Slick Shoes - Whispers

Slick Shoes is an American punk rock band from Antelope Valley, California, United States. Their name comes from the hit 1985 movie, The Goonies, 'slick shoes' being one of the character Data's many gadgets. The band formed in 1994 and made their first release as a self-titled EP in 1997. They released six full-length CDs, four of them on Seattle-based Tooth & Nail Records. They also released an EP, a split with Autopilot Off and a greatest hits CD entitled The Biggest & The Best, featuring three previously unreleased songs.

The band had gone through numerous line-up changes over the years, but singer Ryan Kepke and Joe Nixon (drums) performed on every release, while Jeremiah Brown (bass) played on all except their final album, Far From Nowhere. This was their first release without Tooth and Nail Records. Far From Nowhere was released on SideOneDummy Records in the summer of 2003.

The band was particularly successful in the Christian punk scene in the late 1990s and early 2000s and toured alongside their peers, both secular and Christian (most notably bands such as Face to Face and MxPx, respectively). They also played certain legs of the Vans Warped Tour in 2003.

They have had numerous hiatuses and quiet periods, before reforming properly again in 2015. On October 24, 2019, Slick Shoes announced they were rejoining Tooth and Nail Records with "Broadcasting Live" and a new album, "Rotation & Frequency", released in September 2020.

There couldn’t have been a better single picked to announce their return than in “Whispers.” It comes seventeen years since their last studio album, and reintroduces Slick Shoes back like they never missed a double time beat. The chords are crisp and tight with speeds shifting from a cruising state to accelerated, and Ryan Kepke’s drag-along vocal cadence flows over the top in a true revitalization of their form. Fittingly, “Whispers” is the opening haymaker that catches you off-guard and welcomes you back to the early-2000s with a sucker punch impact on Rotation & Frequency.

In their original run, Slick Shoes lived on the poppier and safer side of the skate-punk fence, always peaking over at the darker edge loaded with metal-inspiration and a swift, technical focus. You never really thought of them as the stop-and-go, thrash-infused type of band in the genre, but now, decades later, they’re packing in power with slick intricacies and heavier riffs. Quick and smooth transitions are common on most of the tracks, but what’s most noticeable is the creativity behind the new intensity in their sound. It is the albums opening track and it is a ripper.