Hall and Oates. Hall. And. Oates. Hall... I'm sorry, I can't.
As far as most outside of Philadelphia are concerned, Hall and Oates are Philadelphia's largest contribution to popular music. If you're a little more knowledgable then maybe it's the Sound of Philadelphia (Philly soul, for those not in-the-know). If you're of the kale-eating, fixie-riding variety then it's probably the punk scene. Oddly, the one thing that doesn't get mentioned is the fertile alternative music scene of the 1980s. Surprisingly, we are the city that gave birth to one of the biggest pop hits of the decade, even if the musician who wrote it wasn't ultimately the one who became famous for it.
Outside of that one famous exception, however, Philadelphia has always been a guitar city. Bands that stray from that format have a tough time finding recognition. This was especially true in the 1980s despite the proliferation of synthesizers and keyboards. One such band that found itself at odds with the music of the era was Executive Slacks.
Musically, Executive Slacks could be best described as residing somewhere between between the clangorous drone of a jackhammer left to drill in perpetuity and the shrill piercing of metal being scrapped across concrete. And that's a compliment. The band's brand of industrial noise and electronic agitation wasn't without precedent in the city -- post-punk acts like Head Cheese were popping up in the city as early as 1980 -- but Executive Slacks were something different.
For starters, the band included artist Matt Marello. Marello had moved to the city to study fine art at the Philadelphia College of Arts (later the University of the Arts). While there he met design student John Young. Finding they had similar interests in music, they formed what would eventually become Executive Slacks. The band immediately gained a reputation thanks to a strange live presence. Describing their first show for Post-Punk.com, Marello said, "It took place in the concourse under Broad Street. I have no idea who organized it, but there were paintings and performances and all kinds of crazy stuff, yours truly included. It was just John Young and me with some primitive digital equipment, a guitar and a microphone."
Over time, their notoriety grew, and so too did Marello's as an artist. After a chance encounter with Chris Boas, co-owner of underground nightclub The Love Club, Marello began designing posters for the space. The opportunity was mutually beneficial as the club benefitted from Marello's distinct style and the space acted as inspiration for Marello and other city artists.
"The Love Club turned out to be one of the most thrilling 'incubator' clubs to open in downtown Philadelphia in a generation," writes Marello on his personal website. "Opened by artists (Chris Boas is a photographer, his partner Tom Sokol is a graphic designer) and staffed by musicians, poets, performers and visual artists, the club was a soon hotbed of cross-pollinating underground activity."
That "cross-pollinating underground activity" including designing posters for a diverse cast of characters ranging from like-minded local weirdos Sensory Fix and LA blues-punk pioneers the Gun Club:
Unfortunately, the Love Club wasn't long for the city of Philadelphia, and it closed in 1984. Thankfully, Marello had a backup plan: "After the Love Club closed, Bobby Startup, the booking agent for the East Side Club - a much more "sophisticated" operation in Center City (and one that made significantly more money) - asked me if I would be interested in continuing to make posters for his club. As with the Love Club, Bobby guaranteed me complete freedom to do whatever I pleased and I accepted. For the next several years I produced hundreds of posters for the East Side Club, from Madonna and The Stray Cats to Einsterzende Neubauten and Black Flag."
Ultimately, Marello's career designing show posters would end on South Street as Startup opened a new club called Ripley's. Marello's feelings on the change of scenery were mixed. Of Ripley's, he writes, "The intimacy of the East Side Club was gone (the E.S.C. was literally underground beneath an office building on Chestnut Street), but the continuing flow of international post-punk and independent bands continued to provide inspiration for a vibrant underground. Bobby brought me along for the ride and the poster making continued."
Much as with the various clubs he designed posters for, Marello's band Executive Slacks would not escape the decade that spawned it. Executive Slacks released their second and final album, Fire & Ice, in 1986. Different interests were slowly pulling the band apart, and the increasingly commercial nature of their music wasn't something they were comfortable with. In an interview with Paste Magazine in 2014, Marello attributed a change in attitude to the more increasingly career-driven nature of the band, which in turn led to increased tensions and fighting while on tour. The band decided to call it quits despite being in negotiations with major labels.
And so it was for Matt Marello's short-lived career designing show posters and his band Executive Slacks, or as they might say...
Credit to Matt Marello and James Lewes for all show posters