Sic and Mad: A Veritible Slackers' Disc of Madness

sicMADIt can be said that at this point in American music a great many discs aren’t able to be pigeonholed into a single genre. So that’s not a unique way by which to frame the new Sic and Mad album Songs for the Revolution. It is, though, as tied to punk as ska and hardcore. But considering that this group is made up of three current members of the Slackers the fact should give some insight. Vic Ruggerio grabs a guitar here, while Ara sticks to the drums and Marcus plows those bass lines into oblivion. Musically, there really isn’t anything remarkable about this disc. And really, if this woulda come out in ’95 or something, it mighta had some chance to get picked up somewhere. At this late date, though, it’s a pretty inconsequential disc. All of these songs were put together in a sense of fun, though. And while Happy, the band’s monotone singer goes into politically minded rants pretty frequently, it’s difficult to perceive all of this without a smirk.

 A random jazz styled track crops up, “Like Boom,” alongside the carnival based examination of drug use on “Some Drink Beer.” But nothing surpasses “Read the Ingredients,” where Happy tells us all to find out what we’re eating. Priceless.

This band, which apparently preceded the Slackers, was put together when Vic and Happy were in high school. Ara and Marcus were eventually pulled in creating some formative, shambolic line up of the Slackers. This isn’t their first disc, but after listening to it, guessing that it was wouldn’t be baseless. All of this, though, makes me think of one specific thing.

Stubborn Records, run by the venerable King Django, saw fit to release this as well as the previously discussed Hub City Stompers disc. And while needing to help out some friends easily trumps a great deal of life’s other responsibilities, running a label is a business. And regardless of how much money went into the production of either of these releases, I’d be shocked if the label recouped its investment. That being said, I’ve never run a label and have no sense of business, so we’ll defer to Django’s better judgment.

The ska related market that once existed, while not gone, has undergone such a tremendous change since ’99, that its fan base really can’t be the same. But do you guys remember Moon Ska Records? Yeah? Well, they went outta business. And an easy way to explain why, apart from the sudden disinterest with the genre, is to figure that Bucket decided to release so much middle of the road tripe that he couldn’t move it to save his business. Granted, Django probably still has a bit of that Rancid nest egg, or has at least been able to parlay that into an even bigger pile, but judging from these last two releases, Stubborn could encounter a problem eventually. I certainly hope not, but there aren’t really too many other ways for this to go.