Review: Golden Smog - 6/9/07 - "Kruger Aid" Festival - Waseca, MN

"How can people be so heartless? How can people be so cruel?"

Golden Smog
June 9, 2007
"Kruger Aid" Festival - Waseca County Fairgrounds
Waseca, MN

Gary Louris - gtrs, keyboards, omnichord, vox
Kraig Johnson - gtrs, bass, harmonica, keyboards, vox
Dan Murphy - gtrs, vox, percussion
Marc Perlman - bass, gtrs, vox

with special guests:

G Wiz - drums, percussion, vox
Janey Winterbauer - vox
Fil Krohnengold - keyboards, gtrs, vox
Jim Boquist - gtrs, bass, vox

1. Looking Forward to Seeing You (w/JW)
2. Ill-Fated
3. Beautiful Mind
4. Won't Be Coming Home
5. Corvette
6. Frying Pan Eyes
7. Easy to be Hard
8. To Call My Own (w/JB)
9. Yesterday Cried (w/JB
10. Almost Cut My Hair (MP=lead vox; w/ JB)
11. V
12. He's a Dick
13. Hurricane
14. Cure For This (w/JW)
15. Starman (w/JB & JW)
16. If I Only Had a Car
17. You Make It Easy
18. Until You Came Along (w/JB & JW)


Short review --

How many ways can you say "fantastic?" One of the best Smog shows ever IMHO. Miles better than the dress rehearsal at First Ave. last summer and easily as good as anything i've heard from the shows last year that were recorded. Coming on the heels of a memorable "stealth" show the night before, this was a Smog 1-2 punch that will likely be one for the ages.

Even though they were performing for an occasion that was, as Danny said at one point, "bittersweet at best," there was an abundance of joy and happiness present while The Smog did their thing. They were tight in all the right places and, well, loose in all the right places, too. Hell, they even jammed! Gary, in particular, was in top form -- his singing and playing definitely seem to have benefited from all of the studio work he's been doing lately. They sounded so good that it was hard to believe that they hadn't played together in several months and that they were breaking in a new drummer to boot (Wiz was on fire -- he won over every single person i talked to after the show). It's even harder to think that there's nothing on the foreseeable horizon in Smog World; this could be the last time they play in God knows how long. Talk about bittersweet.

Did i say they were fantastic?

More pictures, including some from the show the night before, are here.

OK, a few more random thoughts...

• The first 45 minutes or so was off the hook. They sounded as good as i've heard them since, i dunno, 1996 maybe, when they were at their live peak. After just one rehearsal day and a short unplugged set the night before, they had the look and feel of a well-seasoned band that had been on the road for months. They seemed totally relaxed and unencumbered by anything resembling pressure -- and it showed.
• There were tons of Smog Friends in attendance and every one of them added immensely to the proceedings. One can't sing the praises of G Wiz enough; suffice it to say that he's a world-class drummer, superb musician and one hell of a nice guy. Fil Krohnengold -- a gifted multi-instrumentalist who's played with Duncan Sheik, Ween, Leona Naess and David Poe to name just a few -- first showed up on the Smog Radar when he played with them in NYC at 2 benefit shows in August 2004. His impact on the live Smog sound was immediate and profound. Past live Smog shows had only featured occasional keyboards when one of the guys saw fit to tinker around on a few select songs. Krohnengold is the Smog's first ever full-time keyboardist and, man, what a difference it makes! He added tons of piano, organ textures, synth colorings -- you name it. After years of hearing the studio and live versions of all the fave Smog classics and covers, it was something of a shock to hear how good many of them sound with well-thought out and executed keyboard contributions -- almost like it was meant to be that way in the first place. Janey Winterbauer (from Astronaut Wife; she's also been colloborating with Perlman lately) has helped out the boys on stage during a few of the local shows they've played since the release of Another Fine Day. Her most memorable contribution at those shows was singing the Muni Loco part on "Cure For This," the gorgeous Marc Perlman song from AFD that is one of the best things on the album. Why oh why this song wasn't some kind of "hit" is just one of the many mysteries surrounding AFD. But, i digress. The two versions of "Cure" that Janey did with the Smog last weekend were equally fine even though the dynamics and atmosphere were quite different in each case. Always a good sign of a great song and performance. Janey also ably helped out with backing vocal duties on a big chunk of the Smog set in Waseca -- just more icing on the cake. Finally, Executive Honorary Smogger Jim Boquist also joined the proceedings for several songs, playing guitar and bass, singing and just basically having a whale of a time. No local Smog show would really be complete without Jim popping up to join in the fun. I can't imagine a live version of "Until You Came Along" without Jim singing the chorus with his pals and neither should you.
• "Beautiful Mind" -- maybe my favorite recorded performance of 2006 -- was just stunning. Everything clicked -- the tricky rhythms, the dramatic arrangement, Fil's keyboard work, Kraig getting "lost in the music." My friend Ben looked at me after the song with the same dazed look i most likely had on my face.
• Marc Perlman got a rare center stage spotlight with a blazin' version of the CSNY classic, "Almost Cut My Hair." This used to be a lot of fun back in the day, but i'm pretty sure they haven't played it since the early days of the Clinton presidency save for maybe a one-off at a private party a few years ago. And Perly not only did a good job with the singing but he ripped up Kraig's Squire on a few leads as well. In fact, the guys went into "Jam" mode, resulting in a fierce guitar duel with Gary and Marc that was as surprising as it was good.
• "Easy to Be Hard," a familiar song from the Hair musical later popularized by Three Dog Night, has been in Smog setlists forever but was never more poignantly -- or beautifully -- performed than in Waseca. Even though i'd heard the song a zillion times, the gravity of the opening couplet caught me somewhat my surprise and had all of the impact of a good punch to the gut. Gary absolutely nailed the words, singing with a precision and passion that was mesmerizing; it was simply one of the most amazing vocal performances of his that i've experienced. I turned around and saw a good chunk of the crowd singing along, waving their arms, holding hands and crying. Very emotional, very moving and, in its own strange way, very Smoggish, too. They've never been afraid to tackle an unlikely cover -- hell, that was pretty much their original blueprint -- and, on this picture perfect day in a picture perfect small town, that strategy worked better than anybody could've ever imagined.

