179: RFR CATCH-UP | JEFF SLATE/Singer-Songwriter, Guitarist, Author

Feb 15, 2021

Jeff Slate is an ASCAP award winning singer-songwriter from New York City. He co-founded the 1980’s mod/punk band the Mindless Thinkers, who were mainstays on the Northeast college circuit. In the mid-90’s he released The Townshend Tapes, on which The Who’s Pete Townshend acted as executive producer, and opened for Sheryl Crow on her “Tuesday Night Music Club” tour.

In 1997 he founded the band The Badge, who released three albums and countless singles, EPs and live “bootleg” sets, two “best of” compilations, and went on to become darlings of the UK/European “mod” scene in the 2000’s. In 2010 Slate released the single “Dreamtime,” which featured Earl Slick (Lennon, Bowie) and Carlos Alomar (Bowie, Lennon), as well as other alums of David Bowie’s bands.

Birds of Paradox, his first solo album of original material, was released in 2012. It was followed in November 2013 by Imposters & Attractions, and his contribution to the Pete Quaife Foundation Kinks tribute album Shoulder To Shoulder in 2015. His 2016 album Secret Poetry was another all-star affair, lauded by critics and fans alike. A video of the song “Letter From Paris (Showed Me The Way)” featuring Slate and Slate, and directed by Patrick McGuinn, was streamed over 1,000 times on the day of its release. His music has appeared in advertising and films and on television, including the hit show Gossip Girl.

Slate is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, Esquire, Rolling Stone, and many other media outlets, writing about music and culture, and has appeared on television and radio numerous times, including on former-Sex Pistol Steve Jones’s Los Angeles drive time show Jonesy’s Jukebox, and SiriusXMs Volume, where Slate is also a guest host, as well as the BBC numerous times.

He is the co-author of the 2017 book The Authorized Roy Orbison, written with the legend’s sons, and has written liner notes for albums by Orbison, the Small Faces, Shawn Colvin, for the Stax Records 60th anniversary reissue series and for The Beatles’ 50th anniversary edition of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. In 2018 Slate wrote the 10,000+ word essay included in Bob Dylan’s More Blood, More Tracks, the 14 edition of his long-running Bootleg Series.

In 2019 Slate appeared onstage at the first World Of Bob Dylan conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma, sponsored by the Bob Dylan Center there, where he interviewed The Byrds’ Roger McGuinn and performed with the legend. Slate proudly plays a Martin OM-28E Retro Acoustic Guitar with Martin Strings, as well as Hofner basses and Vox amps. More info at www.jeffslatehq.com.

Today’s episode is sponsored by Lensrentals. Use the code ROADIE15 for a 15% discount when you check out.

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