• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

The All New Julie Slick thread

#421
Woo-hoo! Looks like Julie will be doing at least two gigs next month with Tim Motzer and Tobias Ralph, under the moniker "r_m_s": June 10 at the Boot and Saddle in Philadelphia, and June 12 at Beardfest in Hammonton, NJ.

Looks like it's time for another road trip!
 
#422
It's taken me a couple of days to recuperate from my road trip up north for the two aforementioned "r_m_s" shows, at a small club in Philly (Wed.) and at the Beardfest in southern NJ (Fri.). I think I have regenerated just enough neurons by now to take a shot at trying to write a review.

The trio comprises Julie, who of course needs no introduction in this thread, along with Philadelphia-based guitar wizard Tim Motzer and drummer extraordinaire Tobias Ralph. Julie has been playing with Tobias in the ABPT for about five years, and (as a fellow Philadelphian) has known and played off-and-on with Tim since forever. However, as far as I know, Tim and Tobias have never played together other than one day in Tim's studio a few months ago. This background is all important because on both nights, they hit the stage with no prepared material, and completely improvised a 90-minute (Wed.) and 60-min. (Fri.) set.

I went into this assuming that both sets would be entirely improvised, but I was curious to see what direction they might go. On the one hand, I thought it might be mainly ambient, spacious, soundscape-y stuff, similar to the session from a few years ago that Julie and Tim did with Julie's brother Eric on drums. (If you've never seen this, you can buy a download of the video for a few bucks from Tim's website -- it's awesome!) Julie and Tim are both big into looping and such, so that seemed like on possible direction. On the other hand, given Julie and Tobias' experience playing with Belew, I wondered if the set might be more of a face-melting shredfest.

In the end, I would say both were true, but with a strong nod toward the face-melting-shredfest direction: brief periods of exploration ("now what?") connected by long periods of deep, balls-to-the-wall grooves -- often in odd times. One of the things I liked most was the fact that this was as democratic a group as you'll ever see: Nobody was "the leader," and at any time, any one of them might be the one to toss up a new idea and set the course for a new direction. It was pure improvisation at its very best.

Given the present context, I have to add that as many times as I've seen Julie play, in many different contexts, I'm sure I've never seen her play better. Given how good she was when she first appeared on the scene nearly 10 years ago, it's hard for me to get my head around the idea that she's still improving. There were two aspects of her playing that blew me away the most. First, she (as well as the others) seemed to be a bottomless source of creative ideas, creating new grooves (again, often in odd times) on the fly that more often than not sounded as if they had been carefully composed. (I talked to a guy after the Friday set, who as it turned out happened to be a bass player as well, and when I told him that the entire set had been improvised he refused to believe it.) Second, although she has always drawn upon multiple techniques -- from pickstyle to traditional fingerstyle to slapping, etc. -- I was astonished at her ability to switch effortlessly among such techniques, often within a a very brief period of time. That is, it didn't seem like a bunch of separate techniques being strung together, but rather one technique that incorporated elements of many. I don't know if that makes sense, but it's the best I can describe it. (When I asked her about this afterwards, she just said (with typical humility) that she was just listening and responding to what she heard.)

The bad news, unfortunately, is that it is possible that these were the only two gigs that this particular trio will ever see. It was clear from talking to them all afterwards that they all had a blast and would love to do it more often, but given that they all have multiple projects going on it's going to be hard for them to find times when they are all available. The good news, though, is that both shows were recorded, and so at least some of it might be released in the not-too-distant future.

Bottom line: "Wow." Eleven on a scale of 1 to 10.
 
  • Like
Reactions: billgoodwin
#424
#425
So she's an Aggie girl now.
Invalid Link Removed
She used the new Aggie rig at both the recent r_m_s shows and the previous Slick/Machera/Ralph/Motzer shows: i.e., the Tonehammer 500 through a pair of those SL 112s. (You can see it in one of the photos my previous post.) I gotta say, this rig really brings out "her" tone in spades. It's also amazing how lightweight this stuff is. I volunteered to help the band load in at Beardfest and wound up carrying those two cabs, and couldn't believe they actually had speakers in them. When I mentioned that to her, she handed me the Tonehammer head and said "Check out how light this is"; I literally almost threw it up in the air when she dropped it in my hands because I was anticipating something so much heavier. I thought the old GK rig was great, but.... wow. Congrats to both Julie and Aguilar for landing each other!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kitsapbass, GregC and billgoodwin
#426
From Tim Motzer, 2 days ago via Twitter:

We listened!! RMS (Tobias Ralph, Tim Motzer, Julie Slick) Philly show recording mind-blowing! Coming out in 2 limited CD volumes & DL soon!