FLASH - Surpise Golden Smog performance in Mpls!

"As if in a dream..."

Beloved Minneapolis "supergroup" Golden Smog performed a surprise "unplugged" performance Friday night in front of a clearly stunned audience at a local weekly acoustic "hootenanny" in the basement of a neighborhood coffee shop near Lake Harriet in South Minneapolis. The room was already packed beyond capacity for the last hoot of the season, but virtually everyone in the sweaty basement bunker was blown away by what transpired after the scheduled group of performers gave the stage over to "some other guys" (that's how they were matter-of-factly referred to at the beginning of the night when the schedule was being announced). Some guy behind me spent the first few songs of the set on his cell phone breathlessly calling everybody in his contact list with variations on, "dude, i'm at the hoot and you'll never f***ing believe who just came on stage..." We exchanged glances and knowing nods after the set and he had the undeniable look of sweet satisfaction on his face -- the look of somebody who had just witnessed something extraordinary.

Which, of course, he had.

What transpired was a brief but breathtakingly good performance by a group of old friends who are making some of the best music in their 2 decade "uncareer," a time span that not only covers the intertwined history of the 3 core Smog bands -- The Jayhawks, Soul Asylum and Run Westy Run -- but also represents a collective personal saga that encompasses an almost unimaginable array of events, ranging from the very good to the unspeakably bad. The Smog were always something of a cross between a rock group, extended family and a secret society; together they've travelled a lot of miles -- both physical and psychic -- over the years. But all the personal issues, career games, egos and back-stage dramas now seem to be relegated to historical footnotes; Job 1 now appears to be about making the best music possible.

Which, in a way, isn't all that far removed from how it all began 20 years ago in a variety of rehearsal spaces and basements. What started as a lark -- and a diversion from the pressures of their regular bands -- eventually transformed into a powerful musical force to be reckoned with, even though there have only been a handful of official releases (3 albums and 2 EPs) and live appearances (pretty serious touring in 96, 2 short tours in 98 and 06, a smattering of local and benefit shows) since the early 90s when the Smoggers first began to see themselves as something more than a jokey side project (the first few gigs were tribute shows, including an indescribably awful one featuring the music of the Eagles).

Deep in the bowels of Java Jacks in "sexy South Minneapolis," The Smog made their first appearance since a very brief tour ended last year in support of their excellent, almost universally misunderstood/underappreciated Another Fine Day album. Lost Highway just released a follow-up EP, Blood on the Slacks, a generally pleasing collection of outtakes from AFD that evokes fond memories -- everything from the inclusion of some cool covers to the punny title -- of the Smog's first release in 1993, On Golden Smog. If you want to consider this show as "support" for the new EP, they couldn't have picked a better setting -- an unannounced, unplugged gig in a "non-standard" venue.

