Messages from Slim:

June 2008
MySpace now the main hub of Slim activity

We seem to be spending all our hintraweb time proselytizing on MySpace. So any news and up-to-the-minute info, song samples, new songs, pics, etc., will be found there, not here. HOWEVER, slimvolume.com is still the place to read all the lyrics from the CDs and new songs as they arrive, and any major news will be announced here as well.

I've done a Facebook page, but holy crap, what a counter-intuitive cluster that place is. I can't find jack shit on there when I look for it. I suppose it's incrementally hipper than MySpace but it's a pain in the ass. That said, I shall make myself like it and maintain it.
--slim

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May 2007
Record Fairy Leaves CDs Under Futon

PRODUCER/ENGINEER GREG BELL SAYS:
"We tacitly decided to not put any bad songs on these records, but save them for our next effort where massive marketing and Clearchannel will convince you they're great.

Perhaps Slim and I want you to buy the disks, but that's really too much pressure for us. If you want to fondle the actual CDs, you'll need to buy them at CD Baby. Tracks will be available for individual download if you're short of time or funds or if, like us, you aren't sure out how to put a CD inside your iPod. For downloads see our DigiStation location since we keep all the money from a Digstation download."

SLIM VOLUME SAYS:
"Included on these CDs are 5 "new" songs -- new in that they weren't posted or shared with our friendbase before the CDs came out. But for many of you, all these tunes are new. And they're new to Greg and I, since they've been re-mixed, newly mastered and buffed to a high sheen. Even my lo-fi tracks sound plump.

Greg -- the master guitarist and recordist who makes the entire Slim phenomenon possible -- toiled for months to finesse the fidelity and fatness of the tracks, and he coached my best singing and drumming performances, like, ever. Then he added metric tons of the most magnificent guitar-playing -- it just makes me weep.

There's even a full string arrangement on our new tune "Nothin' Better To Do," a fantastic boon bestowed upon us by our Australian sensei Peter Chambers.

Now Slim go nite-nite town."

November 2005
Pictures Update: Abbey Road 2005

above: Greg in Abbey Road Studio 3, London 2005

If you, like me, spent your adolescent years goofily deifying the Beatles and believing Abbey Road was Mt. Olympus, then I know you've enjoyed the snapshots of buddy Greg's 1972 Abbey Road incursion. Well, he's done it again on a grander scale. Greg and wife Erin made a mad dash thru England and France this October (2005). While in London they got an insider's tour of Abbey Road Studios, something you can't get without the type of invitation secured for Greg by a kind friend. See photos of the tour in the Pictures section, underneath the 1972 photos.

Joining Greg and Erin on their tour was our dear friend Larry, a former Hoosier classmate who has now lived and worked in the UK for many years. Larry was the bassist, bandleader and songwriter in our first group, the teenaged but prodigious Ultimatum. Seeing both Larry and Greg hanging out in Abbey Road makes the whole thing real to Slim, and thrilling as all get out.

Abbey Road Studios, birthplace of Beatles recordings and many others (incl. Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon") remains one of the finest and largest recording facilities on earth, IOW Mt. Olympus.

-- Love, Slim

Q: If you had to categorize your music, could you?
SV: Uhh... "Super-catchy, vocal-heavy songs with great lyrics, all riding atop just about any post-Elvis pop style." The short answer is 'no.' Although it just hit me that we're sort of a poor man's Steely Dan, conceptually, in that we have all this retro-pop and vocal harmony on the top, oddball rock or funk on the bottom, and virtuoso guitar throughout. No actual jazz or "mu" chords, though.

Q: What influences your songwriting?
SV: It seems like I've had three major songwriting heroes in succession: Paul McCartney, then Marshall Crenshaw and now I'm obsessed with Ron Sexsmith. Those three are, to me, the absolute best and most prolific writers of "traditional" pop-rock who are still at it. Very hard stuff to do well.

Q: Tell us about Greg Bell, your long-time musical cohort...
SV: One thing you will find in many Slim Volume recordings is Greg's incredible guitar playing. He pushes me in a classic rock direction, and I pull back towards quirkier pop, and the tension created keeps it interesting. Also, Greg records a majority of my stuff at his own Soundchasm Studio. His ears and work ethic are ridiculous. Greg and I have been playing music together since the 70's. We've been best friends since the 3rd grade, before we picked up instruments. Then we gigged all over the universe for years, together and separately. We have a rich back-story and we mine it for all it's worth.

Q: Your lyrics often mix light and dark subject matter, with an occasional pop-candy type of song as well...
SV: I most often write from a sense of melancholy mixed with hope. I can't seem to go too 'dark' -- all my life I've needed songs to be a reminder of the good in our lives, a hint that there is good all around even when things are at their worst. So I try to write a song that will help other people feel better without being Pollyanna-ish. Although I have written impossibly happy songs with tongue-in-cheek. But I never write 'hey ya'll, just think positive like a happy robot and all your troubles will vaporize.' That doesn't work for most people, obviously, and it hurts more than it helps. If I ever write a song like that, kill me and drive a stake though my head.

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FRIENDS' LINKS:

Soundchasm Studio
Make music with a friend! His name is Greg!

LaRue Designs
Beautifully crafted felted, stitched and beaded art

Larold Rebhun
"L" is for Larold -- and legend! Are you an X-Files fan? A Harry Nilsson fan? Ringo fan? LA studio gossip fan? Top Hollywood audio engineer Larold Rebhun's got some stories for you.

Ron Sexsmith
The best pop songwriter working today. No shit.

Marty Wombacher
NYC author and fellow f-bomb addict. New book coming -- read Marty on MySpace, he's a funny feller. And he wrote the lyrics to "Anyway Girl"!

Tom Sullivan
Indianapolis guitarist and our musical mentor. Greg & me help out on Tom's CD, recorded by Greg at Soundchasm. Great gospel w/ old-time instruments plus a little southern rock to shake it up. Meanwhile, he gigs as a jazz leader!

Lynette K. Waters-Whitesell
If I could make sounds like she uses color...

Vinylhunt.com
Find music on vinyl wherever you are -- very cool!

Girl Howdy!
Boston-area roots n' western band -- real women, real hot, real harmonious, real honk of the tonk.

Minkomatic
Texas songwriting couple who multitask as artists and art teachers!

Steve Pond
UK songwriter/recordist with a very British, very spiffy 80's sound.

Joan Hamilton
Indianapolis singer-songwriter with the loveliest voice around.

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Technical consulting: Nick Mcgrath

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All songs (c) M.K.King 2007

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so many gods, so many creeds
so many paths that wind and wind
when just the art of being kind
is all this sad world needs