Slushbox

http://web.mac.com/markewheeler/iWeb/slush/Tix_files/derby%2 0flyer%20scan.png "The intergalactic rock band
that crashed your pool party"
If you ever found yourself singing along with the wacky spirit like the B-52’s mixed with the Ramones, then this may be the next band for you. Hailing out of Long Beach, this beach town upbeat rock band will get you rockin’ and bouncing around on your feet. Their funky green album “Dagga Goo” Features key support from Oingo Boingo’s Mike Bacich. Check out their live show the next time you’re in Southern California or pick up thier album on itunes and CDbaby.com.
-J.K., Express Lane Magazine
Feb. 2008
HERE IT IS! THE OCTOPUS, LIVE, BY SLUSHBOX.
DECEMBER 2007 AT DIPIAZZAS*************** HAPPY SOLSTICE FROM SLUSHBOX!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~AND NOW TO "DRY SPOTS"~~~~
Here is the "Dagga Goo" CD...... it's that GREEN thing:
A super sonic rock band
that races through the galaxy
in a tomato spaceship.
Traveling through time and space,
sometimes traveling next door.
Surviving the journeys
with an ample supply of pomegranates.
Visiting and sharing the stories
of their intergalactic adventures
with grooves and melodies
sure to dispell your inner bitter pills.
When singer Sharon Giarratano and guitarist Mark Wheeler began performing 12 years ago as a punk-folk duo, they co-opted their first initials into the cheeky stage name S&M. Soon, they added a drummer and the trio became known as, well, 3sum. Now the double entendre-loving duo is back as the creative nucleus of an avant-pop outfit called Slushbox (whatever that really means...).
All this innuendo of course begs the question: are these two unassuming Belmont Heights artist-types really this kinky?
“What does it sound like to you?” New Orleans native Giarratano cooed with a verbal wink-wink, nudge-nudge. “All the connotations could fly? or not.”
Giarratano and Wheeler delight in keeping folks guessing with double meanings, from the naughty band names to their own are-they-or-aren’t-they relationship status. (Friends? Lovers? Bondage buddies?).
Now they are toying with duality musically in Slushbox, a seemingly innocent quirky pop trio with some serious messages about environmental deterioration and survival of the species.
“I don’t want every song to be a downer,” Giarratano is quick to add. “A lighter sound and presentation seems to appeal to a lot of people.”
Credit for the band’s Oingo Boingo meets B-52’s bounce goes to Wheeler, a largely self-taught player who coaxes beautifully off-kilter colors from his guitar courtesy of his own super-special alternate tuning that lets him shift seamlessly from rumbling rhythms to singing melodies.
“I dabble in sounds and sound textures,” he said. “I am sort of creating things by ear.”
With drummer Terry Frost nailing things down with a rhythmic pound, Giarratano slides in with a soaring Exene Cervenka minus the pitch problems delivery. A recent graduate of UCLA Ethnomusicology program, she intersperses her socially conscious lyrics with intermittent electronic blips and percussive splashes.
“I am the slushy part of the music — I dabble in a lot,” she explained. “Mark and Terry are the box. It’s hard to put slush in a box without it leaking. But that is what we are trying to do.”
from early days of Slushbox article:
"The Hot And Heavy Songs Of Slushbox"
Author: Steve Irsay
Date: July 18, 2005
Publication: Downtown Gazette, The (Long Beach, CA) =========================================