To prep for their first show of 2007, the Smoggers and Smogettes had assembled at the Soul Asylum rehearsal space earlier on Friday to piece together a set for a show at a benefit gig the following day. Calls had been made earlier in the week to Hoot King Jim Walsh inquiring about the possiblity of doing something on Friday night. In typical Smog fashion, Walsh was initially unavailable so Marc Perlman asked Walsh's son Henry to pencil the Smog in! Things were later suitably firmed up and after several hours of rehearsal, the Smog were on their way to The Hoot.

The Smog have never been known for a rigid rehearsal ethic, buy they definitely needed one this time for an important reason: a new drummer, G Wiz, the latest in a long line of Smog tubthumpers dating back to Dave Pirner. Wiz is an enormously talented guy who also plays with Kraig as a member of Joseph Arthur's backing band, The Lonely Astronauts. We were kidding him after the show that hopefully he wouldn't encounter the "Spinal Tap Syndrome," a reference to the hapless collection of mythical drummers from Spinal Tap who always seemed to die in the most spectacular of manners. After just a few songs at The Hoot, it was clear that Wiz was more than up to the task presented to him; at both this Smog gig and the one the next day in Waseca he was never less than spectacular. At the Hoot he added a light but critical touch -- shaking some maracas, playing a de-snared snare drum with his hand or lightly playing the brushes. He also enhanced the vocal mix with some truly fine harmonies.

The 8 song set Golden Smog performed was the finest evocation of the original "Smog Spirit" I'd witnessed since the old days of last-minute pseudonymous appearances in the last 80s/early 90s at the original 400 Bar and local house parties. Just a bunch of cats sittin' around, whoopin' it up and laying down some great music. In keeping with the spirit of the Friday Night Hoots, everything was "unplugged." There was even some predictable Smog-ish confusion -- keyboardist Fil Krohnengold, who has sat in with them a few times in recent years and was called on again for the Waseca benefit show, forgot a power cord at the rehearsal space so his keyboard sat unused next to the stage, in the process becoming the first "air keyboardist" in Golden Smog history, a fitting "instrument" for a band whose press releases once featured an imaginary discography.

The set included some old Smog chestnuts as well as a powerful closer of Louris' stunning AFD elegy, "Listen Joe." Relatively new Smog friend Janey Winterbauer sang on one of my very fave AFD tracks, "Cure For This" -- the lush beauty of her voice singing Marc Perlman's words combined with the band's spot-on arrangement hit the already enraptured crowd with an almost unearthly impact.

Perlman and Winterbaur also provided a nice bit of synchronicity for the Hoot -- they appeared (as the folk duo "Marc and Janey") at the very first Hoot seven months ago in front a crowd a mere fraction of the size of the multitudes jammed into Java Jacks on Friday.

"Yesterday Cried" -- one of Johnson's finest compositions that never seems to get played enough -- was also a big winner, the unplugged arrangement transforming the songs delicate beauty in ways no electric setting ever could. I think i've probably loved every single performance of this song that i've been fortunate enough to hear over the years and this reading could've have been the most moving of them all. And what was so cool about hearing it at The Hoot was that it apparently was a fluke. After a rousing rendition of "Until You Came Along" -- the Smog at their Face-ish best -- everybody turned to Danny for the next song, but he suddenly whispered to Kraig, "how 'bout 'Yesterday'," which implied that they weren't planning on playing it. Considering that the next song after "Yesterday" was indeed one of Danny's, this turned out to be a wonderfully unselfish display of comraderie and a devotion to making the most out of the moment -- in other words, a decidedly "Smog-ish" moment and another illustration of why they have the ability to be better than 99% of the bands out there, even when it's by accident.

The most memorable meshing of The Smog with The Hoot occured during Roger Miller's "Dang Me," a classic Smog cover that Kraig always seems to perform with great relish. He sang it this time to his mom, who was sitting directly in front of him. The song's sing-songy chorus and corny narrative was tailor-made for a 21st century hootenanny.

In a flash, it was all over except for the sweat and the fond memories. For most of the audience -- certainly for any of them that were big GS fans -- this was an extraordinarly special event that will likely be talked about for years. Who woulda thunk that a last-minute surprise peformance by a group that barely even exists could be so satisfying? Such is the magic of The Golden Smog...creating sheer excellence in the unlikeliest of settings when you least expect it.

More pictures, including some from the gig the next day, are here.

Youtube footage from The Hoot here, here and here.


