The Slackers

Kristin Forbes was born to be a musician. A distant relative of the composer Tchaikovsky, she has been playing music since she was three, when she heard a song on the radio, went to the family piano, and figured out how to play it. She started playing guitar in high school and in college, upon playing in her first band, realized that pursuing music was the life she had to live. She recorded and toured as a solo artist for years in Boston before moving to Washington, DC to play keys with The Travis Morrison Hellfighters (frontman of The Dismemberment Plan). It was in DC in 2005 that she met Olivia Mancini and picked up bass to play in her band, Olivia Mancini & The Mates, which she performed in faithfully for 15 years. She also went on to play bass in The Andalusians, who have a 7" on DC's seminal punk label, Dischord Records.

For 33 years, the NYC-based and critically acclaimed Slackers have been touring the worldwith their blend of Ska, Reggae, and Soul. Since 1991, the Slackers have released fifteen albums and countless singles, while their thousands of live performances feed their fans with energetic sets of ecstatic music. The Slackers have been called ʻthe Sound of New Yorkʼ by the New York Times. They were described by Brooklyn Vegan as a “clean mix of Ska, Reggae, and Soul that gets dirtied up by Vic Ruggieroʼs tough New York accent.ʼ In April 2022, The Slackers released a new album, “Dont Let The Sunlight Fool Ya” (Pirates Press) which quickly shot to the top of the US Billboard charts. The first time that a Slackersʼ album has charted! Ironically after 30 years as a band, they qualified as a Billboard ʻnew artist!ʼ The Washington Post noted that the Slackers “remain at the top of their game.” The chart topping sales of “Dont Let The Sunlight Fool Ya”capped a two year comeback of the Slackers. When Covid stopped live shows in 2020, the Slackers pivoted to livestreams and made five full band concerts that were broadcast internationally to an audience of thousands. After the streams, they stayed in the studio and recorded the tunes that became ʻDont Let the Sunlight Fool Ya.ʼ The Slackers capped this comeback with a series of frenetic tours in 2022 and 2023. They played everything from clubs to festivals in the USA, Canada, Europe, and Brazil. They are currently working on a 20th anniversary reissue of their classic album, ʻClose My Eyesʼ.