skatalites, The Beatles, Bob Marley, Lee Perry, Bob Dylan, and Curtis Mayfield Sounds Like: What IS the slackers sound?...post-modern confusion...60's jamaica meets global warming...good cowboys meet bad suits..good punk meets the press...good man meets politics...jack ruby meets the x-files in a dub stylee...hmmmm.... nobody gets us... Record Label: Hellcat Type of Label: Indie |
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My Background and Lifestyle |
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| Occupation: | Music Artist (Ska / Reggae / Soul) |
My Pictures |
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My Blog |
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WE WON! Check us out again on Fearless Music (Fox 5) |
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| Thanks for all your votes. WE WON as most popular band last week. So they are showing another song, "everyday is sunday", this week! Its gonna be on Fox 5 at 12:30 a.m. in NYC on the fearless music sh... Posted by The Slackers on Sat, 31 May 2008 09:26:00 PST |
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The Slackers on Fearless TV |
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Hi everyone,
just want to let you know that this weekend the slackers will be performing on the Fox TV show, Fearless Music.
This show is available... Posted by The Slackers on Tue, 20 May 2008 08:58:00 PST |
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Free NYC instore tonight (7pm) - Virgin Union Square |
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| Spend your happy hour with the Slackers tonight while we play a handful of songs off our new album SELF MEDICATION. We'll be at the Virgin Megastore in Union Square at 7pm - and while buying th... Posted by The Slackers on Mon, 28 Apr 2008 08:07:00 PST |
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New Song Up! Album out in Canada! Toronto In-store! Preorder! |
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| SELF MEDICATION OUT NOW IN CANADA. APRIL 29th IN THE US!That's right friends. We've finally given in to the pressure and put up the first track off Self Medication -- "EVERY DAY IS SUNDAY". ... Posted by The Slackers on Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:49:00 PST |
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Slackfest 2008 |
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| Hi everyone,
we are happy to announce that once again we will have slackfest this year.
June 7th at Irving Plaza.
This will be the 3rd year we’ve done this I think.
The concept of Slackfest is t... Posted by The Slackers on Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:23:00 PST |
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Listening Party for Self Medication - April 3 |
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| We are going to be playing the cd version of Self Medication in its entirety at Otto’s Shrunken head at 538 E.14th St in NYC. We will start playing the cd at around 10 p.m.
This is not a l... Posted by The Slackers on Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:19:00 PST |
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The Sound of 69 ...yesterday, today and tomorrow |
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| Dear Slacker Family-
For over 3 years I've been working on the most significant project I've ever organized. CRAZY BALDHEAD-THE SOUND OF '69 is a collection of classic songs from 1969 cove... Posted by The Slackers on Mon, 18 Feb 2008 08:48:00 PST |
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Dr. Zeus on Self Medication |
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| Here are some inspirational words by a slackers social/music critic......
for years the slacker way was to always be able toplay live whatever we recorded...so a song would soundpretty much the... Posted by The Slackers on Tue, 05 Feb 2008 11:01:00 PST |
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Self Medication and new Slackers music |
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| Hi everyone,
just wanted to let you guys know that we have finished another slackers cd entitled, "Self Medication." Its on the indication label, the same label that put out the last pietasters ... Posted by The Slackers on Tue, 05 Feb 2008 10:59:00 PST |
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The Thrill is Gone by Phil Nerges |
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| Well, The Slackers have hit the literary scene! Below is an excerpt from a novel called The Othen Street Chronicle by our good friend Phil Nerges. "It is about a guy who works for mobsters and is rais... Posted by The Slackers on Tue, 27 Nov 2007 09:03:00 PST |
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My Friends |
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david, lantzilla, Dub Is A Weapon, boss harmz, The Pinstripes, Victor Rice, CRAZY BALDHEAD, David Hillyard & the Rocksteady 7, Amanda, The Uplifter, King Django, Easy Star Records, Anna, Pontani Sisters, johnny tears, THE AGGROLITES, LOUD Melissa, ≈ K@R@ ≈, Mr.T-Bone & the Young Lions NEW ALBUM June 16th!, the RASTAfahnda, Jablecna Stava, Nico ! Bear Rock, Faithless Future, Jay- ska, donPaBlitO, The Absolutes (New Demo), KRINSKY, FatalityTrue, SKAcumentary, TROUBLE AHEAD, Melbourne Ska Orchestra, I feel like a Billion Dollars! $$$, skanights_southwest, Mike Davies - BBC Radio 1 Punk Rock Show, JenJen, The Lost Banditoz - 2 new songs - 11.07. REL.PARTY, Riot Company (new song online), Kaleidoscope Eyes, Dandelion Children, F-E-I-S-T, T.T., Astrid, The Mystic Vibes, Rude Girl CLAUDIA, The (Citizen) D, Sunshine Daydream, Aaron, clown girl, Farewell Cool Reason, AlibiProjekt, Lauren, The Uprooters, s., SpAcE MoNkEy, Gogo aka Brotha G, caracolquiscol, Iya Karna - new album out!, queen majesty, KIKI, Fred&De, with both eyes closed EYE still see thru you
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The Slackers's profile has been tagged with the following keywords. Click a tag to search for profiles with the same tags. vic ruggiero, os mutantes, minha menina, jamaican rock, club promoters, sax solo, imaginary universe, self medication, jamaican ska, jamaican music, reggae band, style police, jorge ben, old blues, skatalites, yardbirds, music artist, wailers, dreadlocks, muddy waters |
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