88 -- and counting Rock band made up of Calabasas natives begins to rack up awards and commendations; it plays Santa Barbara Saturday After 10 years, a breakup, a name change and a publicized bout with serious drug problems, Keith Slettedel, singer, guitarist and songwriter for The 88, can enthuse, Were still excited about playing the music. And rightly so. Things are finally picking up for this sharply dressed, Los Angeles-based quintet. The band has taken home numerous awards, including the Best Pop/Rock Award for the 2003 LA Weekly Music Awards and Virgin Records Album of the Week. To top it off, the bands song How Good It Can Be found its way onto Foxs The O.C. and into the ears of the shows 11 million viewers. It also appears on the shows soundtrack CD. Recently home from some shows in Texas, The 88 has been playing around California. Next week, the band will take a trip north to perform two Santa Barbara shows on Tuesday, the first at noon at the University of California at Santa Barbara, then that night at 9, at the Absinthe Bar. The classic-sounding rockers with a thoroughly modern bent draw influences from such time-honored heavyweights as The Kinks, The Beatles and The Band. When compared to singer/songwriters like Ray Davies and Paul McCartney, Slettedel cant help but be modest. Its really flattering, he said during a telephone interview, but at the same time its hard to live up to it. You know youre not that good. Some might beg to differ. Giving ear to the bands latest CD, Kind of Light, a listener might feel transported back to the late 1960s and one cant help but think these Calabasas natives were born in the wrong era. The pounding guitar and drums, mixed with a funky keyboard riff and vast tempo changes in Sunday Morning, and the bluesy piano and breezy, laid-back vocals in Im a Man are just what The 88 is all about. Kind of Light is one of those CDs that makes you want to stay in your car until the song is over. The sudden recognition and attention the CD garnered took Slettedel by surprise. Were really proud of the record, he said. We put a lot of work into it; its really nice to see all that hard work paying off. One of the bands early supporters was Grammy-nominated singer/songrwriter Elliot Smith. The 88 backed Smith on some of his tour dates and, after Smiths suicide earlier this year, they took part in a tribute show in L.A. Even though you knew he had problems, you knew he was depressed, it was still very shocking and really hard knowing what his family is going through and what his close friends are going through, Slettedel said. Given the seemingly innate talent of The 88, one would assume the bandmates had started playing at a young age and, although Slettedel, now 29, was into music for a long time, it wasnt until he was 18 that he actually picked up guitar. He never knew this was how it would end up, he said, confessing, I always had dreams about playing sports, but that was obviously not gonna happen, so I just got very into music. Adam Merrin (producer and keyboards/piano) and Slettedel have been friends since their high school days and formed early version of the band 10 years ago. The current band also includes drummer Mark Vasapolli and bassist Carlos Torres and multi-instrumentalist Brandon Jay.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 11:45:42 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015