SLIM: Interstate Medicine

Slim

Interstate Medicine

© 2002 Michael Baker (820772000127)

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Slim sounds like Elvis Costello and Tom Petty on a summer road trip to Vegas--American pop/rock with bite and soul. A CDBaby favorite.

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notes

What do you want to know about Slim?

Well, probably the first thing to mention is that Slim is always a little different. I play solo acoustic shows as Slim, and when the full band comes together, we call it the same thing. Confusing but efficient.

I write all the songs and do the singing and guitar playing. My name's Mike. I put the band together and recorded our debut album after five or six years of playing strange house parties and stupid coffeehouses, but there are a few other things that probably have more to do with Slim than the late-90s open mic scene in san francisco.

1) When I was growing up, my family would drive from the Bay Area to Idaho every summer. Back in the day, when you crossed the Nevada and Utah deserts, the only radio you could get was this classical AM station out of Salt Lake. In order to keep the kids from beating each other to death, my mom would make up stories to go along with the sonatas and fugues we were hearing. There was one I especially liked about the bloodthirsty Mouse King and his sworn enemy, the Baron d-Con. So I got imprinted with the whole combination of music, empty roads and stories early on.

2) I played saxophone in my high school jazz band. One class, after the bell rang but before the teacher showed up, our guitar player stopped running dom13b9 arpeggios, whipped out a Boss Metal Zone pedal and started playing Back in Black so loud that one of the clarinet players vomited. Before that, it had never occurred to me that you could actually learn songs that the radio played, and play them yourself (I hear that people who are actually cool had this same epiphany with the Sex Pistols--close enough).

3) When I was six, my dad borrowed my record player to listen to one of the 78s (!) that his band had cut back when he was in high school (The Vagabond Five, rockin' the Montpelier, ID metro area from '52 to '55, yo). When he was done, I trawled through his record collection looking for the shiniest, most colorful album cover and played the lp inside, which turned out to be Sgt. Pepper's. Psychedelicized at six--it's hard to recover.

So that's really the most important stuff. I should probably say some more pertinent things about the band (former members of Primus, Counting Crows, 3rd Eye Blind, Mazzy Star, Van Morrison's band), the record (it's called "Interstate Medicine", you can get it at record stores across the U.S. [thanks, Burnside Distribution!], it's on the radio everywhere too), and the live show (real good, sold out San Francisco clubs [Slim's, Cafe du Nord, Hotel Utah, Red Devil Lounge], opened for Colin Hay, Luce, the Rising, and, um, that Night Ranger dude's son], but I'm soooo bored of that shit.

So I'll just say some more about me.

I play a black strat that some previous owner apparently took a belt sander to in a vain attempt to give it some Stevie Ray mojo, and I often run it through one of those PB&J-sized Marshall amps--perfect for clipping to your belt and chasing the cat through your house with the riff to Crazy Train.

I crank my amps louder than Tom Petty, but not as loud as Cannibal Corpse.

I'm wordier than Jane's Addiction, but not as yappy as e.e. cummings.

I'm taller than Prince, but not as tall as Krist Novoselic.

I write most of my songs while I'm driving, on an ancient Casio keyboard bungee-corded to the passenger seat. This is not safe. Last summer, I got pulled over doing 80 in a 45 because I was so cranked about this chorus I was writing (Casio rock rhythm no.6 is very inspiring!). Then I almost drove off a mountain.

I have rocked crowds of several hundred people with nothing more than an acoustic guitar and a well-timed Britney Spears cover (were they sober? No).

reviews

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  • My favorite of the last few years
    author: Ned

    Great CD, start to finish. I've bought at least 20 copies to give to musicians that I work with and to friends. Especially good for the last hour of the drive from San Jose to Vegas or Portland.

  • Really grows on you
    author: Al

    Never heard of Slim before hearing a brief clip on a podcast. Catchy little acoustic bit stuck in my mind so I gave the CD a whirl. Not too impressed on first listen but by the second and third it continues to grow on me, always a good sign on an impulse purchase!

  • Very good music. It makes sense.
    author: Mark Christopher Pizzolato

    Liked all the tracks, very good album, with a lot of consistency.

  • Southwest Rocking Good Time
    author: Accident Hash Podcasst

    This CD instantly made me want to kick back with a pitcher of margaritas and a plate of nachos. The perfect mix of mellow and rocking all in one. It's not often that a first listen of a CD will blow me away the way this one did!

  • Refreshing!
    author: Gabriel

    This is some great rock! Very tight, melodic, and fun! Love the grooves on this entire disc! Thank you Slim for writing some beautiful music and congratulations on a very fine album!

