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Rock band Slobberbone moves away from country overtones in new album
Local Denton band’s new album, “Slippage” reflects its rock ‘n’ roll core. Slobberbone will continue to perform live, unique performances, however.
By Taylor Gibbons
Skiff Staff

Denton rock quartet Slobberbone has made a name for itself in recent years with a steady regimen of manic touring and solid tunes. In 2000 the group came into its own with the slickly produced “Everything You Thought Was Right Was Wrong Today,” an album that drew critical praise as well as a name drop courtesy of Stephen King.

Slobberbone’s latest album, the aptly titled “Slippage,” marks not only a departure from the studio-centric sound of “Everything You Thought Was Right Was Wrong Today,” but also from the country influence with which the group is so often associated.

The band plays Saturday at Sons of Hermann Hall in Dallas.

Although the band has always rejected the Alt.country label, Slobberbone has never made a stranger of the occasional fiddle or steel guitar. In “Slippage,” however, the group strips its sound down to the essentials, resulting in an album that showcases not a great Alt.country band, but great rock band — period.

“Slippage” sounds like something that could have been recorded in a basement and would sound best in a bar. Lead singer/songwriter Brent Best’s weary growl perfectly complements his lyrics, most of which deal with rejection, resentment and regret. Best is as much a storyteller as he is a songwriter, and on Slippage he takes listeners from the lonely statehouse stairs of “Springfield, Ill.” to the scene of a desperate convenience store robbery in “Find the Out.”

The band never fails to keep up, supplying sold rock ‘n’ roll instrumentals on tracks like “Springfield, Ill.” and “Write Me Off,” then easily downshifting into the electric gospel of “Sister Beams” and the lonely acoustics of “Back.” The album features one or two missteps, but for the most part Slobberbone proves on “Slippage” that even without the southern twang, the band still sounds great.

The groups’ movement from the earlier, country-influenced sound as a natural progression.

“It wasn’t that intentional,” he said. “We’ve always considered ourselves a rock band, but in the past because we would maybe use some different types of instrumentation in our music we’d get put under a certain category”

Best said songwriting is a process, by which he finds the emotions and characters in his songs.“For the most part I’m not real interested in writing about myself,” he said. “I’ll just let whatever I think drives the song be the focal point of the process.”

Best said touring was important for the group to gain live experience and maybe work on a live album.“We started out as a live band, so that’s always been really important to us,” he said. “Some bands try to capture their live sound in the studio, but I think a live show and an album should be different. A lot of the time something unique will happen at a show that you wouldn’t see otherwise, so the live experience is really important.”

Taylor Gibbons