Underground Hottlanta: Slushco
Since taking up this Ohmpark project, it never ceases to amaze me how many great bands from Atlanta that I continue to discover. The deeper I dig, the more talented artists I find. Slushco was another of the plethora of bands I had heard of, but never really looked into hard until recently, upon hearing about the new album, When I Met The Boss of Nova. Showing up late to this party, I’ve found that Slushco is no longer a band and is now a solo project of Brian Slusher. I contacted Brian via Myspace so he could tell a noob like me what the dilly is: “As far as Slushco, it is strictly a one man studio project now. The band fell apart when Mikey the synth player left for Germany. We toyed with the idea of replacing him but, band morale was collectively down. Aaron the drummer also wanted to concentrate on his other interests. While all of this was happening, I was quietly making the Nova album.”
Brian stressed that the band’s demise was an amicable one. “It was actually better for all of us. We wanted different things and that’s ok. We’re all still friends.” He went on to talk about the new album that was originally planned to be a solo album for him. “At first, the goal was to prove that you can make a record with a $24 casio keyboard that I bought off Ebay. One of my friends was complaining that he couldn’t get his stuff sounding like mine in his home studio. I was trying to encourage him to try anything. Then I actually started making really fun songs with the casio. The first song I wrote for the album was Photograph. I would take it into my kitchen and play around while I was waiting for my pasta to boil. Voila! Being that it keeps tempo very well, it was easy to play notes with my right hand and switch beat settings simultaneously with my left hand. Casio’s are great. You should get one if you don’t already have one. So eventually, the casio became a one trick pony. I quickly started programming beats with the same plastic feel. It would have been very boring if I hadn’t used other drum sounds.”
Mr. Slusher is not stopping there as he has some more releases planned for this year: “I am also putting out The Silver Surface for sure. This was going to be the album after Clouds but, we just didn’t get around to recording it while all of the breakups and replacements were going on. The recordings are my original demos that I made for the bandmates. There are lots of blemishes and harsh sounds but at the same time, it’s really honest. I didn’t want to rerecord it without the original members and I also don’t want it to go unheard. I guess I’m setting myself up for criticism. It’s a very dynamic and flashy album. Our last few shows were based around it. There’s also one called The Softer Side of Synchronicity that I am currently working on. As always, they will be my standard 7 song format. I think people get bored with the same topic if it’s too long.”
I think this 7 song structure is a very interesting way to format an album and I think he is on to something about being able to make a thematic album more effective in a shorter span of time. Another thing I’ve learned since doing this blog thing is that EPs are really underrated. As for seeing Sluscho in a live capacity anytime soon, it may only be wishful thinking. “I don’t know if I will play any shows for a while. It’s really hard to get all of the people together and actually do well. I love being in my studio. I feel like I’m actually being more honest with the music listener on record rather than playing a bad show and pretending to enjoy myself. Good shows are great. Bad shows are devastating.”
Since downloading a copy of Nova (to cut down on distribution costs, so far he is only releasing it digitally), I’ve been jamming it out relentlessly and I can’t recommend it enough. It is easily one of the best albums to come out so far this year. Here’s a little Slushco to try:
Slushco : When I Met The Boss Of Nova : Photograph
Slushco : Slushco : Getting Through A Normal Day
Buy When I Met the Boss of Nova Here
Buy other Slushco albums here
- Posted by Davy Minor on February 21, 2008 at 2:36 am
