SlapBak to release The Key

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.

Jara Harris - Vocals, Bass, Drums, Guitar and Keys

Mission Viejo-native Jara Harris is the founder, leader and heartbeat of Slapbak. A child prodigy, he started out bashin' drums at the tender age of four in the family's J Harris Band (started by his parents James and Joyce Harris for their children Jeff, James II, Jara, Julie and Janine). From there, young Jara systematically began learning keyboards, guitar and his primary instrument, BASS, inspired by the greats (*Larry Graham, Bootsy Collins and Louis Johnson*). This enabled him to also write and record the plethora of song ideas that filled his head. A fierce rep earned Jara and his big brother Jeff membership into Jackson family member Randy Jackson's short-lived group Randy & The Gypsys in 1989. When that group dissolved, Jara assembled the group Jara Sound in 1990 to perform music he'd recorded solo. This early unit morphed into what became the original Slapbak.

Slapbak's first major break came as a result of playing at Santa Monica's the Music Machine club as the final act of a Black Rock Coalition concert. A&R people from Reprise/Warner snapped them up in 1992 for their debut album, Fast Food Funkateers, which was graced by supportive soul legends George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Fred Wesley and Bride of Funskenstein Dawn Silva. Following the lead-off single "24 Below," the band's breakthrough single/video "True Confessions" was co-produced by Larry Blackmon, leader of the `70s funk band Cameo. Via relentless gigging across the country, Slapbak earned a fierce reputation for take-no-prisoners concert throw downs! For over 15 years and six albums (three unreleased), producer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, singer, bandleader, talent scout and all-around babysitter Jara Harris has kept the torch lit not only for Slapbak...but for the entity of Funk itself. And the muthathumper is just gettin' warmed up!




T.J. Quake - Rap and Vocals

T.J.'s spot in Slapbak is nothing short of unadulterated destiny. From his Uncle Marcus who once said he resang a Slapbak tune (false) to T.J.'s greatest inspiration being Digital Underground (Slapbak soul mates) "for the way they fuse funk and hip hop." T.J. started out rapping in a band called Housequake (named after the Prince party joint). T.J. soon adopted his nickname "The Quake" from that since he was so amp and hyped on stage. A brief flirtation with the rock cover band Go Fish heightened his appreciation for live instrumentation (The Police) and singing. But after peeping Slapbak at The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, he knew where he truly belonged. One day, The Quake was summoned to Slapbak headquarters. He thought he was putting down a rap for one track, "Sway," on the band's If It Ain't Broke Don't Funk Wid It CD, but Jara was officially adding his one-of-a-kind vibe to the band - an aura that lent a rejuvenating energy to both the group and a then-jaded Jara. "I bring the hyper-crazy-raw vibe to the band," The Quake states!

Aleida Rodriguez - Vocals

From agent by day, bartendress by night and a karaoke queen who made the finals in a 98.7 radio contest, Miss Aleida was leading quite the hyphenated existence before that fateful night Slapbak put her under its spell at a bar called The Drink in Lake Forest. After the show, she asked Jara to join her on the dancefloor where she casually sang along to Shaggy's "It Wasn't Me" while they grooved. Jara heard something natural and untapped in her voice. Now HE was the one spellbound. Out of curiosity, he invited her to the studio to sing in front of T.J. and Ruffnek. She became a steady presence hanging out at the spot, first subbing for original member Julie Harris, making her recording debut on the song "Runnin' Thangs" then eventually becoming a band member. Jara spent three fitful years molding her sound. By the Ghetto Funkography CD, Aleida co-wrote four songs, including "So Funky How You Suck My Thumb" and "Pop That Cookie." Now, just being her boldly sensual self, Lady Aleida rocks stage left with Slapbak...casting mystifying spells all her own.

J-Rok (Jeff Harris) - Lead Guitar and Vocals

L.A. native J-Rok was divinely inspired to pick up a guitar after his cousin Ronnie turned him on to the best that ever freaked it, Jimi Hendrix. Though his father tried to force him to start on an acoustic (he refused to play it), at 16, J-Rok picked up a used electric axe, teaching himself to solo by sitting at the organ and using the foot pedals to create keys and progressions over which his fingers would fly up and down the frets for hours on end. Post-"Purple Haze," J-Rok graduated to the soul music of James Brown and Aretha Franklin, later soaking up the blistering rock runs of Eddie Van Halen, Yngwie Malmsteen and George Lynch (of Dokken). J-Rok is a full-service player whose engineering know-how enabled him to invent the AxeTrak, a device which funnels hard-crunchin', Marshall stack-worthy guitar tones direct to studio boards without all the amplitude. Genius!

DJ Ruffnek (Fernando Avalos) - DJ, Percussion and Vocals

Though Ruffnek catches wreck behind the 1s and 2s, fans would flip to learn that his musical beginnings were in the school choir. However, his hippie parents raised him on Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Bob Marley. He discovered Hip Hop in 1984 - initially as a break dancer - quickly shifting his attention to turntables and becoming a DJ. His primary inspirations have been pioneer DJ Jazzy Jeff Townes and internationally acclaimed wonder Q-Bert. Reaching beyond hip hop, Ruffnek tunes his ears to the worlds of techno, metal and reggae dancehall. And because his father was a drummer, Ruffnek inherited a keen rhythmic sense that he flexes as a percussionist as well. "From samples to scratches to beats, I bring dynamics to Slapbak that constantly change things up!"

M.A.T.T. (Matt Ochoa) - Drums

Lockin' down beats in the funkiest band in the land is Slapbak's youngest member, Matt: a Van Nuys native who started out at 10 playing snare drum, concert bass drum and tympani in the concert band of his local arts magnet school. He took up drum set on his own time, initially gravitating to `90s R&B. By high school, he got into marching band where the rudiments took his playing to a whole 'nother level. He put those skillz to punishing use playing in O.C. rock bands. Swiftly losing interest in flaky young rockers, serious minded Matt answered an on-line ad for "a drummer with influences ranging from George Clinton and Dr. Dre to N.E.R.D. and Nine Inch Nails." He came down on the last day of auditions and snatched-up the Slapbak gig. Jara - a slammin' rhythmatist himself - recognized game right away despite dude's Beatles-esque hair-do. "Dat M.A.T.T. is one baaad asssss White Boy!"



"The Key" by Slapbak - release date: 08/23/06..