reviews

SLINK MOSS in the Underground Media
(and Above)

“Slink is probably best known for his comics in Roctober and Zisk, but he’s been putting out really good records for the better part of a decade. I know good songs when I hear them and Slink and company offer a baker’s dozen of them on this disc. What’s odd is that while they stay true to rockabilly throughout the record, their song titles name related genres: ‘Bad Bad Blues,’ ‘Honey Bee Bop,’ ‘Flower Shop Blues Boogie,’ ‘Rocket Rock,’ ‘Wandering Soul.’ Thumbs up!”—Go Metric

“Rockabilly revivalists usually go too far with their music, wardorbe and hairdos so the results are as original as a Civil War reenactment. Remarkedly, that’s not the case with Slink Moss, a veteran of the country punk band The Farmers. As his name suggests, Moss is an enigma, with a persona more in line with voodoo wildman Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and T Rex. This album, his third, is what contemporary Rockabilly should be, unsullied by history and bounding with fresh energy.
Vocally, Moss is Buddy Holly without the hiccups. His songs, bright with slap bass and chugging guitar, are steeped in mystery, longing and, on “Magic of the Stone,” a touch of fright night humor. With a tinge of reverb and arrangements that rely only on the barest essentials, the songs zip in and zip out, each with melodies that last long after.”
—Mark Guarino, Daily Herald

Live at the Hideout Chicago, IL Feb 5th 2005
“SLINK MOSS EXPLOSION has been perfecting its
dark, eerie, spidery take on rockabilly, increasing in
skill and power with each record–this is cow-skull
bolo tie music at its finest. At this gig the band–led by former Chicagoan Slink Moss, also notable for his work in comics and film–will preview material from its upcoming album.”—Monica Kendrick, Chicago Reader

Slink Moss Explosion
“Previously based out of Chicago, Slink Moss’ earlier releases were a kinda Halloween party music. The “Magic of the Stone” is a return to that earlier form. But songs like “Pass It Around”, “Honey Bee Bop”, and “Hall of Fame” feature slap bass and swinging groove with the right sort of guitar sound. “Flower Shop Blues Boogie” has more of an electric jug band feel like the Lovin Spoonful. Slink Moss Explosion presents more variety than most bands that try to recreate the Sun Sound through and through. but it is centered on Rockabilly. Some of the side trips head along the lines of Buddy Holly himself, especially if one had heard Alan Leatherwood’s progreessions of that sort of theme. “Kool Kat” is rockabilly and “Big Wheel” has a more a West Texas sound like Buddy and Bobby Fuller.”
—Marc Bristol (Blue Suede News)

“Rockabilly thats more pop than sleaze….Cool throwback grooves make it definitely worth a listen.”
—Punk Planet

“Slink Moss has an aura. An aura that is difficult to pinpoint but one that carries him though a host of great rockabilly, surf and country tunes. The organ-driven “Phantom Stranger” from Ghost Train is a bona fide classic, bound to no era or genre.”
—Go Metric

Phantom Stranger single
“A smartly played and produced bit of 60 pop with 80’s noir overtone. The tart bass-note guitar riffs and hot breathy organ complement the song’s ethereal lyrics perfectly.”
—Optional Art Newsletter

Roctober zine reviews Slink Moss Explosion:
“Slink has made so many records, some of them downright infectious. But this is by far his most rocking-est record and he has never had as good a chemistry with a band. This is a modern, spare rockabilly record that isn’t afraid to break from tradition and be more 21st century than most pompadour ponies allow themselves to be. Plus they mention bees, kats and ghosts (always genius rockabilly themes!)”
—Flamin’ Waymon

DJ Del of Go Kat Go Radio:
“Speaking of Chicago… we have the mysterious and suprisingly weird rockin’ SLINK MOSS and his combustible “Explosion” album out on Rattlesnake Records. He’s recruited some dandy musicians to help fill out his cool cinematic style of roots rhythm. Definitely worth a spin and many listens…”

BILLY BOP reviews SLINK MOSS EXPLOSION
4 Stars!
“The Slink Moss Explosion, is the band around cartoonist, filmmaker, songwriter Slink Ghost Moss. For his third album he gets some help from Mr Bones & Mr X—whoever that is. But who cares, the fact is that the Slink Moss Explosion makes honest & good Rockabilly songs. It’s good to discover that 50 years after the rockabilly scene started there are still people that keep the original spirit alive. But hey, this is not a dull crooner singing some old classics. No way. Influences are everywhere & this no other for the Slink Moss Explosion. On “Magic of the Stone” we discover a haunting voodoo song that sounds like Jay Hawkins, including yelling and the haunted sounds. While on “Flower Shop Blues Boogie” it’s obvious that T Rex was here to buy some flowers also. In “Lonesome Ghost Town” they sound totally different again. More like a haunted Alt.country song. But “Honey Bee Bop” is a real rockin’ tune in the style of Gene Vincent. Well I guess you have it by now, lots of different moods & sounds on this album but all true to the spirit we all love so much. I’m not sure how to describe their music, so I made up a new genre called “Easybilly”. Don’t expect an album full of rockin’ & stompin’ songs. Don’t expect a cd for your next barndance, but surely find some great tunes on Slink Moss Explosion.”—Mr Blue Boogie

