Slim is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

/rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 band from Oakland

Oakland, California

Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, led by singer/songwriter Michael Baker. The band's music balances lyrical expression with a devotion to the sounds and beats of rock, soul

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

, and hip-hop

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

. Their debut album, Interstate Medicine, was originally released in 2002.

The band's roots lie in the San Francisco Bay Area coffeehouse and open mic circuit, where Baker performed for several years while writing the material that would appear on "Interstate Medicine". In early 2001, former Counting Crows

Counting Crows

Counting Crows is an American rock band originating from Berkeley, California. Formed in 1991, the group gained popularity following the release of its debut album in 1993, August and Everything After, which featured the hit single "Mr. Jones"...

 and 3rd Eye Blind drummer Steve Bowman

Steve Bowman

Steve Bowman is an American rock drummer and songwriter. He was a founding member and drummer for the Counting Crows during the recording and period of time following their debut album, August and Everything After. The band's unexpected success led them to performancess on Late Night with David...

 brought Baker together with producer Jeffrey Wood

Jeffrey Wood

Jeffrey Wood was an independent member of the Wisconsin State Assembly representing the 67th district from 2002 to 2011. He was initially elected as a Republican and later ran as an independent....

 (Fatboy Slim

Fatboy Slim

Norman Quentin Cook better known by his former stage name Fatboy Slim, is a British DJ, electronic dance music musician, and record producer. He is a pioneer of the big beat genre that achieved mainstream popularity in the 1990s...

, Penelope Houston

Penelope Houston

Penelope Houston is an American singer-songwriter best known as the singer for the San Francisco-based punk rock band The Avengers. She was raised in Seattle. In the mid-1970s she attended Fairhaven College in Bellingham, Washington...

), and sessions for the album began at Fantasy Studios

Fantasy Studios

Fantasy Studios is a recording studio in Berkeley, California at the Zaentz Media Center, known for its recording of award-winning albums such as Journey's Escape and Green Day's Dookie. Built as a private recording studio for artists on the Fantasy Records label in 1971, it was opened to the...

 in Berkeley, California.

In addition to Bowman on drums and Paul Olguin (Mazzy Star

Mazzy Star

Mazzy Star is an American alternative rock band formed in Santa Monica, California, in 1989 from the group Opal, a collaboration of guitarist David Roback and bassist Kendra Smith...

, Mary Wells

Mary Wells

Mary Esther Wells was an American singer who helped to define the emerging sound of Motown in the early 1960s...

) on bass, the album features a number of notable local musicians. Chief among these are Jef Labes (Van Morrison

Van Morrison

Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...

, Bonnie Raitt

Bonnie Raitt

Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...

) on keys and Robert Powell

Robert Powell

Robert Powell is an English television and film actor, probably most famous for his title role in Jesus of Nazareth and as the fictional secret agent Richard Hannay...

 (Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel

Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...

, John Lee Hooker

John Lee Hooker

John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark...

, Jackson Browne

Jackson Browne

Jackson Browne is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 17 million albums in the United States alone....

) on pedal steel guitar.

The album's songs address a diverse range of topics, from Spanish conquistadores to double murders, deals with the devil to nights spent in thrall to Mexican witches. Instrumentation is similarly diverse: the opening track, "Cortez & Pizarro", begins with rubato flamenco guitar which transforms abruptly into distorted Les Paul

Les Paul

Lester William Polsfuss —known as Les Paul—was an American jazz and country guitarist, songwriter and inventor. He was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is credited with many recording innovations...

 through a Marshall

Marshall Amplification

Marshall Amplification is a British company, founded by drummer Jim Marshall, that designs and manufactures music amplifiers, brands personal headphones/earphones , and, after acquiring Natal Drums, drums and bongos. Marshall amplifiers, and specifically their guitar amplifiers, are among the most...

 stack. "Starfish/Sunflower" mates sampled jungle snares with pedal steel guitar and three-part vocal harmonies, and "Sister Rosa" combines folk-blues guitar with a gospel choir.

Slim now performs around Northern California, with a lineup consisting of drummer Peter Libby (Primus

Primus (band)

Primus is an American rock band based in San Francisco, California, currently composed of bassist/vocalist Les Claypool, guitarist Larry "Ler" LaLonde and drummer Jay Lane. Primus originally formed in 1984 with Claypool and guitarist Todd Huth, later joined by Lane, though the latter two departed...

, Ramona the Pest

Ramona the Pest

Ramona the Pest is the first of Beverly Cleary's books to focus on Ramona Quimby as the protagonist. This children's book chronicles the adventures of Ramona's first few months at kindergarten...

) bassist Kevin Witte (Surreal Neil, Tom Jonesing) and Tom Hamilton on keys and backing vocals. Hamilton and Baker occasionally perform as an acoustic duo. Baker plays solo shows, and also with his other band, Radio Nowhere.

Discography

• Interstate Medicine (Shortwave Syndicate, 2002)

Track Listing:
1) Cortez & Pizarro
2) Heathrow
3) Slide
4) Beautiful Stranger
5) Curandera
6) Starfish/Sunflower
7) Picture of You
8) Caroline
9) Sister Rosa
10) Alabama
11) Electric
12) Deathwish Debbie
13) Walking Shoes (Hidden Track)
14) Turned on Fashion

Lineup

• Michael Baker - guitar, vocals, songs, production
• Peter Libby - drums
• Kevin Witte - bass
• Tom Hamilton - vocals, keyboards