We started out as friends years before, but the band was formed 08-04-97 near a small town in Wisconsin. The three of us headed up to a cabin called "The Little Wood Lake Adolescent Correctional Facility". I happened to bring my guitar along. We made up songs during the car ride and, once we arrived at the cabin, continued to do so until the wee hours of the morning.

Some croquet balls and a washboard were found and used as percussion, and a bottle was broken to make a bottleneck slide for the guitar. We had such a great time that night playing, but had absolutely no way to record it (not even an answering machine). I bought a Fostex 4-track the following week and we each bought our own microphones and cables. We played together a couple of months not really knowing what we were doing, and searching out the possibilities for a sound we liked.

On April 29, 1998 we gave away 50 copies of a collection of spoken-word with improvised music called "That's How Sick I Was." It wasn't very good, but we did it anyway. We have a hard time getting the people who heard that tape to listen to any of our actual music because apparently that tape was much to scarring.

Over the few years making music together we have already journeyed to "the bad place" where we were the furthest away from the kind of music we wanted to be creating and have started back on the path forward. We have a good time and sometimes a bad time listening to some of our old 4 track tapes and shivering at what we were doing.

Oh, the stories we could tell and do much to the dismay to our friends, but those new to us can't seem to get enough of the Slipped A Mickey antics. The tale of the week long bender where we only remember eating twice during the week and Al created the breakfast margarita. The night we were playing and Paul ended up underneath of a van covered with hay and slush. The time Chris brought a kitchen sink into the garage, and the many cold winter nights huddled around a kerosene heater. The ever-popular "Jim Gospel Hour". The improvised songs that we never want anyone to hear due to the lyrics that went...way...WAY...to far, even for us to listen to them. It's all in good fun, mostly self amusement and harmless vandalism and drinking... always with the drinking.

We have never had it as a goal to make it into stardom as a band. It wasn't until recently that we decided that we might like to play in front of people, maybe even people we don't know. We do this because it's fun. That is what the point was from the beginning. This web site will essentially chronicle the progress of the band from beginning to who knows when. We are hoping that this web site will generate some feedback, positive or negative. Slipped A Mickey thanks you!

Band Equipment List:

Paul - Norman B20 12 string acoustic guitar with some kind of pickup installed (can't remember). Uses Dean Markley light gauge bronze wound acoustic strings (because all of the others break). A poopie Harmony 5 string banjo with the name repainted as Homey. An old Ukulele maker unknown. Jaw harp bought at Fort Snelling.

Al - Washtub bass made by the band. Hohner Harmonicas. Kazoos made in Taiwan.

Chris - Plays a glass washboard or a tin washboard, and uses thimbles or wooden nickels to play them. Also has cowbells and home made wood blocks. Kazoos made in Taiwan.

Erin - Mandolin

Group instruments - Vibraslap, cabasa, home made guiros, wood blocks and sleigh bells. Various sized jugs.

Recording gear - Tascam 788 with a CD-W/RW burner, Fostex 250 4 track recorder/mixer, Alesis Nanoverb, Alesis Nanocompressor, Samson mixpad 9, vintage ElectroVoice 664 dynamic cardioid microphone, 3 Audio-Technica MB1000L Midnight Blues microphones.