Slacker than Slack

This write-up is well overdue, but no one reads it anyway… the last Friday of January (January!? Woah this is overdue…) at Mr Wolf’s could well have been Slack Dads’ last appearance there. Hard to believe, but the devastating news dropped just a few weeks after Mixless and Bad Dad shook the venue to its foundations.

Mr Wolf: “So long, thanks for everything, new blood, mumble, mumble…”
Slack Dads: “Whaaa? Was it something we said?”

Ah well, their loss, etc…

OK no, not just their loss: hundreds of happy punters over the last few years have found themselves in the right place at the right time. It’s fair to say not many may have intentionally come to hear us – thank you all who did – but a decent number who stayed on after their mates’ bands had played their very late encores, or who wandered in after other venues had shut up shop, or who knew they could bank on the bar’s rightly deserved reputation, found themselves in the presence of some mighty fine tunes played by an exuberant and friendly bunch.

And it’s our loss too: we didn’t play often, but we had our regular slot four or five times a year, so we always had something to look forward to. We didn’t have slots elsewhere, and as the name suggests, we don’t get to go out as often as we might have a few years back, so our nights at Mr Wolf’s were always a bit of treat for us. Dusting off the old vinyl, seeking out new gems, burning dodgy mash-ups, designing posters, fading in, fading out, seamless mixing (not you Mixless), Desparado-sinking, 45-oops-33-ing, laughing, dancing.

Not once did we have any complaints – neither from the bar nor from the crowds. In fact, along with the regular plea for ‘one more tune’ after Ghost Town signaled the end of the night, we only ever had compliments, congrats, what-was-that-tune and nuff respeks. We might not always have had the records you asked for, but if we did they’d always go on.

This is starting to sound like a rant, which it’s not meant to – let’s lay all those fifth Thursdays, fifth Fridays, new year’s eve’s eves and other random Tuesdays to rest and look forward to the future. We don’t know what or where it will be just yet, but rest assured you can’t keep a Slack Dad down for long…

Now, back to January: Mixless wrote down his tracks as usual, then lost the bit of paper before typing it up… and has now just found it again, phew.

• Spiritualized – Soul On Fire
• Pixies – Caribou
• Burial – Forgive
• Ricardo Villalobos – Fizheuer Zieheuer Pt.1
• Scientist – Dematerialize
• Unknown – BBQ (Thriller)
• Grace Jones -Williams’ Blood (Aeroplane Mix)
• Bonde do Rolê – Marina Gasolina (Fake Blood Remix)
• MGMT – Time To Pretend
• Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip – Thou Shalt Always Kill

***

• Irn Mnky – How Soon Is MVP? (The Smiths / Big L)
• M.I.A – Paper Planes (DFA Remix)
• SL2 – On A Ragga Tip
• Tim G – Voodoo Problems (Jay Z / Jimi Hendrix)
• The Specials – Rat Race
• Baba Brooks – Shock Resistance
• Tommy McCook – Starry Night

***

• The JBs – Givin’ Up Food For Funk Part 1

…flip the 7, flip the 7…!

• The JBs – Givin’ Up Food For Funk Part 2
• Smokey Robinson And The Miracles -  If You Can Want
• Lee Dorsey – Four Corners Part 1
• Tenor Saw – Ring The Alarm
• SL2 – Way In My Brain
• Bassheads – Is There Anybody Out There?
• Liberation 2 – Liberation 2
• A Guy Called Gerald – Voodoo Ray (Original Mix)

See you soon for some more decade-hopping, genre-popping, crowd-stopping, track-lopping SuperSlack sounds…

Slack To The Future

Apparently New Year’s Eve eve is the new New Year’s Eve. Or so those Slack Dads would have you believing – nay preaching – if you’d been anywhere near Bristol last Tuesday night.

Yep, you guessed it – Mixless and Bad Dad were allowed out once again to wreak their merry havoc on the unsuspecting punters at Mr Wolf’s. Some had paid good money to support the local bands (and there aren’t many better places in Bristol you can do that), while others were there as it was one of the few bars they could get a late drink the night before NYE (and there aren’t many better places in Bristol you can do that).

It was indeed one of the more crowded nights your intrepid duo has encountered in a long time, and remained so till gone two. Sadly, it was also one of the quickest shrinking crowds to grace the hallowed venue, and Ghost Town made its earliest – and perhaps most apt – appearance yet. But the high spirits while they lasted were of a highly spirited nature, and the good people present will no doubt cherish the night for a very long time after. Or at least till New Year’s Eve.

This was the Mixless:

• Happy Mondays – Delightful
• The Bhundu Boys – Huperyu Hwangu
• Tommy McCook – Starry Night
• Baba Brooks – Shock Resistance
• Roland Alphonso – Warlock
• Roland Alphonso – Tough Talk
• Tommy McCook & The Supersonics Band – Moody Ska
• Ken Boothe – Everything I Own
• Harry J Allstars – Liquidator
• Fat Freddy’s Drop – Cay’s Crays
• John Holt – Ali Baba

***

• Erik B & Rakim – I Know You Got Soul
• The JBs – Givin’ Up Food For Funk Part 1

At this point, Mixless lived up to his name when he flipped the fading 7 to nimbly bring in (with a barely discernible - cough - 10 second gap)…

• The JBs – Givin’ Up Food For Funk Part 2
• James Brown – My Thang
• Ray J – Right Place, Wrong Time
• Charles Wright And The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band – Express Yourself
• Gang Starr – Who’s Gonna Take The Weight?

