Interview: Marshall Keith (#2) | The Slickee Boys | Guitarist

I wrote the following interview that was published in Subversive Zine issue #5 (subversivefrederick.com). This was my second interview with Marshall Keith.

WHO ARE YOU AND WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?

Marshall Keith. Moved to Rockville, MD when I was 7 from Louisville, KY. Lived up here ever since.

WHAT SPARKED YOUR INTEREST IN MUSIC?

I was probably interested in it before I was even paying attention. The Twilight Zone was a big influence. My parents liked the “easy listening” genre and Broadway musicals like Carousel and My Fair Lady. I liked that stuff too. I would watch The Wizard of Oz and think “OMG” I WANT TO GO OVER THE RAINBOW WITH YOU, DOROTHY, I KNOW EXACTLY HOW YOU FEEL!!! I would hear big band stuff like Glenn Miller’s “Moonlight Serenade” and “String of Pearls”. I hardly ever heard country music, or blues or anything like that. My siblings would make fun of those kinds of things. But some of the things that would pop up on the radio were irresistible: The song “Charlie Brown”- starts off with these lyrics: “walked in the classroom cool and slow, who calls the English teacher Daddy-o?” We started thinking beatniks were cool; my sister listened to modern jazz. When the Beatles and Bob Dylan came along, we jumped right in with everybody else. I was too young to be “cool.” Just the pesky little brother.

I always liked the outer fringes, but for instance playing clarinet in elementary school was cooler than you might think! Our band teacher wrote a couple of cool things- things that would "tug at your heart strings." When you're involved emotionally, mentally and physically with something, that can be profound.

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST INSTRUMENT AND HOW DID YOU GET IT?

Clarinet – My parents bought it. But bass was my first “real” instrument. I left the clarinet at school and stopped practicing after I got the bass. I remember the band teacher whacking me on the head with his baton. (I probably deserved it).

WHO WERE YOUR FAVORITE ARTISTS GROWING UP?

Besides the British invasion groups, the “jangly” stuff- The Byrds, The Mamas and Papas, more rocking things like “You Really Got Me” (Kinks), Mitch Ryder, Question Mark and the Mysterians, then the psychedelic stuff, Jefferson Airplane, Cream, The Doors, and especially Jimi Hendrix. I loved the years 1966 through 1970. I hated when everything went country and folk-y after that. I was playing a lot by myself in my room by the time I was 14.

DESCRIBE YOUR FIRST EXPERIENCES PLAYING LIVE/FIRST BANDS.

I played bass in a band with a few friends. We played at a party in the 7th grade. A lot of jamming/party situations up until college age. Slickee Boys was the first actual gig.

WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO SWITCH TO GUITAR?

Seeing the Beatles movie A Hard Day’s Night. But music seemed to be everywhere then, with not much else to do but watch black and white TV. Also I was very shy and awkward, so I guess I secretly hoped to meet girls and cool people.

HOW DID THE SLICKEE BOYS FORM AND WHAT WERE YOUR ORIGINAL ASPIRATIONS?

My friend Martin "Kim" Kane was a quirky artist friend of mine who wanted to make a record. He knew how to actually manufacture a record- where to send it to get it pressed, etc. Nobody had that information back then. He wanted to do the artwork himself for the cover and knew Martha Hull who sang in a band called Lone Oak, so he recruited me, her, and her band members. He wanted to make a "punk rock" record, but that was a big stretch for all of us. It was an EP called Hot and Cool.

THE SLICKEE BOYS SOUND IS VERY DISTINCT YET NO ONE GENRE COULD SPECIFICALLY DESCRIBE IT. EXPLAIN THE INFLUENCES/THE PROCESS THE BAND WENT THROUGH TO FIND THE SOUND AND THE SOMEWHAT UNUSUAL LYRICAL CONTENT.

The first song Kim wrote was a bunch of visual type lyrics. Pretty stream of consciousness- "Our star names are heard like blued steel. By pulsing stratos crackling Ruby Starr voices." Martha took his random words and rearranged them into sing-able phrases. The song was called “Manganese Android Puppies”. He just had chords, so I had to write a lead part and we put it together committee-style. Not really very punk aside from rock guitar bar-chords. We added a few punk-ish sounding songs to the EP including "Brand New Cadillac" which The Clash did later on. The most punk sounding was "Psycho Daisies" (a Yardbirds song).

When we decided to become an actual band, we played anything we could think of that WASN'T what was popular in the '70s- all that disco and smooth un-emotional un-creative slimey-ness. Luckily, there were a lot of audience members that thought like us. Surf music was NOT cool in those days, but we loved it so we played it. Rockabilly, goofy 60s songs, etc. We were way too eclectic for our own good, but we had fun. In the 80s when Mark Noone became singer, he had a lot of good songs written, more mainstream, but we all liked them. That sort of became the "center" of our sound. We still wrote quirky things like "The Brain that refused to Die." On my own, I usually wrote un-Slickee stuff. One of the few songs I wrote was"Escalator 66." It was originally a metal parody of "highway to hell" called "escalator to purgatory." But then I wrote an intro inspired by the TV show Route 66, so the working title was Escalator 66 when Mark got it and wrote the vocals.