Golden Smog
June 8, 2007
Friday Night Hootenanny @ Java Jacks - Minneapolis, MN

Gary Louris - acoustic gtr, harmonica & vox
Marc Perlman - electric bass
Kraig Johnson - acoustic gtr & vox
Dan Murphy - acoustic gtr & vox

with special guests:
G Wiz - percussion & vox
Janey Winterbauer - vox
Fil Krohnengold - "air keyboards"


1. If I Only Had a Car
2. Until You Came Along
3. Yesterday Cried
4. Ill-Fated
5. Starman
6. Cure For This (GL - Omnichord, JW - vocals, KJJ - bass, MP - ac gtr)
7. Dang Me
8. Listen Joe (GL & Wiz only)

"Friday Night Hoot" @ Java Jacks - first season recap

(photo courtesy of Steven Cohen)

The "Friday Night Hoot" at Java Jacks coffeehouse in "sexy South Minneapolis" just completed its first season the other night with an upbeat, celebratory, marathon evening featuring virtually everything that has made this series so enormously popular over the last seven months -- superb music, fetching stories, raw emotion, good juju and a communal bond between the participants that is almost corny in its power and authenticity. The lineup included some of the more notable performers from the series as well as a earthquake that still has people tittering.

The big surprise was an unannounced appearance by local legends Golden Smog, a "booking" that may seem like an enormous coup for this underground -- in almost every sense of the word -- event. However, anybody who's attended even a few of these things knows that almost anything is possible at "The Hoot." Indeed, one of the series' biggest thrills has been the joy of experiencing something you weren't expecting -- certainly not early on a Friday evening hidden away in a room that evokes a shotgun wedding of a bomb shelter and a basement rec room held in a speakeasy.

After a very low-key launch in the first week of November 2006, the weekly gatherings soon became known as "The Friday Night Hoot." The Hoot is the brainchild of The Mad Ripple (aka Mpls scribe/author/musician Jim Walsh). These performances started with the most modest of intentions. Before long, however, they became something of must-see event for insiders, hipsters and neighborhood locals. By almost any estimation, the hoots evolved into a tremendous success; the sum total of great music featured over the months has been staggering. Aside from the music, a key component of the hoots is the unique vibe, a strange brew of coffeehouse intimacy, underground chic, speakeasy naughtiness and rec room bonhomie. The lines between performer and listener were compellingly shattered every week -- audience participation was encouraged if not demanded, evoking dusty memories of the days when folk music existed in a world of its own, long before the 60s musical revolution when previously disparate genres started cross-breeding like kissin' cousins.

Devotees often refer to "The Hoot" in quasi-mystical terms -- and they're usually only half-joking. In a short time it's acquired many of the characteristics of organized religion or even a cult: a mythology, a set of rituals, a self-referencing internal logic -- everything short of a secret handshake, although regular attendees greet each other with knowing familiarity even if they've never taken the effort to formally introduce themselves.

The performers featured during The Hoot's first season ran the gamut in almost every respect -- from Grammy award winners to undiscovered hopefuls vying to be the next Bob Dylan. Or Conor Oberest. After just a few weeks, it became apparent that this event had tapped into an abundant reservoir of talent in these twin towns, talent that frequently was flying under the radar and/or bore little resemblance to what's going on out in Pitchfork/Indie-world. While it's always fun to see someone doing an acoustic turn when it's not their usual bag, the hoots have also proudly displayed a plethora of talent who woulda been right at home back in the golden days long before "Hootenanny" became known as the name of a Replacements record.

And if the consistently good music at the hoots didn't draw ya in, the abundant good spirits present every week would. Stories and tall tales spilled forth from the stage faster than you can say "Jamesons Irish Whisky," tons of kids had free reign to run around and go nuts, total strangers became fast friends in the span of a coupla songs as they bonded in a way that's far more difficult in the prickly confines of Clubland.

Recent months have seen The Hoots becoming almost too successful and perhaps even suffering some growing pains. The comfort level has inevitably declined due to the runaway success -- an issue that will be difficult to deal with since the venue itself is so much a part of the appeal. There's also a perception by some that the event itself is becoming as big an attraction as the music on display, a seeming paradox since the initial impetus for the event was almost strictly musical in nature. There's also a certain "insider" vibe perceived by some that may initially turn some newbies off. A sizable percentage of the audience is made up of people who attend frequently; a similar situation exists with some of the performers, many of whom ended up playing several times during the series, even on nights when they weren't scheduled. The convivial nature of the Hoot only exacerbated this clubby vibe -- in jokes, frequent first name shout-outs and references to hoots past were the order of the day at every Hoot I attended. Finally, the format of the Hoot simply isn't everyone's cup of tea. While i personally have liked nearly all the music i've heard over the months and have no problem with the "let it all hang out" philosophy that is on display, there's little doubt that some people weren't as thrilled with the lack of structure, occasionally awkward pacing and wildly varying musical styles. The very things that some attendees found so attractive, if not addictive, may well be the same things that others found off-putting. Such is the nature of The Hoot, for better or worse.