Two 40 minute editions of RMS, tentatively titled, we fly in jets (vol.1) and we ride the bullet train (vol.2) on 1k. More news soon!
​
Woo-hoo!

(BTW, "1k" is the web site for Tim's own recording label, 1krecordings.com. If you've never visited there you should check it out!)
 
  • Like
Reactions: JimmyM
#427
And now, finally, the release of:

a0520449733_10.jpg

Ordering and other info at Bandamp HERE.

Woo-hoo!
 
  • Like
Reactions: billgoodwin and Whousedtoplay
#428
So I downloaded and listened to Le Fil Rouge yesterday and loved it, start to finish. I've got an hour-long drive to band practice tonight and am eager to listen to it again. Anyone else heard it yet? I'd love to hear others' thoughts about it.
 
#429
Just came across this review of Le Fil Rouge:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

...from the same guy who previously published this review of the r_m_s in Philadelphia, which is also worth reading:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Both reviews capture a lot of my own reactions to each. I've been through Le Fil Rouge three times now: I loved it the first time through, and even more so with each successive listen. Mostly I'm just a sucker for all the sick, hypnotic grooves, each of which evolve slowly over time in interesting ways and which always include a dose of the kind of weirdness (a word I use in the most positive possible way) that I've come to expect from Julie's solo albums. But there are lots of other things to love here, too. For one, there are two songs with vocals (words and everything!), one sung by Marco and one by Julie's Springs bandmate Mike Visser. (The latter is "The Drift," which Julie has been playing as a solo/looping instrumental for awhile; maybe you've seen the video of her doing it as a demo of her Pigtronix effects.) For another, Tobias Ralph is an absolute monster on drums on 7 of the 8 tracks (with Slick sib Eric doing a fine job on "The Drift"). And for another 'nother, Sarah Anderson's violin/viola on each of the last two tracks just slays me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Whousedtoplay
#432
blue4 said:
seems like every time I see a picture or video of her now it's with that Lakeland bass 6. I've always been a big big fan of the bass 6 type instrument. I just wish I could play one decently
Click to expand...
I think that's probably because her primary focus over the last year or so has been her collaboration with Marco Machera (now billed as EchoTest), and she uses the VI exclusively in that context: Marco usually plays a more "traditional" bass role on his 5-string, and she usually plays more of a guitar-like role --e.g. often playing high on the neck, chording, etc. She also uses the VI when performing solo and other similar contexts for which the VI is ideal for enabling her to play both roles. She still favors the 4-string Lakland (Bob Glaub) for the ABPT, Crimson ProjeKCt, and other contexts that call for a more "traditional" bass role. [Apologies for all the quote marks, but I just can't use the word "traditional" without them in reference to either Julie or Marco!]
 
#433
In other news, I just happened across a couple of fun vids of Julie subbing with a (killer!) Talking-Heads tribute band earlier this summer:




I love this for several reasons, not the least of which is that Tina Weymouth has long been one of my (other) favorite bass players, so it's just really fun to see Julie get her Tina on. Moreover, Tina was a pioneer as a female bassist in rock music generally, and Julie has been a modern pioneer as a female bassist in the still-virtually-all-male world of "prog" rock. Despite the fact that they could hardly be more different stylistically, Tina and Julie have a lot in common (including a guy by the name of Adrian Belew).

There's also yet another interesting angle to this. The lead guitarist in these videos, who is listed as Brian Davis, evidently is also not a regular member of this band. I presume that this must be the same Brian Davis with whom Julie recorded an improvisational set (along with Eric Slick on drums) a couple of years ago, and that is available as a download purchase on her website under the title (to live) by "Standard Definition." I have no idea what the actual story is, but I'd guess that whichever one of them was hired for the gig first probably recommended the other. Maybe Julie will drop in and tell us the story....
 
Last edited:
#434
If there is such a thing as having too much fun, I just did.