YOU OPENED FOR SOME LEGENDARY BANDS. WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE SHOW MEMORIES?

In Baltimore at The Marble Bar, this big guy named “Space” got so excited he jumped up on stage and tackled the drum kit. They all fell over like bowling pins. Dan Palenski managed to hold on to the snare drum and kept the backbeat going.

After a gig in Boston, we went to an after hours party at the top of an old abandoned building. We carried all our guitars, amps and drums up about 7 flights of steps. Took us awhile to set up. People were more uninhibited than in a normal venue, so there was some sketchy stuff going on. We started playing, and about 10 seconds into the first song a bunch of cops came running in blowing whistles and yelling at everybody. So we moved ALL THAT EQUIPMENT all the way back down 7 flights of steps. But it was actually pretty fun. We all have good senses of humor.

We toured France, Germany and Switzerland for a month. The audiences were crazy in love with American music, so the whole trip was fantastic. After I got back to the states, I wished I could have stayed over there.

Opening for the Cramps in New York was a great night for us. But New York was never a good town for us before that. NY bands were used to playing at 4am and doing a 20 minute set. By 4am the Slickee Boys had hangovers and were NOT in good shape. Besides DC, Boston and Baltimore were our favorite towns. Here are some acts we opened for back in the 80s The Ramones, The Pretenders, U2, The Kinks, The Replacements. There were a whole lot of punk bands we played with that I can’t remember. Kurt Cobain was in our dressing room once. I remember watching Dave Grohl drum for Scream.

DID YOU EVER CONSIDER AT THE TIME THAT THE D.C PUNK SCENE YOU WERE A PART OF WOULD BECOME LEGENDARY?

No, I had no idea. I assumed after 20 years people would be listening to robot music or something. At that time nobody listened to my parents’ music anymore. I figured that would keep happening. Music changes, and nobody likes the old stuff (or so I thought).

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SLICKEE BOYS SONG?

Probably “Here to Stay.” It had all the elements that the Slickees did best – the chugging guitars, the psychedelic fuzz lead breaks, and I really like the vocal phrasing and lyrics Mark Noone wrote.

THE SLICKEE BOYS FORMED IN 1975 AND LASTED FOR AROUND 16 YEARS TO 1991. WHEN DID THE FIRST SIGNS OF A POSSIBLE BREAKUP OCCUR? WHAT STRUGGLES/PROBLEMS LED TO IT FINALLY HAPPENING?

It was pretty hard getting gigs until punk/New wave got trendy. At our peak, we could pack clubs, but in later years only a few venues were dependable. Even the 9:30 club (probably our most dependable spot) was focusing exclusively on non-local bands. We had a lot of core fans, but outside the urban/suburban areas, nothing happening. Clubs wanted dependability like Blues, Country, Metal etc. We were in our mid thirties, so had to make a hard decision. Personally, I was sick of "starving" and mooching off of people. Our best songs were behind us. Kim Kane was the first to quit. I started training to be a piano tuner.

A SLICKEE BOYS PHOTO MADE A SMALL APPEARANCE ON FOO FIGHTERS’ SONIC HIGHWAYS SERIES ON HBO. HOW DOES IT FEEL TO STILL HAVE PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT THE EFFECT THAT YOUR MUSIC AND OTHER BANDS HAD ON D.C.?

When DC hardcore acts started to get going, that was exciting to see. They started a whole new scene, but we stayed mainly in the old familiar bar scene. It’s very cool to be remembered as a part of that. Mainly, I just like having been a part of something that gave people some happiness, and for being a jumping off point for other bands to do their own thing. When we first started the tiny little scene seemed to be much more diverse. Bands like The Insect Surfers (New wave quirky surf band), The Urban Verbs (synth pop angst band), Overkill (prep school outcasts telling long-haired people to “get a haircut”), Razz (the greatest most underrated live rock band I ever saw). Razz helped break us into the club scene. All of us were having a hard time getting gigs. The DC area was a very Country, Blues type of place (I knew next to nothing about what was going on in the go-go scene). But once we were in the clubs, we had steady gigs for around 8 years. We did reunion shows once a year after we broke up (1991-2011). Those were always great – hanging out with all the scenesters from a long time ago.

YOU HAVE RELEASED SOLO MUSIC AND CONTINUED TO PLAY GIGS. WHAT KEEPS YOUR MUSICAL DRIVE GOING?

