Local rock band Gimlet Slip has a bit of advice for anyone with the temerity to front.
“Don’t do us wrong or you’ll end up in our next song.”
The first-name-only trio—Christina on guitar, Diane on bass and vocals, and Rene on drums and backup vox—formed in Holyoke in 2008. Diane and Rene were jamming with a guitar player who ended up jumping ship before the group’s first show. Christina was looking to join a band, so she stole her boyfriend’s guitar and learned how to play power chords, and Gimlet Slip was born.
The group plays what it calls a “no-frills” brand of hard rock, with influences from all over the musical spectrum. Diane says she has always been drawn to bands with a strong bass sound, citing Dee Dee Ramone and William Mysterious of the Rezillos as major inspirations.
Rene pays homage to Black Sabbath’s Bill Ward and Alex Hernandez of Kyuss. “Any hard-hitting, heavy drummer who sounds like they’re playing with two-by-fours,” she says. “Oh, and I love rap music—Jay Electronica, Talib Kweli, Ghostface Killah.”
Christina prefers guitarists who “get the job done and don’t mess around with 10-minute long solos.”
“I love a filthy guitar sound for myself,” she says. “Lots of distortion to mask the not-so-stellar playing skills. Gritty riffs aside, I’m a huge ABBA fan.”
In terms of songwriting, Diane says that typically she and Christina will show up at practice with a few licks, and then the full trio will figure out what works. She says Rene is adept at working out endings and bridges, and adds her own distinct flare to the proceedings.
Gimlet Slip has a four-song demo it recorded in 2009 with Mikey Flynn, and a second demo recorded a few months ago with Jason Decillis.
Despite the demands of school and jobs, the group is pushing forward with its rock.
“We are always working on new songs,” says Diane. “We would like to expand beyond Western Mass., possibly pick up some shows in Brooklyn, New York, Nashville, the moon.”
So what exactly is a “gimlet slip?”
“The name was the result of some serious rumination,” Diane says. “Everything good was taken, and anything that wasn’t sounded pretentious. We settled on Gimlet Slip because we enjoy gimlets, but couldn’t just call ourselves Gimlet. In its simplest form, a gimlet slip can be a slip of the tongue, an actual slip from drinking too many gimlets, or anything else you want it to be.
“I just made our band name sound way deeper than it actually is.”
For songs and more information, visit www.myspace.com/gimletslip.
