Eisenhower
Sometimes a band comes along that you can't help but champion-.  THE SLIP are the real deal.This is indie-rock at it's best.  Their latest  (and greatest) album is called Eisenhower 11 tracks of brilliantly wrought,  well, BIG ROCK. The stuff of heroes...and the heroes in this case are  guitarist/vocalist Brad Barr, his bro and drummer Andrew Barr and bassist  Marc Friedman. It's a lot to put on the shoulders of these 3  Boston-and-Montreal-based lads, but they brought it on themselves, what  with their epic sound and their reaching for more, etc...The band entered Q-Division Studios in Boston with co-producer Matthew  Ellard (Elliot Smith, Billy Bragg & Wilco, Morphine) and later with sound  engineer and co-conspirator Drew Malamud (Stars, Metric, The Dears),  emerging with an album of classic proportions - drawing from roots as  diverse as the Beatles and Led Zep to Built To Spill, Flaming Lips, Wilco,  etc...The first 3 tunes set the tone - from the kick off  "Children of December,"  with its spiraling melody and fast talking delivery, through "Even Rats" -  a super-charged, arena-rock racecar for your impersonal post-apocalypse,  (the track has already been featured in Sony Playstation2's top-selling  "Guitar Hero" video game, earning the band legions of new fans worldwide),  to the languid and beautiful epic "If One Of Us Should Fall," or the  intimate lullabye of "Suffocation Keep."Eisenhower is, dare we say it, a classic - undeniably great and gallant, it  takes our everyday, mundane feelings and elevates them to profundity- in  essence, doing what true poetry does. And, not to mention, just being  amazing rock n' roll. Gordon Matthews