The Slip formed when bassist Marc Friedman and brothers Andrew Barr and Brad Barr (Drums and Guitar/Vox, respectively) moved to Boston together after graduating from high school, where they had met and first began playing music as a group.
In 1996 the trio of recent Berklee dropouts put out their first studio album and began establishing a dedicated fan-base through relentless touring in and around the northeast. A late-nineties blend of extended roots pop compositions and experimental rhythmic approaches, the band developed and found their sound through an extremely supportive local scene of artists, musicians, and actors, coupled with a rigorous, and – soon – national, tour schedule. An eclectic new brand of exploratory roots psych-rock emerged; Van Morrison meets Keith Jarrett meets Talking Heads.
By 2001, the band’s tour schedule had brought them to sold-out headlining shows at NYC’s Bowery Ballroom, successful tours in Japan, and a record deal with Rykodisc.
While the band’s line-up remained consistent throughout the next few years on the road, their sound developed considerably and the instrumentation expanded radically. The Slip grew from young, earthy avant-gardes to strong, mature contemporary-rock composers, creating a new sonic landscape that drew equally from CAN, U2, and new interests like Built to Spill and Postal Service.
By 2003, the trio’s non-stop touring produced Alivelectric and Aliveacoustic, a companion live set that also represented the inaugural release of their own independent record label, 216 records.
Aliveacoustic presented a rustic and intimate, voyeuristic snapshot of the band unplugged, on a rainy night at the intimate Club Helsinki in the Berkshire Mountains. Equal parts Wilco, My Morning Jacket, and 12 Golden Country Hits – era Ween, the album contains a tender honesty that carries through from tent-revival stomps to humble and dusty lyrical psalms.
Alivelectric, on the other hand, is almost exclusively instrumental, with a deep resonance and a wide breadth of analog and digital effects. Culled from an equally wide array of performances throughout the U.S. during the fall of 2002 and the summer and spring of 2003, Alivelectric gave 216 a chance to showcase the band at its grander, more expansive and ethereal live moments. The album presents an articulated side of The Slip much closer to Do Make Say Think, Tortoise, electric Bill Frisell and Squarepusher albums than the dusty americana present on it’s companion release.
These two records represent the most coherent articulation of the bands’ distinct sides to date, and have sold a combined 14,000 copies so far. The band has sold a total of over 50,000 albums independently.
In the five years following their last studio release, the band has also spent more and more of their time off the road in their home studios, gradually honing a new and innovative approach to recording and distilling an overall songwriting vision. So pervasive a transformation has occurred that The Slip have even recently been accused - perhaps appropriately - of ‘changing everything short of their name’.
Coming out of this, their heaviest state of growth and development in years, the band entered Q-Division Studios in March 2005 and began six months of utterly focused work with co-producer Mathew Ellard. The result is their 4th studio album, Eisenhower which stands as the most cohesive and evocative work the band has put together thus far.
Showcasing the raw analog passion of Broken Social Scene, the accessible melodic songcraft of Mojave 3, and the lush soundscapes and wash-like textures of Mogwai, the album’s dynamics also range from Iron and Wine–style intimate vocal immediacy to the thunderous big-beat anthem-sincerity of the Flaming Lips, with enough room in between for haunting vocal melodies evocative of Antonio Carlos Jobim or Sigur Ros laid over with sparce, raw, Notwist-style live percussion. It is the band’s finest work to date
Already proving itself be a very good indication of a brilliant upcoming album, the first single that has been released - “Even Rats” – that has been released (on most digital services) has already been featured in the extremely successful Playstation2 game Guitar Hero and was also chosen to be one of only ten songs preloaded on the new SanDisk mp3 player - 4.5 million of which are set to ship in mid-march 2006.
The album also contains a revamped version of “Children of December,” the demo version of which was awarded the 2004 Heineken USA/ASCAP Foundation Grant for Best Pop/Rock Song in Boston.
