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WHO IS THE SLOW POISONER?
The Slow Poisoner (alias Andrew Goldfarb) is a one-man-surrealistic-rock-and-roll-band
from San Francisco. He strums a guitar shaped like a dying swan and sings about
swamp women, weeping willows, furtive rituals, cosmic paranoia, creeping fungi, forgotten
diseases and witches in the woods. He keeps time by thumping on a kick drum rigged with
sleigh bells, and while performing displays elaborately painted signs that bear the title of
each song being sung.
Originally he was the leader of a five piece band, but over time the group slowly became thinner
and thinner as the other members drifted off into mystery. Eventually an apparition of an eight-
fisted cephalopod (the Rocktopus) instructed Andrew to go it alone, and since 2005 that is what he
has done, touring the country repeatedly and playing venues that range from libraries to science fiction
conventions, beauty parlors and laundromats.
In keeping with the tradition of the one-man-band as snake oil salesman,
he sells his own patent medicine. Bottles of The Slow Poisoner's Miracle Tonic are brewed with
pure egyptian oil and have proven effective in the treatment of
Consumption, Women's Troubles, Gout, Neuralgia, Wandering Limbs, Stoutness, Onanism,
Disinterested Bladder, Elephantiasis, Cholera, Barnacles and Boils, The Fits, Excessive Abscesses,
Necrosis, Lavender Fever and General Wasting.
Andrew is also the author and illustrator of the long-running underground comic strip
"Ogner Stump's One Thousand Sorrows" and the novels "Ballad of a Slow Poisoner" and "Slub Glub
in the Weird World of the Weeping Willows."
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The Critics Have Spoken!
Americana U.K.
"A perfect antidote to the festive drivel we’re cursed with at the moment."
J.S.
BOG-GOB
"If you live your life off the beaten path then this is the soundtrack."
J.R. Oliver
Dagger
"What you got is the full package: stories that are as good as the best of em', damn fine tunes and some amazing artwork. Now, when you see Andrew live he offers up bottles of his... umm... "potion." Try some punk... I dare ya."
Tim Hinely
Flavorpill
"Looking like a Vincent Price villain from some apocryphal '50s Saturday-morning television show, the Slow Poisoner (the dastardly alias of one Andrew Goldfarb) spins strange tales of voodoo spells gone awry, headless chickens, and the evil that dwells in the hearts of men — all with just the aid of a bass drum and guitar. Somewhere between Stephin Merritt borrowing the Cramps' songbook and a creepy camp counselor, Goldfarb pares down American roots music to the barest of its gleaming, white bones."
Matt Sussman
Huntsville Alabama Times
"It’s not a stretch to compare Goldfarb to a one-man version of the White Stripes."
Matt Wake
L.A. Weekly
"Andrew Goldfarb is a marvelously talented artist with a uniquely loopy style."
Falling James
Le Cri Du Coyote
"Assurément la très bonne surprise du moment."
Christian Labonne
The Mick
"Something unexpected, and entirely delightful, for you to investigate."
Mick Mercer
Missoulian
"Bizarre or brilliant?"
Joe Nickell
Nashville Scene
"Now accompanying himself on tell-tale-heart kick drum and jangly guitar, he plays swampy horror rock (along with
the odd Jimmie Rodgers or Bob Wills cover) haunted by bloody hexes and mystic eye-hands. His DIY psychedelia is more
poppy, artful and spare than, say, the Cramps’ garage-bound grunge - imagine demos for Marshall Crenshaw’s first album
possessed by Roky Erickson - but it gives off the same gleeful EC Comics-meets-Fantagraphics heebie-jeebies of his
comics, especially combined with his snake-oil pitchman persona."
Jim Ridley
OC Weekly
"The word 'maverick' gets tossed around a lot these days, regardless of whether or not the title is truly deserved. As Americans grow increasingly disillusioned with the idea of collective wisdom, many people want to see a person who just says, 'Screw it, I’m handling this myself.' Andrew Goldfarb, aka the Slow Poisoner, is this man."
Tom Child
Pacific Northwest Inlander
"Behind those piercing eyes and disarming grin lies the squirming brain of a demented genius. The one-man music/performance art dervish spins hair-raising musical tales of disease, decay and mayhem."
Mike Corrigan
Phosphorescence Magazine
"Part Rocky Horror Picture Show, part 50's surf rock, part folk, part carnival performance music, and all imagination to the nth degree."
Lily Emeralde and Emma Dyllan
Richmond Virginia Style Weekly
"Like Buddy Holly gone sort of goth."
Brandon Reynolds
Roctober
"I'm not saying SP is not the best One Man Band in the world (OK, I am saying that, but he is excellent, making seriously spooky weirdo music), but I am declaring he is the Handsomest One Man band in the world."
Flamin' Waymon Timbsdayle
San Francisco Bay Guardian
"There's something lovelorn and romantic about the songs, and a quality of pop songwriting, that shows the Poisoner - birth name Andrew Goldfarb - isn't just some kooky-spooky wing nut. He's that too, which for me seals the deal: live, Goldfarb plays guitar, sings, and kicks a bass drum with attached sleigh bells. Fuck, I can't walk and chew gum at the same time."
Duncan Scott Davidson
San Francisco Chronicle
"Andrew Goldfarb's blend of humor, creepiness, traditional sounds and modern rock remains as strong and peculiar as ever."
Unattributed
Splendid
"There's something distinctly theatrical about his work; if you have kids, it might occur to you to hire him as a birthday party entertainer. His absurd, seemingly meaningless lyrics communicate a strange sort of wholesomeness, as does the conviction with which he retreads guitar tropes and simplistic beats that might seem tired and stale in other hands."
Mike Meginnis
SwampLand Zine
"Snake-oil salesman, one-man-band, writer, artist and overall spooky bad-ass."
Norma Jeane Gonzalez
Wire
"Something you, uh, don't hear every day."
Byron Coley