When Richard Linklater released his breakout movie Slacker over 30 years ago, he seemed equally as surprised by the way the title’s term caught on to describe the movie’s ensemble cast of aimless creatives as he was by the negative connotations it immediately conjured. Where the grunge and (obviously) slacker-rock movements in music found inspiration from the film, wider audiences saw a bunch of burnouts with no future wasting away their lives—a cautionary tale for conservative (and liberal) parents.
Among the scenes keeping Linklater’s original idea intact is that of the West Coast garage rock circles that birthed Thee Oh Sees and Ty Segall—artists who made music for this exact demographic at a clip that was anything but lazy. Among those artists remains Tijuana Panthers, who’ve been going strong for over 10 years as their individual members enter their fifth decade on this planet (or, as their new album puts it, they’re “halfway to eighty”). Their latest single still feels full of the creative youthful abandon they’ve maintained since the late-’00s, with “Slacker” leaning into the influence of their native SoCal’s early punk scene.
As if to demonstrate the appeal of the slacker lifestyle, the single arrives with a black-and-white video that advocates for taking it easy—check it out below, and pre-order Halfway to Eighty here.