The spring of 2005 also saw the band spin through the northeast, accompanied by Nathan Moore on vocals and guitar, as collective avant-folk band Surprise Me Mr. Davis; a modern alt-country super-group combining the raw and intimate vocals of a Tom Waits or a Nebraska-era Bruce Springsteen with the bluesy grit of the Black Keys, The Band or Two Gallants, all layered with the lush 3-and-4-part harmonies and dirty instrumentation of TV on the Radio. Selections from a late summer Montreal recording session formed a well-received EP entitled Only in Montreal.
2005 of course also saw The Slip playing a considerable amount of shows as themselves - throughout the U.S., Japan, Canada, and Mexico - and closed out with a memorable northeast New Year’s run supported by friends Apollo Sunshine.
Starting in late 2007, the trio took an unannounced hiatus from regular touring and have since only played occasional gigs as The Slip. They have not released any albums since 2006.
The future of The Slip seems to be on hold as the founding members, Andrew Barr and Brad Barr, have been focusing their work into The Barr Brothers.
Suffocation Keep
The Slip Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
That's why we're strangers
Word's go in,
They don't come out
The forest is big
That's why we need rangers
If you gotta run, babe
You're allowed
I can't believe
In you I stay destined,
I can't believe
I know you're still here
Once you are seen
It all becomes mystic
The lightning of love
In full form appears
On my hands
On my knees
I've berid my burdenty
Up the stairs
Unlock the door
To the suffocation keep
Honey, you're there
Honey, you're listening
Bodies can bond
And flesh repeats
Still there's a square
In the distance
Was composed
While I was asleep
On my hands
On my knees
I've berid my burdenty
Up the stairs
Unlock the door
To the suffocation keep
Keep
Keep
People are strange,
That's why we're strangers
Word's go in,
They don't come out
The forest is big,
That's why we need rangers,
If you gotta run, babe
You're allowed
The Slip's song Suffocation Keep is about the complexity of human relationships with a particular focus on the sensation of suffocation. The song suggests that people are strange, which is why they will always remain strangers to each other. The words go in, but they do not come out, which means that there is often a lack of communication and understanding between people. The metaphorical use of the forest and rangers conveys the need for guidance and protection in the complicated world of human relationships. The singer is expressing his disbelief that he is still in love with the other person despite the difficulties they've encountered. It all becomes mystical when one understands the true power of love.
The singer then goes on to describe how he has rid himself of the burden that caused him to feel suffocated, and he is now free to move forward with his love. He has unlocked the door to the suffocation keep, the place where he felt trapped and unable to progress. However, the song still suggests that there is a square in the distance, composed while the singer was asleep, suggesting that struggles may still lie ahead.
Line by Line Meaning
People are strange
People behave in unusual ways
That's why we're strangers
That's why we don't always understand each other
Word's go in,
They don't come out
We can't always communicate effectively or express ourselves clearly
The forest is big
The world is vast and complex
That's why we need rangers
We need guidance and protection to navigate through life
If you gotta run, babe
You're allowed
You have the freedom to make your own choices and pursue your own path
I can't believe
In you I stay destined,
I can't believe that my fate is tied to you
I can't believe
I know you're still here
I can't believe you're still in my life
Once you are seen
It all becomes mystic
Once you truly see someone, they become mysterious and unknown
The lightning of love
In full form appears
Love can strike suddenly and powerfully
On my hands
On my knees
I've berid my burdenty
I've prayed and tried to let go of my burdens
Up the stairs
Unlock the door
To the suffocation keep
Entering into a place of suffocation or feeling trapped
Honey, you're there
Honey, you're listening
Addressing someone who is there and listening to you
Bodies can bond
And flesh repeats
Physical attraction and intimacy can create strong connections
Still there's a square
In the distance
There's always something looming and unknown
Was composed
While I was asleep
Something was created or changed without my awareness
Keep
Keep
Keep
A repeating reminder of the feeling of suffocation or being trapped
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Andrew Gilmore Barr, Philip Bradford Barr, Marc A Friedman
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind