ortland, Oregon-based Chinatown dance-rock outfit The Slants – Simon Young (bass), Aron (vocals), Tyler Chen (drums), and Jonathan (guitar) – are celebrating the release of their remix album, “Slants! Slants! Revolution,” a dance-dance remix album of tracks from The Slants’ debut, “Slanted Eyes, Slanted Hearts.”
The Slants will also be donating 100% of the profits from “Dance! Dance! Revolution” to cancer prevention research for Asian women.
Remixed by Justin Coope (of Son of Rust) and Michael “Gaijin” Pacheco (formerly of The Slants), The project, initiated by Michael “Gaijin” Pacheco, is Pacheco’s final involvement with the band, prior to parting ways for schooling in Japan.
The track listing is:
1. Kokoro (Son of Rust Heart of Everything Mix) 6:41
2. Vice Versus Virtue (Bad Love Mix) 4:05
3. Love Within My Sins (Dreamland Mix) 5:13
4. Capture Me Burning (Everything Is Falling Apart) 3:17
5. Sakura Sakura (Warehaus Mix) 4:29
6. We Will Never Die (Hong Kong Mix) 4:34
7. Stranglehold (Tokyo Mix) 4:05
8. Welcome To Doomtown (Downtown Mix) 5:33
“They’ve been described as Chinatown dance rock, but the Slants are far from a novelty act,” writes The Stranger, Seattle’s alt-rock weekly magazine. NPR’s All Things Considered states that, “It’s tempting to peg the Slants in some existing Asian genre: Canto-pop, J-Metal, Viet Core… but they’re not quite that simple.”
In 2008, The Slants released their debut, “Slanted Eyes, Slanted Hearts”.
The band began touring relentlessly in support of the album. These cross-country tours included appearances at rock clubs, anime conventions, cultural festivals, and industry gatherings. Headlining almost every stage they appeared on, the band has played wit some of the hottest up and coming bands from Japan such as Ketchup Mania, Candy Spooky Theatre, and Lin Clover.
Delivering shattering hooks and anthemic choruses, powerful guitar, and keyboard lines, with just the right mix of rock with darker, dance themes, all with an Asian twist, The Slants’ debut helped establish them as an electrifying live act and one that you could rock out and dance to.
The self-recorded, self-produced, and self-released record quickly caught media attention, with press from NPR’s All Things Considered, Asian Week (the world’s largest English printed Asian newspaper worldwide), the Asian Reporter, Willamette Week, Shojo Beat, and the weekly and daily papers of almost every city that the band stepped foot in.
The idea for The Slants was conceived in 2005, when bassist/band manager/co-founder Simon Young decided to leave his group, The Stivs, to start a synth-pop outfit. In essence, he wanted to create synthesizer-driven rock ‘n’ roll but with an Asian twist.
Young knew about the potential of the band but wanted to find the right blend of musicians to bring the dream to life. Enter Michael “Gaijin” Pacheco, who answered one of Young’s numerous calls for Asian musicians. Though he wasn’t Asian himself, the two found a common love for The Faint, Depeche Mode, New Order, Joy Division, and of course, sushi. After the addition of a few other key members, The Slants were formed and began playing in mid-2007.
Within months of their first show, The Slants had found themselves with attention from international press. Most were captivated by their energetic live show and their modern twist on a classic sound.
In August 2007, they released a demo version of “Slanted Eyes, Slanted Hearts,” and within six months of the initial pressing, the band sold all 1,000 copies of these demos and began preparing for an official release.
The demo also helped land the band a national distributor in Burnside Distribution.
With this in tow, the band released the national version of “Slanted Eyes, Slanted Hearts,” remastering it and with new artwork.
A year later, the band is now releasing “Slants! Slants! Revolution” to give fans a taste of the songs in a different light – less rock, and all dance. Meanwhile, the band is in the studio writing and recording their next full-length, which will focus more on the rock side of the band, without giving up too much for their dance-ability.