So, after a Hoot finale that found the ol' Ripple pulling off something that will be hard to ever top, let's all hoist a big "Irish Coffee" to him and all of the performers and attendees who helped to create one of the coolest things to hit the local music scene in a long while. Cheers everyone -- here's to a successful second season that will kick off next fall sometime.

Not bad for a hair-brained idea that was only supposed to last a month. :-)

The Mood Swings new CD out this Tuesday -- CD Release Party June 15 @ The Hexagon Bar in Mpls

just got this off the wire from Susstones Central Command...


This Tuesday: The Mood Swings No Limit!

This coming Tuesday June 12th is the release of No Limit, the new album from The Mood Swings. The record features six new garage-pop delights from the band, accompanied by five re-interpretative remixes by some of their strangely talented electronic compadres.

To celebrate, the Mood Swings have put together the...

MOOD SWINGS CD RELEASE PARTY!!!
featuring...

Sideways (11:45)
The Mood Swings (10:45)
Mercurial Rage (9:45)
DJ The Guv'nor of Sussed! will be spinning great tunes all night between sets!

Friday June 15th @ 9 PM, NO COVER!!!
Hexagon Bar (2600 27th Ave. So. Minneapolis, MN 55406)

The Susstones Pop Machine is cranking into action once again!


Susstones Information Service

http://www.susstones.com/
http://www.susstonesshop.com/
www.myspace.com/themoodswings

New Sideways MP3 @ Susstones

Fresh on the heels of a sneak preview of the first new Sideways music in a long time last Friday at the Mood Swings/Mercurial Rage CD Listening Party, comes even more new Sideways coolness, "Dugout" -- described as "another storming Hammond-led, fuzz-driven number from the imaginary mod combo."

MP3 of "Dugout" available here.

And, if that isn't enough good news, Sideways will be making a rare live appearance on June 15 at the official Mood Swings CD Release Extravaganza.

Two new Sideways tracks in less than a week...life is good.

Susstones

Gary Louris solo gig on June 25...in Paris?!

I was just thinking the other day that since it looks like the Mark Olson/Gary Louris album won't come out until next year sometime and any tour in support of his upcoming solo album likely won't happen until later this year, Louris' tour schedule for the summer should be fairly wide open.

Well, voilà. Gary is kicking off the summer with his first solo gig of the year -- albeit a low-key one on a different continent from the one i currently reside in -- at a tiny (capacity: 80) club in Paris. A poster for the gig says that Gary will be playing songs from his first solo album coming out in October. Magnifique.

Hopefully, this will get Gary psyched to play some stateside dates this summer. Anybody who has heard the great performances Gary unleashed on Spanish audiences during a brief tour in Spring 2006 with Kraig Johnson can attest that this is one tour that is definitely ready for prime time.

Bring it on Gary!

Golden Smog in Waseca, MN - June 9, 2007 - UPDATE

UPDATE: It now appears that Soul Asylum will be playing this benefit after all. According to those in the know, they're supposedly going on around 4pm in order to leave enough time for Dave to get back to Mpls for his gig at the Cabooze later in the evening. Golden Smog is scheduled to go on around 7pm. Admission is a very reasonable $10.

Road trip!

http://www.krugeraid.com/Index.html

Mood Swings CD Listening Party recap... + Sideways world premiere!!!

Well, it's a little tough to get the wheels turnin' this morn, thanks to the successful Mood Swings/Mercurial Rage CD listening party last nite at Brit's Pub in dt Mpls. A good time was had by all -- the ragers and the swingers combined forces for a supercool socio-musical event in the new "Clubhouse Bar" at Brit's, a world-class addition to an already top notch facility. Great food + great libations + great people + great tunes + great swag = one hella good time. For sure.