I'm mainly motivated to write and record. It seems like a basic need. I always want to come up with new things. Sometimes conventional musical structures weigh me down. It's like I'm fighting against them, but at the same time, within those structures, there's so much cool stuff that can be done. I'll write stuff and think "Okay, this is pretty cool, but WHAT IS IT? Could be a movie sound track. Could be a commercial jingle. Should this have vocals? Should I be spending my time doing this?" Sometimes it's better not to think, and just do it because it feels good.

SOLO MUSIC CAN BE A CHANCE TO STEP AWAY FROM WHAT AN ARTIST IS TYPICALLY KNOWN FOR. DO YOU THINK YOU GO FOR A CERTAIN SOUND SOLO AND IF SO HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE IT?

The stuff I most easily write is depressing ballady stuff. That's why I didn't write many Slickee songs. I like a mysterious atmosphere. Maybe I'm writing in a therapeutic way. Although sometimes it feels more like wallowing. It's fun to rock. I'd like to be more "uplifting" (not sure if that's the right word). But lately I find myself concentrating on livelier material.

ANY NEWS OR MUSICAL UPDATES YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE?/WHERE CAN PEOPLE FIND YOUR MUSIC?

Right now I'm just exploring. I never like to repeat myself and do anything too similar to what I've already done.

(The "Roadside Shrine" and "ON" CDs are generally available on most places like ITunes)

https://marshallkeith.bandcamp.com/
https://store.cdbaby.com/m/Artist/MarshallKeith

WHAT ARE 5 RECORDS YOU RECOMMEND THAT EVERYONE SHOULD LISTEN TO?

I don't expect a lot of people to necessarily LIKE these albums, but here are 5 I grew up with:

Ogdens Nutgone Flake by the Small Faces (pre- Rod Stewart)
Kiln House by Fleetwood Mac (pre- Stevie Nicks)
Foxtrot by Genesis (pre- Phil Collins as vocalist -BUT- he kicks ass on drums)
Love it to Death by Alice Cooper (pre-Alice Cooper solo)
The Doors - The Doors

ANY LIFE ADVICE OR FINAL THOUGHTS?

Life is hard sometimes. We all interpret things differently. We all have biases and blind spots. Music can help us rise above bitterness. It takes time to become a musician, but music makes life more enjoyable, so spread music around if you can.

Why I Got Rid of My Stuff and Became a Minimalist

I’ve always been a music addict. I started playing drums around sixth grade. I always wanted to play them before that and when I finally got a drum set it became all I ever did. At around thirteen I began to buy records, which was a really fun and awesome process. To get to look at the artwork, read the liner notes, the smell… To top it off, the sound is like nothing else.

Buying records was a passion and a hobby for the first two years I did it. After that, it spiraled into something completely different. After one of my bands ended, it really took a toll on me and I entered a depressive state. The only thing I found comfort or joy in at that point was through buying things. Constantly searching for my next “high”.

Yard sales, thrift stores and the local record stores became homes to me. Every cent I had to my name was being thrown into these businesses.

Eventually, buying records was no longer about the music, but all about the hunt and buying more. Music itself lost a lot of meaning to me because of it. I had stopped playing drums for an extensively long period. The biggest factor keeping me away from drumming was the sheer amount of space in my room I had let records dominate.

I fell into a consumerism hole and only worsened my addictions. It’s a hard place to get out of, especially when you are encouraged to buy stuff by advertisements and so many other things that go on in your daily life.

Towards the end of my junior year of high school and my entire senior year of high school was my worse period yet. Ebay became my best friend. That false sense of happiness I would get when clicking that “Buy Now” button..

Disappointment came to me as a musician. Nowhere near enough of my time was devoted to writing music, playing drums, learning other instruments and bettering myself. I lost my passion and energy. Drums were one of the things that made me so happy when I played them every day. I looked forward to coming home and playing away after a long day of school.

After I graduated high school I took some time to record a solo album. My initial thought was that it turned out well but then I realized all the things that could be better when my perfectionist mindset kicked in. After removing it from the internet, I made some slight changes and put it back up. It still was not my best. The whole process of recording and mixing music was something I hadn’t focused on as I spent so much time buying. I have finally made the best version of the album as possible. You can download it free on soundcloud.com/declanpoehler or declanpoehler.bandcamp.com and it is available on YouTube, Spotify, iTunes + more.

I told myself and I was told by others that music purchasing was a healthy addiction. It’s not as bad as drugs or alcohol, so it’s good for you, right?

Throughout all my spending in high school and up till now, my excessive purchasing has prevented me from getting a car. This has always been something I have been depressed about. I feel entirely way too far behind my peers. Not being able to go to certain events, not having that young sense of freedom. Getting a car was in my ability, but instead I prioritized a collection/hoard of physical items as opposed to one singular item that would give me incredible experiences. Getting rid of all these things would free up space, time and money that would help me towards my goal of getting a car.

