(updated: 3/14/09)

WXPN: "“These fellas have created a great new sound.”

BERKLEY PLACE: "This could be one of the most impressive debuts I’ve heard this year... Every song is played like a club set closer, and there’s not a bad song on the record."

DAILY VAULT: "[SLIMFIT has] got chops in both rock and roots... [Several tracks] hint that they might give the DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS a run for their money."

MUSICTAP: "With bits of intertwining bluegrass, ballads and some energetic Rock ‘n’ Roll to even out the flow of the album, [SLIMFIT] can electrify the air."

AMBER WAVES OF TWANG: "A great new band."

HICKORY WIND: "A hard rockin' honky-tonkin' debut disc to be proud of!"

ORIGIVATION: "SLIMFIT have cut a rock-solid debut... Make It Worse is a genuine pleasure."

SEX WITH HEADPHONE ON: "[Do you like] Uncle Tupelo and Pabst? Than you'll love this band."

COUNTRY STARTPAGE: "Slimfit will have a major problem [trying] to make their next album better than this one."

MELOPHOBE: "Slimfit unassumingly redeems Amish country from the legacy of Live."

SHINBONE: "Loaded with good-time, whiskey-soaked country, bluegrass and rock... This is quality stuff."

THE SNAPPER: "A mix of country and rock-and-roll that makes for some raucous, good live shows filled with rock- and- roll abandon and down-home, country twang."

MIDWEST RECORD: "Cowpunk was a nice diversion that never really caught fire... but at least it's got some good practitioners working in its favor. Even if they are approaching the sound with a post-modern smirk, [SLIMFIT] intent on delivering a good time along the way."

LANCASTER NEW ERA: "Good, upbeat... Just fun to listen to."

It’s difficult to tell which is SLIMFIT’s greater trick – caring so little, and yet ending up with such airtight, honest, it’s-in-the-blood alt-country songs, or caring so much, and ending up with such an effortless-sounding, whiskey-soaked, can’t-be-forced genuineness.

Ultimately, SLIMFIT sound exactly like what they are: a group of long-time friends with a shared affinity for fringe country, punk rock spirit, piss beer, camping trips and Bell Biv DeVoe T-shirts. But the music is something that extends far beyond what these five Lancaster, PA, boys should ostensibly be capable of. Flannel shirts and short hair be damned – these guys rock the living shit out of each song, whether it’s a sweet, dusty ballad or a scorching barroom stomp. The music is deceptively simple, joyously feral – it’s rock-solid songwriting at its most basic and visceral, exploited in all the right ways with cascading Telecasters and a soldiering rhythm section.

The band’s rollicking collision of meat and potatoes songwriting and punch-drunk delivery has never been more vibrant than on SLIMFIT’s debut full-length, Make it Worse. On it, you can hear UNCLE TUPELO’s fervor, STEVE EARLE’s rasp, TOM PETTY’s jangley pop and, if you put your ear to the ground, whispers of co-songwriters Joey McMonagle and Pat Kirchner’s other influences, including SUPERDRAG and THE DESCENDENTS. “Make it Worse is a complete love record,” says Kirchner, one of the band’s guitarists. While he’s referring to love of the fairer sex in the lyrics, he’s also alluding to the labor of love that these lifelong friends took on while writing and recording Make it Worse. “The way we write songs and the way we interact is a testament to our friendship,” McMonagle adds. “I can’t imagine being in a band where we’re not all best friends.”

In light of the goofy moustaches and embroidered golden retriever baseball caps, it might be difficult to believe that roots rockers SLIMFIT actually take themselves seriously. The band’s live shows ooze with fun and a devil-may-care attitude, climaxing with as many as three consecutive “bull-rushes” – a SLIMFIT specialty, during which Kirchner, guitarist Sam Gorgone, bassist Sean Harmann, or even drummer Tony Kirchner dives between frontman McMonagle’s gangly legs like a greased piglet. It’s all sloppy, drunken fun … riding on the shoulders of meticulous, timeless roots-rock songwriting that hammers home the band’s ultimate dedication to their craft. They bled these songs out, and now they’re gonna dance to them.

SLIMFIT take themselves far less seriously than another band in their situation might. Regardless of – or perhaps because of – the band’s collective attitude, fans of all demographics have been flocking to the band’s raucous shows and shaking their asses on dance floors big and small, from dive bars to packed-out clubs. Even XPN, the nationally recognized leader in Triple-A Radio, has decided to champion the band, giving them regular airplay and naming SLIMFIT an Artist of the Day. And yet, one gets the distinct impression that these guys would just as soon down a case of PBR by a creek and have a rock-throwing contest than put on the airs of a rock star.

In fact, in SLIMFIT’s world, rock-throwing contests are pretty much par for the course. “Killing time before a couple of shows, we had some competitions where each band member had to throw a rock as far as he could across the river with his weak hand,” Kirchner recalls. “These were sort of definitive moments in our band – the sloppy, full-on heart of Slimfit. You’re trying so hard, and laughing because you didn’t quite make the mark – not taking pride in the fact that you’re underachieving, but finding joy in the process of trying in the first place.”

The point is to try hard without actually trying too hard. That’s a feat in and of itself. But SLIMFIT’s greatest trick of all is that they have no trick. This band is simply what happens when five best friends pool their common influences, grease it up with some PBR and make music for the purest reasons of all: It’s fun, and they couldn’t stop if they tried.

Here comes the bull-rush…

 

C2009 Black Lodge Publicity