“Filmmaker/cartoonist/singer-songwriter-drummer Slink Moss came home to record his third album, Slink Moss Explosion (Rattlesnake), with Chicago confederates Mr. X and Mr. Bones, and now he’s back for the release show. The Explosion generally stays the rockabilly course, but Moss is a champion dabbler, and the spirits of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Marc Bolan, among many others, pop up along the roadside.”
—Monica Kendrick
Chicago Reader

UnSealed Ezine
Slink Moss with the Flying Aces
Legend (Rattlesnake/Waterdog)
“Although he’s released three albums as founder of the cult band the Farmers and a few solo efforts, Legend is the first disc I’ve heard from Slink Moss. Comprised of outtakes, demos and even a couple of film score pieces, most recorded with The Flying Aces, Legend is an eclectic collection drawing together elements of country, folk and rockabilly to power pop, surf and garage rock, and bits of everything in between. Virtually defying description, Legend is a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of this intriguing artist, that will leave you searching out his other material.”
—Geoff Melton

Illinois Entertainer
“Legend is an ambitious patchwork of fine garage-pop and found sounds. These 16 songs are hummable, interesting, and often artfully lighthearted. You have to love the lilting “Rose,” in which Moss is a “farmer for your love” and the outro muses “I dig you/Hope you dig me too.” The late Jim Ellison cameoed on ‘Faith.’”
—Linda Ray

Review from Splendid zine
www.splendidezine.com
Legend
“Smooth. Goofy. Fuzzy. Mysterious. Groovy. There are so many ways to describe the music of Slink Moss…how’s a star-struck reviewer to pick? I knew that Moss had really snared me when I heard these lines from “Rose”:
We are animals/
I’m a farmer/
All I want to do is get next to you tonight/
Under the morning light ooo, you’re so fine
Don’t you agree? Check out the silly theremin riffs on “People of a Planet Called Earth.” The cowboy goodness that infuses ‘Life Is a Chain.’ The pure harmonica pop of ‘Faith’ and ‘No True Love.’ It’s all good. This is by far the best collection of guitar driven blues-pop-quirk-rock I’ve heard in a long time. Moss writes simple, catchy songs and sings them in a clear, expressive voice backed by spare but rich arrangements. Moss and his band, The Flying Aces, have been playing in Chicago and New York City. Catch them if you can! In the mean time, check out this CD. It’s a lot of fun.”
—Irving Bellemead

Rockabilly, country, garage rock. All genres said to feed the machine that is Slink Moss. With vocals bathed in reverb and bouncy bass lines Slink Moss plays a closer tribute to album contributor Jim Ellison’s Material Issue than the leaders of any of the above mentioned styles. The songs of Legend revolve around jangly guitar chords and wailing harmonicas. I don’t even have to pick up my acoustic to guess that Moss grounds his progressions around the granddaddy of all poppy chords, open G. Moss is in good company here, entire careers have been built on that chord and the premise that nothing is more powerful than a beautifully simple song. The thirteen musicians who play on Legend were gathered from Moss’s own Flying Aces, the Nerves, Material Issue and Negativland. The tracks are compiled from his work with these musicians between 1995 and 1999 and includes new songs, alternate takes of previously released material and rare recordings. “Rose”, the big hit single of Moss’ oeuvre is here as an alternative take. The strings in this song make the entire album. Rich without sounding like the Burt Bacharach orchestra, the Cello and Violin add such an amazingly honest sound to this song I almost forget the rest of the band. Slink resides in New York City now where he continues to perform with his orchestra. A fitting place for a man with one foot in post-rock artistry and the other firmly planted in the very roots of rock and roll.
—Ellen Stenard

REGLAR WIGLAR #14
“What we got here with this CD is some old out-takes of Slink Moss and Company. Slink is a dabbler in all manner of American music from country to pop-rock. The CD was recorded by several different people famous in underground music. Slink also created the spectacular cover art which readers of Rocktober zine are sure to recognize as being from the slow moving comic, ‘The Rocking Ace.’ All in all, quite a catchy lil’ pop record that Slink fans are sure to enjoy heartily.”
—Irresistible Frank

Mike Lidskin
Twirl Radio
“A few months back, you sent me the new Slink Moss CD, “Legend”, so that I could play it on my radio show, Twirl, here in Sacramento. “Legend” is wonderful–I’ve already played several songs from it on Twirl. I love the jangly, rootsy sounds. This fits in quite nicely with my format, which features Americana-type music, English rock eccentrics, and a variety of other sounds.”

Madison Clarion
March 30, 2000 / Volume 30, Issue 13
Legend
“Slink Moss is crying out with experiences from an observant soul. They have clear vocals and subtle medley of instruments, which makes you want to start singing along with the songs. Legend makes for good traveling music. At first all the songs sound similar, but once you listen deeper, you find that each song differs from the last by constructing its own mood and extracting sorrowful feelings and from inside yourself.”