A few times over the past year and a half I had heard about the idea of minimalism. I really took to it but I never got fully invested. Stumbling upon The Minimalists’ Ted Talks, a new prospective entered my head. Heading to ebay, I listed some CDs, but after selling them I ended up just buying again. The whole process of purchasing music had become a destructive habit to me.

Last week, I watched The Minimalists’ documentary with Joshua Fields Milburn and Ryan Nicodemus. It made me decide to completely dive into a journey in minimalism.

Up to this point, my room was nearly not walk-able. Calling myself an organized collector was my way of hiding from the fact I had been hoarding. To listen to every one of the albums I owned, I would have to listen to at least around three a day.

One of the worst things that my collecting brought on was the ruining of certain friendships and relationships. Of course, my collecting was the only problem but it was the cause of me not spending enough time focusing on issues and making sure I was giving as much as I was taking from people. I was ignoring the closest people around me. The people made me truly happy with the experiences they brought me, not the physical items.

I started listening to The Minimalists’ podcast. It became my new addiction. The episode on relationships hit home for me.

By letting go of things, I would have more time, space and money to do what I wanted.

I messaged my friend Tyler. We had been best friends through middle school but then lost touch in high school until we reconnected after a theater production. My mind remembered how great those middle school days were. Almost every day I came home from school on the bus, got off and went to Tyler’s house. He is a guitarist and we would practice, jam and talk music constantly. I spent many days and nights obsessing over music there. I let Tyler know about my intentions of becoming a minimalist. I asked for his help in taking all the records and such to the record store as I did not have transportation. Discussing with him how collecting had taken over and ruined my life in a way, he was eager to help out. Filling up the car to the brim, including cramping myself into the passenger seat with hundreds of items around me, we headed out. Tyler asked how I managed to acquire this amount of stuff. I just shook my head in disbelief.

After many trips from the car to the record store, piles and piles were all laid out in front of the store counter. These items had been taking up space in my life that they didn’t deserve. It was time to starting living for myself and not my possessions. I wasn’t giving these things attention when someone else could find great joy in them.

A few hours later, the record store called back. They made an offer and I accepted. The cash was just an added bonus for freeing up my future.

The next day, I did something I had always wanted to do: take the bus. I know you’re thinking, “Why on earth is that something that you always wanted to do?” Well the answer to that would be the experience, the freedom and being out on my own. These are things you don’t get much of without a car and especially in a small town of 6,044 people. The ride was liberating and I could feel my mind becoming less cluttered as I was able to sleep a full night for the first time in a long time after seeing my room wasn’t an absolute mess. During the ride, there was an old lady and a middle aged man just talking. No phones, no distractions, just having a conversation about the community. This was so refreshing and made me realize that minimizing my possessions wasn’t the only part of minimalism. My phone and endlessly scrolling has taken up days of my life and prevented me from being me more productive. I set out to use my phone less.

Minimalism makes you simplify ALL areas of your life.

When I got home from the record store, I still felt swamped. I had an Ikea Kallax unit still filled with records. Some were my dad’s which I returned upstairs as I had been selfishly hogging them so he couldn’t get enjoyment from them. This was a terrible thing I had done that I didn’t even question since I wasn’t thinking enough about others. Going through more of the records I realized that most had no value at all to my life anymore. I set up an appointment with another record store owner to pick up these records and make me an offer. Now, I have more money than I have in a long time. That feeling is much greater than any I have gotten from purchasing.

During my collecting, I always complained. I complained about money, time, energy and health. That is purely because I didn’t focus on what my priorities were.

After I got rid of more records, I dismantled the Ikea unit and once it was out I couldn’t believe how big my room was. I had made the purchase of the shelving unit over the summer and it only made me think buying more was ok as I needed to fill every inch of the space.

I was using buying as a coping method for how my life had turned out instead of taking action.

Buying had become my escape, where as before it was more productive and fulfilling things like playing drums. Playing drums develops me more as my own person and helps me reach for my dreams, while buying has no benefits, just temporary relief.

When I demolished everything that was important to me, I knew it was time to end the buying.

As of now, I am in a much better place. The future's looking brighter every day. I am focusing on my priorities and ways to better myself mentally, physically, musically and more.

So much stress in a household is caused by physical items. My family has a room we throw our unwanted stuff. It creates tension and arguments.

Once you let go, you will feel a lot better knowing things are being appreciated.

I felt greedy. There are so many people out there in need who will appreciate the things you donate. Drop off a bag when you can and feel the tinge of happiness it brings you each time.

I am finally on my way to happiness. I can say I would’ve never learned all this so early in my life without becoming a minimalist.

Thanks for reading. Until next time, push away things you think make you happy for things that actually bring you happiness.

Watch the full video version of this post with extra content at youtube.com/declanpoehler