Slick Shoes

All Music Guide:

Orange County, CA-based Christian punk-pop outfit Slick Shoes formed in 1994 from the ashes of the local band Today's Special, reuniting guitarist Jackson Mould with drummer Joe Nixon. Over the next year, the duo worked at writing songs before recruiting bassist Jeremiah Brown; Mould initially assumed vocal duties, but with the addition of then 14-year-old frontman Ryan Kepke, the Slick Shoes lineup was complete, and within two weeks, the band signed to the Tooth & Nail label to issue their self-titled 1997 debut EP. The full-length Rusty followed later that same year, and upon adding second guitarist Dale Yob, the group recorded 1998's Burn Out. Both Mould and Yob soon exited, and with new guitarist Greg Togawa, Slick Shoes returned as a four-piece in mid-2000 with Wake Up Screaming, quickly followed by a split EP with Cooter (the band that would later be renamed Autopilot Off) recorded for the Fueled by Ramen imprint. After a tour with MxPx and additional shows with Tooth & Nail artists Ace Troubleshooter, Calibretto 13, and Rod Laver, Slick Shoes issued their fourth album, a self-titled effort in April 2002. Following the album's recording, several more lineup changes ensued. Brown exited to be replaced by bassist Kevin Clark; both guitarists eventually left as well and Jonah Peterson and David Stoltenberg would ultimately fill those positions. Far from Nowhere appeared the next summer on Side One Dummy, which preceded that fall's The Biggest and Best greatest-hits compilation. Ever unstable, in early 2004, Nixon and Clark got the boot from Slick Shoes.

Wikipedia:

Slick Shoes is a pop punk band with Christian origins from Antelope Valley, California. 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 5 full length CDs, 4 of them on Seattle based Tooth and Nail Records. They also released an EP, a split with Autopilot Off and a greatest hits CD entitled The Biggest & The Best, featuring 3 previously unreleased songs. Slick Shoes' style could be described as fast and melodic, occasionally with a rough-edged hardcore punk/melodic hardcore sound.

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, which they left, not for religious reasons, but merely because their contract had finished and the band felt the need for a change. 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 90s 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.

2004-2008

Since touring in 2003 and early 2004 in support of Far From Nowhere, Slick Shoes was very inactive (even their website was taken down), and on October 7, 2006 the band issued a statement through their MySpace page saying that they had begun a side project called Sigmund, and that Slick Shoes was on an "indefinite hiatus". Then, 15 months later on January 3, 2008, the band announced through MySpace that they had reunited:

"Hey Everyone, Good news. Slick Shoes is back together with original members Ryan Kepke, Jackson Mould, Joe Nixon, and Jeremiah Brown. We also added guitarist Jordan Mould . Although we will not be touring extensively we will be playing shows and hope to record a new record in the near future. Don't forget to tell your friends."

Post-2011

Their first show back together took place at Schooner's in Lancaster, CA in December, 2007, with their last show at the Key Club in Hollywood, CA on April 10, 2008.

The band has been un-active since early 2008, but in October 2011, the band created an 'official facebook page'. On December 11, 2011, the band announced a comeback show on March 17, 2012 at Chain Reaction in Anaheim, California.