The Slaps formed in Chicago at DePaul University, and debuted with 2017’s Susan’s Room, a scrappy and surf-y rock project recorded via Garageband at Rand’s parents’ place. Their local profile grew quickly. Subsequent EPs A and B — recorded, for the first time, in proper studios — did well enough to enable them to embark on summer tours of the midwest, striking a hazy and moody middle ground between The Strokes’ tightly wound garage rock and Crumb’s jazzily arranged psychedelia.

The 2020 COVID pandemic re-shuffled the deck, as the band moved to Lexington, KY to keep rent cheap while they toured four months out of the year. They recorded 2022’s Tomato Tree and got ready to hit the road. Hardship followed, including several friends passing away and the cancellation of a major tour.

It was a challenging time, but one that strengthened the band’s artistic resolve. “We had to commit, to each other and to ourselves,” recounts Rand. Their conclusion: “If we’re going to be out here and risk our well-being, we can’t do it for any other reason than for us and our expression.” 

Pulling inspiration from experimental principles espoused by a college class they took called Improv Scratch Orchestra, taught by Jeffrey Kowalkowski (himself a staple of Chicago’s experimental jazz and post-rock scenes), The Slaps followed their muse to odd but rewarding places. In 2023, they recorded and released Pathless, an entirely improvised release recorded at the legendary Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago, a hub of the city’s rich free jazz scene and home of the Sun Ra / El Saturn Collection. Around the same time, they were writing and recording This is My First Day At Drawing, a reflective collection influenced by traditional folk and country songwriting.

From this time came Mudglimmer, a record that finds The Slaps reconfigured and reenergized — finding purpose, not in reaching for a brass ring, but in becoming fully, unashamedly, their own wonderfully confounding thing.