Sound it Out # 65: Total Slacker – “Sometimes You Gotta Die” (free MP3)
It’s hard to take Total Slacker seriously. Get past their name and you still have four people in their twenties wearing 90’s “fashion”. We’re talking high-waisted, acid-washed Guess jeans, oversized jackets and bowl cuts. Singer/frontman Tucker Rountree met bassist Emily Oppenheimer at a laundromat and professes an unironic love for The Olive Garden.
But listen to their new record Slip Away (out on February 11) and you’ll realize that there’s something more going on here. The music is raw, unpolished, and passionate.
Total Slacker’s original drummer Terence Connor was killed in a hit-and-run accident in 2012 which propelled them into a grief-induced flurry of songwriting and recording. The most obvious result is “Sometimes You Gotta Die”, a song that I think is about how sometimes the only way to appreciate life is to experience terrible pain. Hear and download below.
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