Basing a punk band on an obscure character invented by a Canadian comedy troupe whose criminally underrated half-hour sketch show went off the air in the mid-90s seems like a bit of a stretch, to say the least. But Chicago guitarist Andy Slania went ahead with it anyway.
Today Slania operates Stonewalled Records, which released the Eradicator’s self-titled ten-inch in 2015 (the project’s debut) as well as its self-titled full-length in October. That the lark has lasted two years and two records seems like a marvel, but Slania has made it possible by inventively spinning new story lines from the original sketch’s four minutes of content.The Eradicator by The Eradicator“There was leeway to build out the story,” he says. “I was playing shows with a lot of younger punk bands that were more into drinking and drugs, so I thought, ‘The Eradicator’s drug of choice would be baby aspirin, and his drink would be water.’ Then I wondered, ‘Who would the Eradicator fall in love with?’ His racket. He’d fall in love with his racket. Then, ‘Why is the Eradicator so into squash?’ Because his grandfather invented it. I wrote a song called ‘The Grandfather of Squash.’ I kept playing off that concept.”
“I played at the Fest in Gainesville in October, and there was a guy who showed up in a ski mask,” Slania remembers. “I was contacted by someone from the squash Reddit who wanted to know if I was an actual ‘squash man’ or just a Kids in the Hall fan. Supposedly the producers of SquashTV in Canada were really into my video. The first guy that ever bought an Eradicator record at this fest in Milwaukee came up and asked, ‘Is this like a Kids in the Hall thing?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I wrote five songs about the Eradicator sketch and put it on a ten-inch.’ And he’s like, ‘I will take one of those.’”
