These awesome & fantastic musicians make up my live band, the Mercy-Mercenaries past and present:
TAMSEN FIELDS
JESSE JAMES LADEROUTE
TILMAN LEWIS
ROSS GILLARD
SIENA DECAMPO
THE RHYTHM ACE
Influences
CLICK ON COVERS TO PURCHASE
CONTEMPT!, FULL LENGTH CD, 2009.
CONTEMPT!, LTD EDITION LP, 2009.
SPIT IT TWIG!, FREE MIXTAPE DOWNLOAD & CD, 2009.
DD/VV COMPILATION, LTD EDITION LP 2008.
VERNACULAR VIOLENCE, EP 2008.
DERELICT DIALECT, EP 2008.
Sounds Like
“Slim Twig exudes the kind of cool we worshipped in Extra Width-era Jon Spencer's rockabilly punk chic and Genesis P. Orridge's extreme mixed-media weirdness, and that's hard to come by. ‘Gate Hearing’ sounds like it was recorded in an oversized oil drum with a mutant horse inside trotting the rhythm, a crew of zombies stumbling with the string section, a radiating synth cluttered with goo keeping it on repeat, and Slim's raging vocal - a howl that marries the uninhibited deliveries of Lux Interior and Ziggy Stardust.” – Cam Lindsay, Exclaim!
“For even more compelling evidence of Slim's progress, look no further than the EP's mesmerizing 10-minute centerpiece, 'Whiite Fantaseee', in which Slim's growing confidence as a performer dovetails with his early interests in exploratory composition, producing a future-shocked junkie-punk epic that plays out like Suicide's "Frankie Teardrop" re-cut with Lou Reed's "Street Hassle" string section... Like all fine actors, Slim Twig's real talent is making his fantaseee feel so real.” – Stuart Berman, Pitchfork Media
“Rising scene star Slim Twig and his Mercy Mercenaries darkly demented synth-rockabilly jams like the knife-slashing Brothl Hunting! and the hearse-driven Tormen have made their new Whiite Fantaseee EP into the grim grabber of the season.” – Tim Perlich, NOW Magazine
"An unhinged rockabilly hound who sounds like a kid brother to Nick Cave, Jon Spencer and Suicide’s Alan Vega, Slim Twig mixes eerie electronics with bare-bones rock ’n’ roll." - Jason Anderson, Toronto Life
"The Slim Twig recipe mixes equal parts rockabilly punks the Cramps, the acoustic blues of Skip James and New York new-wave synthesizer nihilists Suicide, a combination that makes for noir drama and high camp. But what makes this emerging Toronto performer's self-described 'dissonant folk' compelling is his compulsive soliloquist's flair, a direct but static-filled line into a collective cinematic unconscious" - Carl Wilson, Globe & Mail
"Slim Twig’s incendiary, electrified inside-out blues sounds like what might happen if you left a bunch of Elvis Presley LPs on a radiator, smashed them to bits with a hammer and re-assembled them for play on a turntable. In a word, otherworldly." - Sarah Liss, CBC News
"Derelict Dialect is definitely the strangest album I've heard in an extremely long time, it sounds weirder than anything I could possibly describe, it's worth checking out if you want to hear a true original." - iheartmusic.net
"If failure and rejection always led to dark rockabilly meets wheezy keyboards wrapped in tasty lo-fi production, Webster's would change the definition of failure to 'unequivocal success.'" - Andrew Robinson, The Coast
Slim Twig is a friend of abstraction. A performer, songsculpter and concrete-rockabilly rebel based out of Toronto.
Slim is also 50% of the shambling shattering art-punk defunkts Tropics.
He can be seen in Bruce McDonald's Tracey Fragments as Billy Zero, and composed music for the award winning short film Letters From R.
Twig has gigged all around Toronto, and has opened for notable bands like Man Man & Born Ruffians. In 2007 he self-released his acclaimed 'Whiite Fantaseee' EP. In 2008 Paper Bag Records released two EP's. 'Derelict Dialect' & 'Vernacular Violence' have been raved about and puzzled over in equal measure. An LP of new material is due in 2009.
FOR ALL BOOKING INQUIRIES WITHIN CANADA PLEASE CONTACT darakartz @ gmail . com
HOLLER AT ME: SLIMTWIG at GMAIL dot COM////////////////////////////////
"BIRTHING & BIRTHING" - FILM/VIDEO COLLAB W/ DONA ARBABZADEH
The 'Birthing & Birthing' video was directed by Dona Arbabzadeh with assistance from Slim Twig. It was made using the standard experimental technique of abusing 8 & 16 mm film stock, projecting it, filming that and editing the results. 'Birthing & Birthing' can be found on Slim Twig's DERELICT DIALECT EP.
"GATE HEARING!" -
FILM COLLAB W/ EXPLODING MOTORCAR COLLECTIVE
The 'Gate Hearing!' video was created by Jeff, Brett & Winston of the Exploding Motorcar Collective. It was shot in one night at an artists studio on 2 rolls of Super 8. "The idea for the video was to create a clash between confused negative and positive environments." 'Gate Hearing!' can be found on Slim Twig's VERNACULAR VIOLENCE EP. For better resolution please visit: http://vimeo.com/1865037
"STREET PROPOSITION" - VIDEO BY ZONIAL PICTURES
The 'Street Proposition' video was conceived/shot/edited by the Zonial Pictures team (Ross Turnbull & Jennifer Hazel) with a little help from some friends. In keeping with the song's balladeer leaning it is an elegant take on a performance style video. Re-appropriated imagery from the classic 'Nosferatu' keeps the mystery of the song alive as it interacts with a crooning Twig. 'Street Proposition' can be found on Slim Twig's VERNACULAR VIOLENCE EP. For better resolution please visit http://vimeo.com/1493330
city beat from cincinnati says.. "Twig's songs are like the oddly appropriate soundtracks to confounding four dimensional art installations where turning a corner impossibly reveals all sides of an object simultaneously. There are foundational elements of the blues and rockabilly skewed by dissonance and streaked with visceral cinematic devices that are both strangely attractive and disturbingly repellent." nice to read an american writer's take on yr Contempt! album ... an album loaded with artistic ideas achievement and merit. wish I was at the church of S T tonight. xxxxx
Please help spread the word of these geek t-shirts to fund the new series of Mr Vista!
push to pull by TimClague design your own t shirt online at zazzle.co.uk
Mr Vista t-shirts out now - fun for the geek in your life. The sale of these is part funding the new series so I hope you don't mind having this on your profile.
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