Oct 26, 2018
Slapstick is a punk-ska band from the Chicago area that was primarily active from 1993 to 1996. Started by a group of friends from the Elgin area, the group took inspiration from Operation Ivy and the guttural punk vocals of Crimpshrine. According to Wikipedia.
They went on to form bands such as The Broadways, Tuesday, The Lawrence Arms, The Honor system, and Alkaline Trio. The Broadways and Tuesday spent a week in Jersey in late 99 where my old band got to play a few shows with them and then we did our last tour with Brendan’s current band Lawrence Arms for almost 2 months in late 2000 which was one of the best times of my life.
I heard of Slapstick in the Summer of 97 when ska was pretty giant and I fell in love with the song “There’s a metal head in the parking lot” because it was poppy, honest and super fucking catchy. I reached out to Brendan to see if he’d like to reminisce, he said yes, and this is what we talked about:
- His punk rock babysitter as a child
- His psychedelic music recordings with Chris from Lawrence Arms
- Not knowing what ska was before joining Slapstick
- The Chicago scene
- How the band formed
- How he established his vocal style
- His love of the Goo Goo Dolls
- Getting signed to Asian Man
- Did he like ska
- What broke up the band
- No one liking the Broadways
- The Larry Arms
- The Slapstick reunion shows
- Nihilist Arby’s
- And a ton more
This week’s episode sponsored by Southern Tier Distilling Company.
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Southern Tier, Why the hell not?
Before we begin I’d like to mention a guy from the NJ scene named Yale Klein. His niece was diagnosed with Leukemia in the midst of her first semester at Cornell. This is his Facebook post about it:
“As confident as I am that she will beat this, it is hard to watch my niece have to endure this both physically and mentally. And it’s almost as hard, especially being a parent, to see my sister and brother in law work through this. Shout out to my nephew who has been a real trooper and an amazing little brother.
Anyway, Marlee has started a fundraiser for her 18th birthday and I wanted to share. It is donations to a foundation that helps with a variety of items related to Leukemia and beyond (of course she is asking to help others) obligations and no judgments.
She is my eldest niece and the type of person I hope my daughter aspired to be like as she gets older. She is the strongest almost 18-year old I have ever met.“
If you'd like to donate, please click here.
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