There were many musical highlights -- great sets from DJs Christian Fritz & Dalida and Sussed vet DJ "The Guv'nor" plus, of course, the new releases from Mercurial Rage and The Mood Swings spun in their entirety. But the biggest surprise was the world premiere of the first new Sideways track in many a blue moon. Sideways/Polara sidekick "Knobby" was in the house and hinting that everybody should stick around for a "surprise." Well, lo and behold, the surprise was a hot-off-the-desktop new Sideways concoction -- a kickin' instrumental version of labelmates The Mood Swings' classic "Come On Tell Me," done up in patented Sideways futuro-retro-mod-rock stylee. Uber cool if you ask me.

This bodes very well for the next Sideways live appearance -- always a rare treat in its own right -- at the Mood Swings' CD Release Party on 6/15 at the Hex.

Rock Beats ALS Benefit - 6/22/07 - 400 Bar - Mpls

(Rock Beats ALS Benefit 1 - 6/10/06 - Hexagon Bar)





Rock Beats ALS Benefit - 6/22/07 - 400 Bar - Mpls

Cast of thousands...all star line-up...surprise appearances?

Mark your calendar for this one:

The 2nd annual "Rock Beats ALS" all-star benefit will be held at the 400 Bar on Friday, June 22.

Line up includes:

Mighty Fairly
Story Of The Sea
The Mood Swings
The Hard Left
Beight
Kingfield Trio (Marc Perlman, Janey Winterbauer, Ed Ackerson)
Scott Laurent
Kid Dakota

Doors - 8pm
$15

Rock Beats ALS on myspace

400 Bar calendar

Drams article in Dallas Observer

(The Drams @ SxSW 2006 - New West day party)

(The Drams @ SxSW 2006 - Twangfest day party)

Jubilee Year
The Drams are the Best

By T. BALLARD LESEMANN Published: May 31, 2007



The Drams weren't in mind at all when Denton-based songwriter Brent Best—a melody-minded veteran rock dude who knows his way around a hook and a heartfelt lyric—first started working on the songs that ended up on the band's debut, Jubilee Dive.

Despite what you'd think, the Drams aren't haunted by the ghosts of Slobberbone—just of two little girls.

"When Slobberbone shut down, I wasn't ready to do a band thing again," admits the singer/guitarist. "I'd been doing the solo thing here and in Europe for about a year. I'd been recording at home with the intent of doing a solo album at some point, with a clear idea of how it should sound."

Slobberbone evolved from a straightforward-but-stumbling country-punk band in the mid-'90s into a critically acclaimed underground roots-rock act. They released a low-budget debut titled Crow Pot Pie in 1995, followed by Barrel Chested in 1997. By that time, the band was touring across the Midwest and East Coast with a solidified line-up featuring Best on lead vocals and guitar, Brian Lane on bass, Tony Harper on drums, and Jess Barr on guitar and a variety of stringed instruments. The quartet made a racket that had as much in common with '60s garage-rock and post-Brit Invasion pop as it did with the ultra-twang reverberating around the so-called "alt-country" scenes. Their 2000 album, Slippage, followed the excellent Everything You Thought Was Right Was Wrong Today.

The Drams' lineup currently features two of Best's Slobberbone mates—Barr and Harper—along with singer/keyboardist Chad Stockslager and singer/bassist Keith Killoren, both of whom add to the group's expanded instrumental range and vocal harmonies.

"Our first show came together almost accidentally," says Best. "At a South by Southwest [in Austin] a few years ago, they had me scheduled in between several rock bands, and I didn't want to just show up with me and an acoustic guitar, so I called Jeff and Tony up—and Keith and Chad from Dallas band Budapest One—and put the band together on the fly. Our first show ever was at South by Southwest, which was kinda weird. New West was really into the demos, so we kept it together and pressed ahead."

Produced by engineer Matt Pence (Centro-Matic, South San Gabriel), the 14 songs on Jubilee Dive bounce off Best's from-the-gut sentiments, life lessons, personal observations and colorful stories. The organ and piano parts add a earthy dose of late-era Beatles, The Band, Badfinger and Big Star to the guitar-based foundation.

"The point with Slobberbone was that we kept things fairly simple and straightforward," he says. "Chad is a really good arranger and has this pure rock/pop pedigree for someone his age, so that adds a lot more to it. It's a cool thing to have in the arsenal, you know? In the studio, it was the first time in my life where I had to get brutal with the editing and producing and cutting things. When we were younger, we weren't very good players, so we basically got what we got [laughs]. There was never as much decision-making going on. This newer attitude made for a really fun time recording. If something was kind of over the top but made us smile, we kept it."

http://www.dallasobserver.com/2007-05-31/music/jubilee-year/