Slow Skate

"Songwriter and lead singer Caitlin Sherman has a clear, haunting voice that drew me deep into the music at first listen. I love the way it never stays the same between songs, instead moving between delicate and powerful from track to track. It blends perfectly with the band's eerie brand of indie-pop, and brings to mind voices like St. Vincent and Feist. Strings, toy piano, autoharp, and glockenspiel punctuate the finely crafted pop tunes, giving them a woozy, carnival-like feel." MEG RUDDICK, NPR's All Songs Considered - October 2009 - NPR Blog

"(Past the Whole Parade) is Slow Skate's second album, one that's full of surprises: one track will feature tinkly toy piano, and then the thing will switch gears completely and charge right into rock guitar and heavy, thudding percussion on the next. The binding thread is Caitlin Sherman's voice, which can be lilting and sweet or throaty and sensual, but is always mesmerizing." SARA BRICKNER, Seattle Weekly's Reverb - September 2009 - Village Voice Media

"It's rare that a band's name hints at its promise. (I bring six organs with me every damn place I go, and I've yet to get into a Six Organs of Admittance show without paying the door.) But in the case of local band Slow Skate, the title on the cover aptly describes the contents: their soft-spoken, darkly alluring indie pop is perfect for the last couples skate of the night, nervous and sweaty-palmed orbits illuminated by a mirrorball. It's a style of music you may not have heard for a while; think Portishead, The Innocence Mission or Mazzy Star with a thin stripe of shoegazer drama running through." GEOFF CARTER, The Spellout - August 2009 - Blog

"...There's something really sexy about Seattle's Slow Skate. But it's the sad, doomed kind of sexy—similar in vibe to Air's The Virgin Suicides soundtrack. On "One to Remember," a ukulele's usually happy sound is offset by slow, weeping guitar and Caitlin Sherman's dreamy vocals about drowning in whiskey. I guess it could soundtrack a roller rink's slow-skate session... if the cute crush you were skating with was eventually going to throw herself out her bedroom window." MEGAN SELING - Index Newspapers, LLC

Slow Skate singer Caitlin Sherman is patient. She has the control and uneasy grace of Portishead's Beth Gibbons, but she makes that unease sound effortless with her exacting shrill. In "Villain" she's poised in a Sleepy Hollow and sings, "Use your tongue to brand my skin." Slow Skate's shadowed minor compositions are filtered with electronics, upright bass, and the resonant shuffle of brush-glitched drums. Room sounds in the recording spell out hardwood floors and low-wattage bulbs overhead. Slow Skate's full-length, Trace the Lines, came out in February on the Seattle/NY label Conduit Records. It's a gathered and bold offering, a slow fade for your lulling. TRENT MOORMAN, The Stranger - Index Newspapers, LLC

"Band of the Week" November 20th-27th

- Index Newspapers, LLC

On first impression, Slow Skate bring to mind Nancy Sinatra’s song on the Kill Bill soundtrack. You know the one–”bang bang, my baby hit the ground.” It was beautiful, strong, and kind of devastating. The same could be said for Slow Skate. They play slow, stripped-down music with shimmery desert guitars and relaxed female vocals. Then there are the songs with the wurlitzer, and the songs with the electronics programmed in quietly in the background, and the ones with the electric guitars. Slow Skate do it all, and they do it brilliantly. This will be a good one to check out. - Gabriel Arguelles
- Blog

"But it's Slow Skate's combination of tongue-in-cheek London lounge and just enough cowboy swagger that should give you pause. Relying on a combination of organic, dinky pianos and drums, as well as sleek-but-not-sterile electronica, the band's sparse compositions are set atop lazy, brushed drums and swooning surf guitar. A definite must see, especially before their full length album comes out in February and they are inevitably discovered by the masses." RAECHEL SIMS - Village Voice Media