Scene Stealers: Slum City
Austin punk rockers Slum City are psyched about the release of their maiden CD, Hot Beef Rejection, this weekend, but singer/bassist Candi Licious really wants to move down under. She’s been studying up on the Saints, Radio Birdman, and a whole list of other Aussie groups.
“She’s got these escapist fantasies about moving to Australia,” swears singer/ guitarist Suzy Slum.
“This guy Will said that when he went down there in the Navy, people were trying to pawn their daughters off on him,” chimes in drummer Chuck City. “So yeah, I’ll go.”
“It would be easy for us to move to Australia, because we could just say ‘Slum City from Austin,'” insists Candi. “We’re three-fourths Texan, so we have really stupid accents anyway.”
Candi and Suzy have known each other since taking a shamanism class at UT (“It was about how to spot a shaman,” notes the bassist), but Slum City didn’t come together until late summer 1998, when the pair decided their contributions weren’t appreciated by their then-current bands.
“We were both playing in bands that were all boys except for us,” notes Suzy. “I would offer my songs, and that’s as far as it went.”
The two ladies recruited Chuck, 24, through a mutual friend; guitarist Yancey Pants, 25, who boasts, “I’m the one playing Lil’ Kim in the van,” came aboard about a year later. They’ve hung together through a couple “leaves of absence” and a chronic tardiness problem.
“We were always, always, always, always late,” says Candi of early Slum City shows. “Sometimes the other bands would get really mad.”
Hot Beef Rejection is a brash, no-bullshit 22 minutes of femme fury that balances Suzy’s personal experiences with Candi’s societal observations; “If You Put It in My Face” was inspired by an especially enlightening Jerry Springer episode. Other times, the subject matter is more risqué than even daytime television.
“My parents have been dying to hear the CD, and I’m just like, ‘No,'” Suzy says. “I’m supposed to be a virgin in their eyes, and I think this would probably destroy that.”
Slum City’s CD release is Friday, Jan. 31, at Beerland with Manikin, the Materialistics, and Chop Saki.
This article appears in January 31 • 2003.