SLAY DEAN
New Album Out Now
2018
The abstract surf-driven opening of Slay Dean's "Alien Mondo" kicks off their Red Tape demo in the best way, mixing Television's Marquee Moon with The Astronauts' Everything is A-Ok record. From there, this killer sprawls into a Jorma-fueled Interpol-tone-refinement seminar with rapid-fire bursts of psychedelic light-show music. Is it good? No. It's brilliant. It's a wandering land mine of fragmented lines, brave warm sun guitar tonality and spectral melodies that will have you wondering "who the hell is this, and where can I get this?" I hope that Slay Dean doesn't plan on wearing out their welcome by getting mainstream radio airplay. What am I even saying—it won't get major radio airplay. It's far too good for that.
-Brian Reilly
San Diego CityBeat
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about
The music world is divided into two groups: People who “like” music and people who love music.The people who “like” music want happy sappy crap that will inoffensively fill their eardrums as they putter through their dull day-to- day existence. Those who love music need it the way a hungry person needs food, a thirsty person needs beer and a horny person needs love -- now! Slay Dean is for the music lovers. Those damn “likers” just won’t get it. They won’t appreciate this blend of Gram Parsons and Motorhead. This uncanny blend of fuzztone Bacharach is over their heads. Save it for your true friends, the ones you share each new sound discovery with.
The ones with the patience to listen to albums the way people used to -- all the way through. The band’s first two recordings, Red Tape and Do Not Resuscitate demonstrate Slay Dean is a mood as well as well as a sound. It’s gritty and greasy -- like a sidewinder crawling through an oil stain on a sandy desert road. Each song pops and buzzes in a low-fi, high feeling way, like you’re off-roading in
a 4-wheel drive with no shocks. Based in southern California, Slay Dean is up-to- the-moment modern while still sounding as if it’s always been around, waiting to be discovered. With two recordings under their belt and a growing reputation as one of the region’s most melodic yet experimental bands, it’s no surprise that when SD Citybeat described the music like this: “Is it good? No. It's brilliant.”
