Slackin’ off with The Slackers

I recently had the opportunity to do a week-long tour with the band JK and the Relays doing the opening sets for ‘The Slackers‘, a ska/reggae band from NYC. I had heard of them before, but after last week I can say I’m definately a fan now. The shows were in Banff, Red Deer, Edmonton and, of course, opening and closing the tour in Calgary. All of the shows were alot of fun – especially The Vat in Red Deer where the Slacker’s sax player Dave Hylliard and I had a spontaneous piano boogaloo jam until they booted us out. I got one of their 7″ singles as a lil’ souveneir of this fun week. It’s a cover version of “New Year’s Day” by U2. I think it works quite well as a reggae song, but then again so does Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” which The Slackers also do a great version of. The B side is a dub version following the fine tradition of Jamaican reggae singles. Check it out!