Music
The best kept secret in music
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Finding a decently burning rock and roll band in Southern California is much like searching for ozone-free sky in Pasadena, where every citizen's share of auto smog blocks the sun's UV as efficiently as a lead-lined bunker. Those who look tan for the Rose Parade either buy their rays at retail or flee to Santa Barbara; since ozone is invisible, you never know where to go to avoid it. In parallel, often what looks superficially to be a heavy, rolling rock band isn't. As a consequence, there is a lot of fruitless exposure to notorious disappointments. Nettlesomely, the locals appear somewhat inured to this state of noncombustion.
Slojack, happily, do not suffer these handicaps. But I had to bump into them by accident at some dive in 1998 and then wait two years for a second record (their first was Naked, and it too was worth finding) while they struggled through indifference and band members coming and going. For Get There From Here, guitarist Andy Bartel (who played in a late-'70s band he doesn't like mentioned, so I won't; Christgau gave 'em a B-) immediately peels out over the listener's face as the rhythm section shakes its way through a two-and-a-half-minute boogie. Then Slojack produce some even faster rock and roll—not thrash; the kind those born after '69 would call "hardcore" but which isn't, really, because Bartel throws nifty blues fills into the music, saving it from the foul disease of polka-tosis.
And Slojack do not reserve their best moves entirely for savagery. Singer Eddie Fritz wears his heart on his sleeve, but it's a heart made of steel on "Someday the Rain," a wistful and stunning piece of hard poetry about AIDS and loss. It could just as well be about anyone's private heartbreak. Another song, "Rainbow Bridge," should probably be sent to Maggie Bell, posthaste. For "Sad-Eyed Romeo," Fritz serenades his subject to the accompaniment of a strolling accordionist. Cutting through the ozone, Get There From Here is an entirely more potent substance, pure nitroglycerin—useful for soothing the painful heart as well as for demolition. - George Smith
Discography
Slojack has 2 CD releases available on Silverlake Records. "Naked" (1997) and "Get There From Here" (2001) Various tracks from the latest CD, including "Devil's At The Wheel" and "24 Hours" are receiving airplay across the country and internationally.
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Bio
Slojack is a band from Los Angeles. Like their hometown, their music has deep roots, with a multi faceted exterior that contains elements of the past and the future. Eddie Fritz (vocals, keyboards) and Andy Bartel (guitar, vocals) talk about their latest release, “Get There From Here” and the challenges of playing rock and roll in the year 2001.
After the first CD, the band was feeling a bit pigeonholed. “We were limited by the expectations of our audience and the music itself.” Eddie explained. “We really wanted to create a more varied recording, one that would reach a wider audience, but without resorting to a “cookie cutter” style were each song is a copy of the last. You need to challenge the listener, take them high, take them low, and bring them back again.”
They already had enough songs for the second recording, so “We started making demos, and of course writing new songs. Pretty soon, there was enough for 2 records, so we had to start cutting tracks. We figured that the songs that belonged together would pick themselves. In the end, that’s exactly what happened,” Andy recalls.
But the road was not always a smooth one. Eddie picks up the story, “First off, our dear friend and original drummer, Teddy Freese, moved to Europe. He was very hard to replace. We went through 3 or 4 players and finally Geoff Haba brought the right energy and style to the recordings. But Glen and Geoff had their differences, so Glen left the band mid record, leaving the bass chores to Andy. Geoff left the band after the recording was finished to focus on his own music.”
The recording process had its share of roadblocks as well. On the very first day, the engineer spilled café mocha on the mixing board, shorting out the console and effectively ending all the work that had done at that studio. The band moved to another studio to pick up where they left off, and ran into some very temperamental ADAT machines that had a mind of their own, stalling the recordings for days at a time. Finally, after 6 months of work, the tapes were finished and Slojack took a break to rebuild the band and to “clear our heads before the final mixes.”
That “break” lasted another six months, while they toured up and down California. Finally, in November of 2000, the band took time off to mix the record. “When the CD was mixed, we played a few more gigs, and retired the live show for the time being. We felt it was time to rethink the presentation because our music was about something more than just 4 guys sweating and jumping around a lot,” Eddie explains with a chuckle.
The end result was “Get There From Here”, a wonderfully diverse collection of songs that ranges from the roots-rock of “24 Hours” to the layered guitars of “Someday The Rain”. It also contains some of the white noise, punk that the band is known for, like “Devil’s At The Wheel”, “Ain’t Got You”, and “Let It Go”. But there are more subtleties now. The acoustic, Jimmy Page influenced “One Last Time” or the Hendrix-style blues of “Disagreeable”. And don’t forget the beautiful Irish waltz, “Rainbow Bridge” and of course, “Sad Eyed Romeo”. Andy had a few words to say about that one. “We recorded that song in the living room, on 4 track cassette. It was supposed to be a demo, but everyone loved the version so much, that we just put it out in its original form. I hope we can do more tracks like that it the future. It captures a song just at the right time, when it’s new and fresh. The response we have gotten from the fans and various listeners has been great, fantastic really. They picked up on the lyrical flow of the record and everyone has a different favorite track. We think that’s great!”
Since the release of the CD, things have kicked into high gear. The record has been getting airplay all across the country, and internet sales are doing well. Andy and Eddie are very enthusiastic. “We are really getting antsy to hit the stage again, but the most important thing is connecting to people with the songs we write. We have already recorded 13 new tracks with Teddy that we hope will be our next release. You must realize that this is not a couple of kids, playing in a rock band to get beer and babes. It is a lot of fun, but it is also something that we are extremely passionate about. We write about things from a point of view that comes from having lived and kicked life around a bit. If the listener hears something in a song that connects with them directly or on some other level, we have succeeded. That’s what music still does for us and that is what we hope our music will do for others.”
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