March 12th, 2007
How Many Votolatos are there? Introducing Slender Means.
Last night, I went to go see Drag the River play with Rocky Votolato. Drag will not only be touring with Rocky, but starting next week, Drag will also be performing as Rocky’s backing band. It should be an incredible tour where Drag will be exposed to a lot of new fans. The show was incredible. Both Drag and Rocky performed magical sets and Drag played one of my new favorite songs, “Tobacco Fields”. If you see this tour, yell out this song name and you will be stoked.
Some of you may be aware that Rocky has a brother, Cody Votolato who plays guitar in the Blood Brothers. Both Rocky and Cody were in the band Waxwing before going their respective directions. Did you know that Rocky has another brother, Sonny, who plays guitar and sings in the band Slender Means? I saw them play last night and they were really, really good. They play pretty jangly, poppy indie rock in similar vein to bands like Belle and Sebastian and Voxtrot with maybe a little Smiths thrown in there. There are also a few songs that remind me of Albert Hammond Jr’s solo stuff. Here is an MP3 for “Telepathic Lovesick Heart” from their album, Neon and Ruin. I have been listening to some tunes on their website and on their myspace page and highly recommend that you do, too. The band will be performing a few shows at SXSW so make sure to note their performances.
Slender Means myspace
Slender Means Website (They have a streaming mp3 player on their Merch page that has songs not on their Myspace page)
Written by Virgil Dickerson
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On March 13th, 2007 at 9:56 am
Scott said:
Sonny was also in Waxwing, FYI; as was Rudy Gajadhar, now of Gatsbys American Dream, who is brother to Mark Gajadhar, the drummer of the Blood Brothers. Small world!
On March 13th, 2007 at 10:19 am
Sean-Michael Dore said:
My friend is all about them, I saw Sonny open for my friends band… all I could really say is that the Votolato family is so so talented.
On March 17th, 2007 at 7:42 pm
Will said:
Can we disband every other project and just get Waxwing back together? Please!?
On April 16th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
david e. martin said:
Hey Scott, Rocky was in Waxwing not Sonny. Sooo many Votolatos.
On April 17th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
Sonny Votolato said:
Hello all. Just wanted to let you know Slender Means is putting out an EP this month and we have posted the opening track, ‘Fade Out’ on our myspace.
Oh and so you know, Rocky and Cody were in Waxwing with Rudy Gajadhar. 3 members of Slender Means played with me in a band called Bugs in Amber with Rudy. Back in the day Rocky and I played in a band called Lying on Loot with Rudy. Cody plays with Rudy’s bro Mark in the Blood Bros and I have a solo project called Blue Checkered Record Player. so there you have a ‘brief history’. ha! get it. anyhow, thanks for the blogging and have a great day!!!
Sonny V