What do you get when you combine two Canadian music legends into one guitar-heavy, power-pop unit that strives to sound like Minneapolis in the 90’s?

You get SLIP~ons! They come by their brand of rock honestly, with Brock Pytel of The Doughboys on guitar and Brian Minato of Sarah McLachlan on bass. Add to the mix Rob “Shockk” Matharu of The Spitfires on guitar, and Shane Wilson on drums and you’ve got a rock‘n’roll quartet with a vibe not unlike The Lemonheads, Hüsker Dü, Ash, The Replacements or Dinosaur Jr. After a long run of obstacles, SLIP~ons have finally been able to announce their debut EP ‘Heavy Machinery’ (mixed by Dave Ogilvie of Skinny Puppy fame). It took some effort for the band to get there with serious health concerns, the global pandemic and demos which just weren’t finding the band’s live vibe. Reflecting on the process bassist Minato said, “I think the songs on this EP are sonically and musically the closest we’ve come so far to representing who and what we are as a band. The songwriting, singing and playing and the arrangements have definitely pushed us forward as a group in a really awesome way. I’m very happy with the way the record has turned out. The artwork for the EP is also totally fantastic and I recommend picking up a copy on vinyl.” The album was masterfully recorded at both Monarch and Vertical Studios in Vancouver by Olivia Quan (RIP). Unfortunately, part of the process was marked by tragedy. Pytel recalls, “Olivia passed away maybe a week or ten days after our last overdub session. I think I learned about it via an Instagram post from Monarch/Tom Dobrzanski, and obviously it was a shock. I mean, she was only 25 and the picture of vibrant creative health. We all feel like this recording is the first to really accurately sound like us, and Olivia was a big part of making that happen. Her technical skills were flawless and effortless, and she was always calm and positive.” In an unrelated twist of bad luck, Pytel explains, “a week or two after Ronan Chris Murphy finished our masters, a huge tree fell on his house and destroyed his studio.” ‘Heavy Machinery’ is marked by Pytel’s signature gravelly vocals and tongue-in-cheek lyrics paired with slamming backbeats, punchy guitars and rolling bass lines that drive the melodies. Sparse but poignant gang vocals round out the sound and add an interesting depth to the songs. Looking at the EP as a whole, Pytel shares “Lyrically, some of the songs were about working through loss. ‘Soldier’, ‘Don’t Say Goodbye’, ‘Heavy Machinery’ and ‘Mosquito’ came together a short while after Ken Chinn (a.k.a. Mr. Chi Pig) died, and I, personally, was going through a rough breakup and feeling super vulnerable. ‘Soldier’ is maybe the angry approach, while the title track is maybe a bit more nostalgic. I kinda think of it as a love song, since it’s probably the closest I’ve ever come to that. The mosquito thing was a metaphor for problems that just keep on you, no matter what you do.”

RIYL: Husker Du, The Posies, Soul Asylum, The Nils