“Urban cowboy Moss broke a handful of hearts when he moved to New York City—though truth be told, the Chicago Americana scene plays it a lot straighter than Moss, whose eerie, organ-fueled surf-country tales sound closer to Wall of Voodoo than Uncle You-Know-Who.”
—Monica Kendrick
Chicago Reader

Illinois Entertainer
Phantom Stranger
“Slink Moss creates an evocative and noirish organ-pumped-up groove on the fine “Phantom Stranger” (Rattlesnake), which will be included on the soon-to be-released Ghost Train ep. This creepy cool single would’ve been perfect for the soundtrack to Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train, and given the classic rock ‘n’ soul used in that film, that is a compliment of the highest order.”

New City
Ghost Train
“More like pre-’69 Who… just as rockin’ as usual.”

“Ghost Train five song EP consists of rock/country with surf overtones. Some of the licks sound like Junior Brown. The vocals have an 80s metal feel and the instuments are clean and precise. This EP has a stuck in the desert type atmosphere that could be described as Willie Nelson meets Bon Jovi—Slink Moss is their spawn.”
—Punk Planet

Chicago Tribune
“The entire Slink Moss experience is oddly fascinating and utterly enjoyable. Frontman Slink has a passel of low-key schtick moves, but his genuine love of entertaining keeps him from turning into a cynical lounge lizard.”
“…Slink has fashioned a sound that he describes as ‘American music with rockabilly energy.’ Slink is surprisingly adept at mixing genuine warmth and realness with an honestly eccentric show biz streak.”

Chcicago Reader
Bones
SLINK MOSS & THE FLYING ACES
“Lanky, idiosyncratic songwriter-guitarist Moss plays the yodelin’ cosmic cowboy on Bones (Rattlesnake), philosophizing over a breezy campfire harmonica on “All Kinds of People,” and covering Hank Williams’ “Ramblin’ Man” to a flying-saucer-sound-effects obbligato. Unafraid of revealing tenderness (on his straightforward lullaby original, “Rockabye Baby”) or vulnerability (on “Where’s My Wife”), he even explores the farthest reaches of his dark side on the Cramps-ish “Suicide Rock (Oh Mama)”-which is all the eerier for having been produced by Jim Ellison.”

Oculus, Hoboken, NJ
“These twelve songs have a refreshing simplicity and admirable eagerness likely to please fans of rural Americana.”
—John Fortunato

Illinois Entertainer
“Country Rock that’s the Real McCoy.”

“Slink Moss manages to take elements of just about everything that’s cool in rock’n’roll (the Velvet Underground, Bubble Gum, early 80s New Wave, the Cramps, Hank Williams) and fuse it into his own brnad of primitive country-garage pop music. Most of these songs are based around acoustic guitar but that doesn’t stop them from rockin’ with the best best of ’em. Two tunes in particular (“Rome” and “Baby Talkin’”) deserve to be in heavy rotation on the radio so thirteen year girls can go ape over Slink and hang his poster on their walls. If anybody wants a lesson on how to craft honest unpretentious pop that sounds just as good the thousandth time as it did the first, they should pick up this CD and study it because it doesn’t get much better than this.”
—Terminal Brain Rot, NC

Blue Suede News
“People interested in 60’s Garage Rock as an ongoing tradition should check this out.”

Tailspins Magazine
“A lot of different sounds coming from these boys.Hmm, what shall we call it? Cowboy spaz ‘billy? Mellow campfire sing along? Whatever the case, each song had me smiling wide. The first song, “Bones,” is a frantic rhythmic intro to the album complete with harmonica. On the calmer happier “Baby Talkin’” I was thinking they had just listened to some early Niel Diamond, started singing and getting out the tambourines, and clapping along. Harmonica, organ, and heavy bass are in “Suicide Rock (Oh Mama)” where Slink sings “…I’m your boy, WHOA Mama, your pride and joy.” Aww sweet! “Ramblin’ Man” by Hank Williams Sr. really makes you want to swagger and saddle up your horse and get outta here. Kind of a weird version with various space sounds mixed throughout. After I was done listening (the first time), I had to turn around and play BONES again.How can you not love a creation like this? Hee Haw.”

Static
“Part Black-clad cool of Johnny Cash, part old-fashioned Rock and Roll of Buddy Holly, and a whole lot of the shameless self promotion of a Las Vegas lounge singer.” “Whether it be a hip cover song or a ten minute jam Slink and the Flying Aces have their bases covered.”

You Could Do Worse
“Slink’s voice is sexy and sincere enough to go over with Triple A fans of the Jayhawks and diehard Flat Duo Jet pompadour rockers alike, plus he covers Hank Sr. in timely fashion.”

New City
“Slink Moss and the Flying Aces – a kind of midway point between the aforementioned power pop, Gene Vincent (they’re coming from a rockabilly angle), the Kentucky Headhunters (but with a pronounced country bent) and ? Mark and the Mysterians (the rockin’ organ sounds of Bill Maryniak, gentlemen!)”
-James Porter

Roctober Comics and Music No. 12
Live at Lounge Ax
“The Aces then played one of their best sets ever, really rock & rollin’ out some great rootsrock classics ad some fine originals. Slink was really on and the organ sounded great and all the Aces were in top flight condition.”