My friends/bandmates and I all chipped in to bring Julie down from Philadelphia to Richmond to do a solo house concert, in the home where we play every week. In addition to six of us, including our hosts, we had another 10-12 guests, and we did the whole thing as a pot-luck dinner. At our request Julie brought along her dad (Gary, who brought along a guitar). They arrived in the late afternoon, and we got Julie set up in the living room, which our hosts had creatively arranged for concert seating. Everyone ate, partied, and had a great time, and Julie went on as scheduled around 7:30. She did an amazing set -- I'm guessing 75 minutes, though I wasn't keeping track --comprising about a dozen assorted pieces culled from various albums and an ever-growing vault of not-yet-released material. As expected, each was a heavily improvised version of a (fluid) composition that involved many layers of loops and occasional prerecorded bits. Everything was great, but the two highlights for me were a rocking version of "Skypark" (from Terroir) and "1986" (from Fourth Dementia). I laughed out loud when she started "Skypark," as I just couldn't believe that was something that anyone could pull off without a dummer and multiple guitars. I laughed out loud again when she crushed it.

That would've been more than enough fun for any reasonable human being to hope for, but there was more. After a good long break (and a lot more partying), my band played a set in the den (where we usually play, and were already set up). Too bad that we flubbed some things that we usually nail, but no matter: Everyone seemed to be having a great time. Then a couple of us stepped out and invited Julie and her dad to sit in. They jammed out a few classics, including "Roadhouse Blues" and "All Along the Watchtower," and finished with a rousing rendition of the Monkee's "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone" -- with Gary unexpectedly grabbing the mic and singing the lead. The next morning, a few of us survivors enjoyed a bagel brunch with Julie and Gary before sending them on their way.

Here are a couple of shots I took of Julie sitting in with my band -- playing my bass (!). I'm hoping she left some mojo in it.

Julie with NT1.jpg
Julie with NT3.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tbone76, blue4, JimmyM and 1 other person
#436
Lobster11 said:
If there is such a thing as having too much fun, I just did.

My friends/bandmates and I all chipped in to bring Julie down from Philadelphia to Richmond to do a solo house concert, in the home where we play every week. In addition to six of us, including our hosts, we had another 10-12 guests, and we did the whole thing as a pot-luck dinner. At our request Julie brought along her dad (Gary, who brought along a guitar). They arrived in the late afternoon, and we got Julie set up in the living room, which our hosts had creatively arranged for concert seating. Everyone ate, partied, and had a great time, and Julie went on as scheduled around 7:30. She did an amazing set -- I'm guessing 75 minutes, though I wasn't keeping track --comprising about a dozen assorted pieces culled from various albums and an ever-growing vault of not-yet-released material. As expected, each was a heavily improvised version of a (fluid) composition that involved many layers of loops and occasional prerecorded bits. Everything was great, but the two highlights for me were a rocking version of "Skypark" (from Terroir) and "1986" (from Fourth Dementia). I laughed out loud when she started "Skypark," as I just couldn't believe that was something that anyone could pull off without a dummer and multiple guitars. I laughed out loud again when she crushed it.

That would've been more than enough fun for any reasonable human being to hope for, but there was more. After a good long break (and a lot more partying), my band played a set in the den (where we usually play, and were already set up). Too bad that we flubbed some things that we usually nail, but no matter: Everyone seemed to be having a great time. Then a couple of us stepped out and invited Julie and her dad to sit in. They jammed out a few classics, including "Roadhouse Blues" and "All Along the Watchtower," and finished with a rousing rendition of the Monkee's "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone" -- with Gary unexpectedly grabbing the mic and singing the lead. The next morning, a few of us survivors enjoyed a bagel brunch with Julie and Gary before sending them on their way.

Here are a couple of shots I took of Julie sitting in with my band -- playing my bass (!). I'm hoping she left some mojo in it.

View attachment 686602 View attachment 686603
Click to expand...


What a night! She must be pretty down to earth for something like that.
 
#438
blue4 said:
What a night! She must be pretty down to earth for something like that.
Click to expand...
Yes, she certainly is. But she also knows us pretty well -- having been fans and supporters since she first started playing with Belew 8 or 9 years ago -- so when we approached her with our plan we were pretty sure she'd be into it. Several of our guests were also long-time fans and supporters that she already knew as well. And we had met her dad at many previous shows, and we knew he played guitar, which is what led to including him in the plan.
 
  • Like
Reactions: blue4

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back