  • Best album I've heard in YEARS!
    author: Elsa

    Interstate Medicine has honestly not left my CD player since I got it two weeks ago. It’s one of those rare albums whose insightful, evocative, intelligent lyrics and moody/rockin’ guitar-based melodies suit my every mood. Like all the best music, this stuff transports me -- to LA freeways, a dim crossroads bar, Southwest deserts, Mexico, and that electric upper stratosphere place that Jimi Hendrix first defined. Slim seems to be half urban rocker and half John Muir on acid, and you can’t listen to just one song to get a picture of what they're all about. But if you’re stranded on a desert island and can only bring one Slim song, take “Electric”-- it’ll blow your mind. I can’t recommend this album highly enough.

  • Advice: Capture the times.
    author: Denise Cardoso

    Music, Voice & Talent = Sexxy. You're there. No recommendations in that department. Advice: Capture the times. Make 2002 live forever in your music. In these times of "distress", people want someone to tell them how to think. So, think for them. It's that easy! One thing that seperates the musicians that become legends from those that are forgotten is that they are able to speak about the "times." This is the best possible time to be a musician. All of the music out there is nothing, ephemeral, who cares. Noone will remember it in 10 years. The public is starving to hear something, anything it doesn't have to be much, and that my friend is the key! Look at Bob Dylan, terrible voice, he couldn't play guitar at first, but he had something to say, and he had a nation of people willing to listen to anything, cause they didn't know what to think, so they let bob think for them. A musician can transform social consciousness faster then anything else. That is pretty powerful. Noone has tapped into that for a while. I'd say the last person to do something close to what I'm talking about was Kurt Cobaine. For example with the line "I feel stupid and contagious, here we are now entertain us." I think that that line really resonated with many young folks living through the early 90's who had no jobs and who were coming of age when aids was becoming a serious reality that was now affecting not only homosexuals and drug users, but everone, even in the suburbs. I don't know nirvana really thought about what they were doing, but the end result was that the did in fact do something spechial. When I think of the early 90's I remember walking into bars and hearing nirvana and pearl jam, and feeling really connected to the times. That does not exist right now. There is nothing that comes to my mind as being representative of the late 90's, nothing comes to mind. We are living in a vacuum, music has become entertainment for the numbing of the mind The mtv music awards are no longer music awards, rather they should be entertainment awards. Who is the pretties, who is the coolest, who can dance the best, rather than what music is the best. If mtv music is what people want, then I think my advice is not so good, but, I honestly think people want to hear somehting. That's why Jack Johnson has become so bigtime, he has a couple good lines, and boom that's all you need. Again, I could have a skewed view of things, cause I am a folk junkie, who prefers to listen to w. guthrie, b. dylan, g. brown then a lot of the stuff on the radio right now. Musicians are kind of like priests, the community supported them so that they could come up with neat thoughts and express them to the people, thoughts that the common folks wouldn't think of themselves. You have been chosen to deliver a message to the common folks who without you would have never thought the wonderful important thoughts that you have exposed them to. And they will be so thankful that you opened up this world to them that they will love you forever. Think: Mike Baker forever... I was introduced to your music through your lovely lady friend Dana. I did some work for her on the Sierra project. Smart Cookie that Dana!

  • Slim Rocks Balls!
    author: Rendog

    Interstate Medicine is my new favorite CD... every time I put it in I have a new favorite song, a new favorite sound and I fall more and more in love with the lyrics, the awesome musical arangements and the lead singer's SEXY voice. There is something for everyone in the album: hard rockin tunes, Beatles-like balads, 80's flash back moments, Richard Thompsonesque story telling songs. SLIM rocks and I'm going to tell everyone I know!

  • Oh, Oh, I can't wait to hear this on the radio!
    author: Double D

    This CD moves me every single time I listen to it; I can't believe how well it works for all of my moods. The lyrics, harmonies, instrumentation, playing and vocal range are so evocative and intensely pleasing. The album conjures up new visions and emotion each time I listen. Its like he is drawing pictures with each song. Its definitely a key buy!

  • You instantly love this cd after the first time you hear it.
    author: Craig

    It's good music, really good music. The lyrics are poetic and the guitar melodic. I am crytical of any new music I hear, and this cd felt like a much awaited release from a favorite band. Dig it, and listen loud!

  • I LOVE this CD! It never leaves my car.
    author: L D

    I get lost in the magical lyrics and pumped up by the super-charged music. My long commute is no longer painful... thanks to this CD my commute is pure pleasure. I am buying Interstate Medicine for all my commuting friends.

  • What a masterpiece! True medicine for whatever highway you might be on.
    author: Mr. Foo

    Have you heard this yet?! It is impossible for your body to be motionless thru this record - even on ice at 25mph in a white-knuckle adventure through the blizzards of Southwestern Wyoming. This album has been fully tested and I highly recommend it.

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