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.
The Soft Machine
The Slip Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Where is
Love is shapeless
Who needs
Love is dangerous
Love is true
The more you give the soft machine
I would live for you with all my
Give to you with all my
Daggers and swollen kisses
And so that is proof that love is death
There's no ear that would or could Listen to all there is to say
About small wooden toys
Or broken shells, tiny bells or songs about a lady
The more you clean the soft machine
The more you lead me on
I would live for you with all my
Give to you with all my
Daggers and swollen kisses
And so I think that that is proof that love is death
The Slip's "The Soft Machine" is a powerful and intense song about the many facets of love. The opening lines state "Love is homeless, love is shapeless, love is dangerous, love is true," and sets the tone for the rest of the song. The lyrics touch on the inherent risk of giving oneself and all of their love to another, as expressed in the lines, "I would live for you with all my daggers and swollen kisses, and so that is proof that love is death." The Soft Machine is referred to as a metaphorical entity throughout the song, representing the sacrifice and vulnerability that love entails.
The lyrics also allude to the depth and complexity of love, as seen in the lines "there's no ear that would or could listen to all there is to say about small wooden toys, or broken shells, tiny bells or songs about a lady." These objects symbolize the memories and emotions associated with loving someone, and the impossibility of fully expressing or understanding them. However, despite the potential for pain and loss that comes with loving, the singer is willing to take that risk and give everything they have to the object of their affection.
Line by Line Meaning
Love is homeless
Love is not restricted to any place or person.
Where is
Love is not physically present in any specific location.
Love is shapeless
Love cannot be confined to any particular form or shape.
Who needs
Love is not required by anyone; it is a matter of personal choice.
Love is dangerous
Love can cause harm or damage when not handled carefully.
Love is true
Despite its potential dangers, love is a genuine and authentic emotion.
The more you give the soft machine
The deeper you fall in love.
The more you give the song
The more you invest in the relationship.
I would live for you with all my
I am willing to devote my entire life to you.
Give to you with all my
I am willing to give you everything I have.
Daggers and swollen kisses
I am willing to endure both the painful and the pleasurable aspects of love.
And so that is proof that love is death
Love can be so intense and all-consuming that it feels like it could kill you.
There's no ear that would or could Listen to all there is to say
No one can fully comprehend the depth and complexities of love.
About small wooden toys
Even the most trivial things can become meaningful when associated with someone you love.
Or broken shells, tiny bells or songs about a lady
Anything can remind you of the person you love and elicit strong emotions.
The more you clean the soft machine
The more you try to suppress or control your feelings, the more intense they become.
The more you lead me on
The more you tease or play hard-to-get, the more love intensifies.
And so I think that that is proof that love is death
The all-consuming nature of love can feel overwhelming and even fatal.
Contributed by Cameron W. Suggest a correction in the comments below.