The Philadelphia group Executive Slacks holds a frequently neglected place in the story of industrial music. Keyboardist John Young and vocalist/guitarist Matt Marello launched the project in 1980, initially generating rudimentary experimental pieces shaped by Tuxedomoon and Cabaret Voltaire before shifting to a forceful, propulsive, dance-oriented electronic rock approach that foreshadowed the mainstream breakthroughs later scored by Ministry and Nine Inch Nails. After percussionist Albert Ganss entered the lineup for their earliest concerts, Red Music issued the self-titled debut EP in 1983; although the record made little impression stateside, its wry opening track “The Bus” turned into a club favorite in Belgium. The follow-up EP Our Lady appeared in 1984, co-produced by Killing Joke’s Youth, who also supplied bass for the cut “I’m Coming.” Fundamental later combined both EPs into the album You Can’t Hum When You’re Dead.
Youth returned to helm the 1985 full-length Nausea, on which the band tried a hip-hop direction for a club remix of the single “In & Out.” Following Ganss’s departure, percussionist Bobby Rae came aboard in time for the 1986 album Fire & Ice, the most radio-friendly statement Executive Slacks ever made. The single “Say It Isn’t So” registered as a goth-rock success, their reading of Gary Glitter’s “Rock’n’Roll” drew favorable notice, and one of their songs briefly surfaced in an episode of Miami Vice. A major-label deal seemed imminent until Marello exited, leaving Young as the sole remaining founder. Athan Maroulis, formerly of Fahrenheit 451, stepped in as the new frontman; although the revised lineup continued to perform live, it issued no recordings and dissolved in 1991. Maroulis subsequently led several prominent industrial and gothic outfits, among them Tubalcain, Spahn Ranch, and Black Tape for a Blue Girl, while Marello established himself as a visual artist of note.
Maroulis regularly oversees reissues and compilations and pens liner notes for Cleopatra Records, which brought out the 1994 CD collection Repressed and, in 2015, the double-CD set The Complete Recordings 1982-1986. Dark Entries reissued the debut EP in 2014 and followed it in 2016 with Seams Ruff, an album of previously unheard material from the band’s earliest configuration.
