Issued in memory of and tribute to Raging Slab‘s Elyse Steinman, who passed away in 2017 after a long fight with lung cancer, the new Raging Slab LP, Sisterslab and the Boogie Coalition: Vol. 1, is a collection of covers that appears on Joyful Noise Recordings as part of a vinyl series in this case curated by Dale Crover of the Melvins, whose new solo release is out on the same label and who also drums here. I saw the post about the album in the middle of the night last night and most of the copies have already sold — the ones through Raging Slab‘s own Bandcamp and Dale Crover‘s are gone — but perhaps you can chase one down if you continue to dig. Either way, it’s worth hearing, so I wanted to at least post the stream and info, wrenching as it may be. The digital version is $8, and, frankly, you could do much, much worse for the money.

Here you go:

RAGING SLAB – Sisterslab and the Boogie Coalition: Vol. 1

RIP Elyse Steinman; Jan 9, 1961 – March 30, 2017
Joyful Noise “White Label Series” Dec 2020 Release

It was on an August afternoon when my wife, Elyse Steinman learned she had stage 3B lung cancer. She had been experiencing intense upper back pain for months that couldn’t be explained by any physical stress or activity, and after several months of her doctor treating it as a back/spine issue, it was suggested that she get a CAT scan which revealed a golfball sized tumor in her right lung that was pressing on her aorta and another smaller mass in her left lung, A subsequent biopsy showed the growth as malignant and, with that news, so began a daily series of doctors appointments, scans, scans, scans, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, surgical procedures, lung drainings, (scans, scans, scans) and countless other indignities that could only serve to prolong her life as a “cure” was very very unlikely.

The ?rst thing Elyse said to me after learning her diagnosis was; “No more fucking cooking or cleaning!”

The second thing she said was; “I want to do some recording”

As bucket lists go, this was relatively easy…we had shared housework duties anyhow, (although I think Elyse preferred her cooking to mine so she tended to cook more often) and our band, Raging Slab had maintained a “home studio” since the early 90’s.

And so began our new routine, chemo appointments three days a week and radiation in between, We’d get home, eat and then go in the studio and Elyse would sing until she couldn’t. Elyse was a slide guitarist as well, but because her cancer had spread to her bones, she was unable to play or even hold a guitar without excruciating pain. Singing, however was as she put it; “ The only thing that makes the pain stop.”

So I made sure Elyse sang as much as she wanted to. Because she received radiation in her chest, and because the radiation literally burned her esophagus and vocal chords, her voice would change tone and timbre by the day, and because I didn’t know how long she was going to be with us I tended to roll tape and not erase anything, her chemo made her quite ill sometimes and there are vocal takes of her throwing up mid-song, or having a coughing ?t so bad I can be heard dialing an ambulance, as well as many MANY takes that end in crying and/or screaming…most sessions ended up with 30 or more full or partial vocal takes. Elyse lived for another 3 1/2 years, beating all expectations, and during which time we were able to record 25 songs in total. Having these songs released on vinyl would would have been a dream come true for a record collector like Elyse, my most sincere thanks to Dale Crover and Joyful Noise for making this LP possible.

All the songs are covers, All of them chosen by Elyse. And ALL of the singing made her pain stop for a little while. Please, sing along.

—Gregory Strzempka, Nov 5, 2020

Raging Slab are:
VOCALS — Elyse Steinman
GUITARS, BANJO, SITAR — Gregory Strzempka
BASS — Alec Morton
DRUMS — Dale Crover
Background Vocals — Dale Crover, Toshi Kasai
Slide Guitars — Gregory Strzempka, Michael Barron
Lap Steel — Michael “Sleeves” McMahon

Recorded and Mixed by Gregory Strzempka at Slabbey Road, Indianola WA
Drum Tracks Recorded by Toshi Kasai at Sound of Sirens, Los Angeles, CA
Mastered by Kramer
Cover Painting by Stephan White

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https://ragingslab.bandcamp.com/
http://ragingslab.com/
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https://www.joyfulnoiserecordings.com/

Raging Slab, Sisterslab and the Boogie Coalition Vol. 1 (2020)