BIO

What the hell is a Slapbak?!?! Is it violent, like a smack down of retaliation? Is it sexual, like the sting of one good love tap to the ass? Is it musical, like the nostril-flaring splank of bass string to fret board? Or is it rebellious, like a middle finger to The Establishment for trying to dictate that genres and creeds never mix? If you checked E - all of the above - then you just copped an all-access pass to the hickory-smoke hideout of the stank funkiest band in the land... Slapbak!

Slapbak is the brazenly category-defying love child of singer/songwriter Jara Harris, who also happens to play drums, bass, guitar and keyboards extremely well.  He’s a Mission Viejo native who has painstakingly nurtured his rainbow-shaded band through the sunniest of times to the pitch-black bleakest. This racially and sexually mixed sextet of funk-rockin’ show-stoppers has morphed through several permutations of membership to arrive - in 2005 - with both the master plan and the master band. The result is Slapbak's latest album, The Key: 16 tracks of cranium crushing grooves twisted up from the best that soul, metal, hip hop and the elusive "other" have to offer.

Slapbak is lead singer/bassist Jara Harris, rapper/vocalist TJ Quake, co-lead singer Aleida, guitarist Jeff "J-Rok" Harris, drummer M.A.T.T. and turntablist DJ Ruffnek. Jamming in a circle with all members facing each other, they push each other to dizzying heights of intensity. Leader Jara rocks the center, concealed by a cap as he effortlessly sings and serves his bass a serious thumpin’. J-Rok wrings blistering runs and righteous rhythms from his axe. Aleida - eyes squeezed shut – gyrates and croons much `tude over the groove…lost in music. Ruffnek telegraphs beat back-up on a digital pad to his left while scratchin’ up a desert storm with his right. M.A.T.T. straight body slams his kit with a 2-n-4 you can set a Swiss watch to. And “The Quake” - with arm muscles flexing and throat veins bulging – stomps in and out of the circle spittin’ venomous hooks and verses. As an impenetrable cipher, Slapbak hammers out a funk fortified force field that’ll knock the uninitiated to its knees! 

Speaking after hours from Slapbak's 2nd floor recording/rehearsal studio (a non-descript Santa Ana office space by day), Jara explains, "This band is the key to Slapbak eruptin' up from the underground to a whole `nother level. We're a powerful unit able to unlock the essence from several styles at once. That's why we call this CD The Key." But is the world ready? Jara insists it is. "Rawness - especially in hip hop - is what's happening now. And alternative rock has been flexing an extra funky pocket. So the industry is meeting Slapbak half way - and it's about time."

Another key to Slapbak's strength is that it is totally self-contained in all creative endeavors, including videos. "That paint on the wall isn't just an odd choice of decor," Aleida laughs. "It doubles as green screen for our video effects." This is a group used to doing for self and turning lemons into lemonade (spiked, of course). Yet Slapbak has embraced new technology that has, in turn, broadened their sound. "We still record live," Jara assures, "but with better mics, boards and the ability to save mixes, we tweaked thangs a lil' more." Evidence of this natural evolution can be heard in the Middle Eastern touches of the trance-inducing tunes "Too Much," "Down" and the title track "The Key."

Old-school ears will perk up like a pit bull's when they hear The Key’s first single: a funky flip of `70s soul legends WAR's iconic classic "Lowrider." Ironically, Earth Wind & Fire bassist Verdine White - a huge Slapbak fan - was the one who suggested they try it. "I couldn't stop giving him the evil eye at first," Jara admits.  “But one day while I was in my car, I got the idea to slow it down. I cut a quick demo and when Quake heard it, he was with it. Aleida added a ‘Cruisin’ down the streets / Checkin’ out the freaks’ hook and Ruffnek threw some tables on it. When we played it for Verdine and our manager Scott, they were beside themselves!" Slapbak also closes The Key with a cover of Sly & The Family Stone’s “Thank You (Falletinme Be Mice Elf Agin),” a jam that has been in their show set list since day one.

Slapbak has another surprise in store on the rousing and sexy anthem "California Girls (Dipped in Chocolate)," featuring a guest appearance by new friend and brother-in-funk, Shock G of Digital Underground. The band had encountered "Digital" many times on the road, beginning in 1997 at the Belly Up club in San Diego. Seven years later, Shock G e-mailed Jara out of the blue and an alliance was formed. The first recorded documentation of this union is on "California Girls." "Shock recorded his vocal in the bathroom," Quake states, "and his rap was off the chain! Even the people in Shock's crew said they've never heard him flow quite like this." D.U.’s Shock G, Money B and Eli grace another song on The Key, too, titled “We Ain’t Playin’ Wid It.”

Elsewhere, Slapbak drops some libidinous new lingo in your ear on the Lurch-step joint "Trip Dip" (some slang that Quake gave to a dance move they first did back on an older song called "This Car is Fast"). Then there's an electrifying funk rocker featuring special guest Steve Salas on guitar titled "Cold Blooded Filla." The chorus chimes, "I'm a cold-blooded filla / All the guys want my girl but can't get her!" Jara schools, "That song says I'm handlin' my woman's thang so good that I don't have to worry `bout her creepin' on me...I can go to the bathroom at the club and not have to sweat what's happenin' when I get back!" No less than the late, great soul man Wilson Pickett woulda certified this one as 'wicked!’

With all that plus the dance jam "Break it Out" (based on one of J-Rok's patented guitar grooves), the sensual, smooved-out ballad "Make Room For Love," and much more funk on tap throughout The Key, Slapbak is standing on the verge of the hard-earned blow up they've been trip-dippin' towards for over a decade.

And it couldn't be happenin’ to a tighter, set-to-wreck Band of Gypsies.

(Summer 2006)