***

• A Guy Called Gerald – Voodoo Ray (Remix)

Hurrah, you won’t have to wait long till our next appearance on Friday 30th January 2009.

Muto’s wall painted animation

Should have posted this when I first saw it – blew me away! If you’ve got a spare seven minutes it’s well worth a look.

Or go to the vimeo site to see it a bit bigger.

Young, Gifted & Slack

Tuesdays… not perhaps your first choice for a night out on the town? Think again – following this week’s legendary performance from Mixless and the newly re-monikered Bad Dad, many have written to their MPs demanding the instant replacement of Friday.

Yes, here we go again – when hyperbole hits the Slack Dads blog it can mean only one thing, and I’m afraid you’ve stumbled across it. There was indeed a night of fine music and dancing, wrought as it often is from the deathly quiet that follows the tumbleweed out of Mr Wolf’s door once the local bands have packed up.

Plans for a night of downer-tempo beats got off to a pre-planned start, but soon worked their way into a mildly dizzying crescendo as it if it were a regular fifth Thursday.

So, Mixless please tell us what you played.

Alright.

• Thom Yorke – Atoms For Peace Four Tet Remix
• Scientist – Dematerialize
• Morwell Unlimited Meet King Tubby’s – Ethiopians Special
• Studio One Dub – Bionic Dub
• Fat Freddy’s Drop – Cay’s Crays
• Jo Jo Bennett – Leaving Rome
• Tommy McCook & The Supersonics Band – Moody Ska
• Bavon Marie-Marie et l’Orchestre Negro Succes – Bilamba! Mbongo Ya Mani
• James Brown – My Thang
• Irn Mnky – How Soon Is MVP? (The Smiths / Big L)
• Erik B & Rakim – I Know You Got Soul

***

• SL2 – Way In My Brain
• Young MC – Know How
• House Of Pain – Jump Around (and, predictably, they did)
• Tim G – Voodoo Problems (Jay Z / Jimi Hendrix)
• Happy Mondays – Step On
• Blur – There’s No Other Way
• Deee Lite – Groove Is In The Heart

***

• M.I.A – Paper Planes
• Gang Starr – Who’s Gonna Take The Weight?
• Jungle Brothers – In Dayz 2 Come
• Danger Mouse – Encore
• Public Enemy – Rebel Without A Pause

***

• DJ Zinc – Super Sharp Shooter
• Bassheads – Is There Anybody Out There?
• A Guy Called Gerald – Voodoo Ray (Original Mix)

See you in December…

Fear Of A Slack Planet

Superslack Sounds present… Fifth Friday and all that… Mixless and D’Oh, back from a six month sojourn which saw them take in the delights of Oxford’s Duke and Bristol’s Bocabar, were in fine form for their four-hour floor-filling slot at Mr Wolf’s last week.

Irrepressible as ever, them they call Slack Dads took no prisoners on their journey into/through/beyond sound. Never afraid to experiment, our jockeys for the night plied fresh sets on eager ears, mixing up new  tunes with the tried and tested.

Keep watching and you may be treated to D’Oh’s tracklist, but till then here’s the Mixless:

First bit:

• Meirelles – Also Sprach Zarathrustra
• Happy Mondays – Kuff Dam
• Hot Chip – One Pure Thought (Supermayer Remix)
• Four Tet – Untangle
• Crystal Castles – Air War
• Late Of The Pier – Space And the Woods
• Spandau Ballet – To Cut A Long Story Short (Version) – yes, really… and it went down ok
• Dexy’s Midnight Runners – Geno
• The Specials – You’re Wondering Now
• Dandy Livingstone – Rudy, A Message To You
• Tommy McCook – Green Mango
• John Holt – Ali Baba
• Fat Freddy’s Drop – Cay’s Crays
• Tenor Saw – Ring The Alarm
• SL2 – On A Ragga Tip

Second bit:

• Beck – Where It’s At
• N.W.A – Express Yourself
• Eric B And Rakim – I Know You Got Soul
• James Brown – Get On The Good Foot
• Lee Dorsey – Four Corners (Part 1)
• Coldcut – True Skool ft. Roots Manuva
• Maceo And The Macks – Soul Power 74 (goes down as the first ever requested tune that we’ve had with us)
• Danger Mouse – Encore

Third bit, after D’Oh played Beats International:

• Bassomatic – Fascinating Rhythm (Lisa Loud Mix)
• MC Tunes – Tunes Split The Atom
• Blur – There’s No Other Way
• The Breeders – Cannonball
• The Charlatans – The Only One I Know
• 808 State – Pacific State
• A Guy Called Gerald – Voodoo Ray (Remix)

Eagle-eyed readers may have spotted it’s a mere four weeks till the next one – a Tuesday no less.