Dr. Slothclaw
Band:
Dr. Slothclaw
Members: Garry Slick, bass; Adam Golihew, guitar, vocals and keyboard; Brett Noel, percussion and vocals; Josh Stoner, drums; Dylan Kreiger, lead guitar
Who we talked to: Golihew, 23
How did you guys meet? We formed in the fall of 2006. Most of us were old friends. We've know each other . . . probably for at least five years. I kind of grew up with (Kreiger). My mom and his mom are good friends. We kind of lived around each other (in Red Lion). We just always kind of jammed together. We just had fun and played music. Our other bands that we had going, you know, started falling apart. We decided to just, kind of, start off on our own.
What did you listen to when you were growing up? Most of us were really into the Grateful Dead and Frank Zappa. We just got into the older style of music and slowly into funk music with George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic and, like, King Crimson and stuff like that.
Describe your sound and style. We just kind of took our influences and just meshed (them) together. It's difficult to explain. It's, like, an experimental . . . kind of jam sound. We incorporate all different kinds of music. We do jazz parts and bluegrass parts and some really rock 'n' roll parts. Most of our shows are probably 40 percent improv. We use a style that's really similar to Frank Zappa. Lyrically, we try to be very humorous and entertaining at the same time while providing great music.
Can you share a funny lyric or song concept? One of our first major songs that we wrote together was . . . called "Biscuits and Gravy." It's just kind of singing about being in love with a girl because of the way that she cooks. It's just . . . word play and innuendoes and stuff like that.
Where do you play in the area? We played at the Chameleon Club. We put on . . . our own shows up above RLH Guitars in the Lost Ballroom. Around here, it's hard for a band like us to get into the bar scene . . . because everybody kind of wants to hear cover songs. We've had to kind of branch out. Lately, we've been playing in Baltimore. We've hooked up with Sunshine Daydream Music Festivals in West Virginia.
Do you ever throw covers into your sets? Every once in a while, we do some cover songs. We do some old Pink Floyd here and there. Usually, if we do it, we just kind of do it for fun or for, like, an encore or something. We're not opposed to playing covers. We just prefer to write our own music.
How does the songwriting process work for your band? We try and include everyone in it. (In) a lot of bands I played with before . . . one person writes, like, the entire part of the song . . . and then, everyone plays along. We try and incorporate everybody's ideas and everybody's thoughts and mix it into almost a mess of material that we form into a song.
Like any other local bands? (Saturday), we're playing with very close friends of ours HogMaw. Our bass player actually plays bass with them as well. We're going to have them come up on stage with us, and we're going to mix some sounds. They played at the York Revolution stadium (for the Battle of the Bands), and we were all out there giving them support. I've known two of them - Colin and Garry - in the band for at least eight or nine years each. We've done a bunch of stuff with Wild Goose Chase. They always play great music, and they're some really cool guys. We've been meeting a lot more bands locally.
What's coming up for you in the future? We actually have a lot coming up, especially with Sunshine Daydream Music Festivals. They have a Halloween Masquerade (Ball) coming up in October that we're booked for and they do the Jerry Garcia Birthday Bash every year. We just played in Baltimore a month ago, and . . . we're booking more down there. We are talking about going into the studio here shortly. We just got a live CD made from our performance in Baltimore that we're trying to release on a small scale.
What's that band's biggest challenge? I think right now the biggest challenge we have is the local scene. It's starting to get better. There (are) a lot of great bands around here that are . . . pushing for (original music). The fans are growing ever more. I think that's the key . . . and hopefully soon the venues around here will understand that.
- ERIN McCRACKEN, FLIPSIDE STAFF
If you go
See Dr. Slothclaw perform at 6 p.m. Saturday at RLH Guitars. 30 Main St. in Red Lion.
Admission is $5. Hogmaw and Mare Sea will also perform.
For details, visit www.myspace.com/drslothclaw. To listen to the interview, visit www.flipsidepa.com.