After 10 years of bullshitting around and various other pandemics, mishaps, fires, loves lost and made, thousands of shows, hundreds of songs written, I fuckin' finally got it together with a lot of old friends and we made a new record.
I put out the PCB bat signal and everyone said yes.
Produced by Mitch Marine and Mark "muddy" Dutton.
Dutch, Mitch and I started off at the end of 2024 in a little non-descript rehearsal room by the 405 in West LA. We met there a couple times a week for several months. And we arranged the songs. Played through them. Whittled them down. Expanded them. Picked the beats per minute, the key, futzed with the chords. Made little phone recordings of 'em.
When the songs were ready, we added in a bass player, Mark "muddy" Dutton and went to Noelle's house for some band rehearsals and dinners. Then we secured the legendary keyboard player Don Randi to record with us during a couple of days in July at Lucy's Meat Market in Eagle Rock.
It was a magical two-day session. Lots of bad musician jokes flying around, lunch time story hour with Don (during which he regaled us with stories of playing with Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, The Beach Boys, Phil Spector, Quincy Jones all in an hour. Unbelievable!) , and we handled our business.
Since then we added in some all star guests including The Webb Sisters (Leonard Cohen, Tom Petty, David Gilmour) singing on three songs.
"Pink Fuzzy Handcuffs" is a country break-up song in the vein of George Jones and Tammy Wynette with a Levon Helm groove and Don Randi scat singing like the Cookie Monster.
"One Helluva Woman" is a gospel tune but with sacrilegous lyrics as you very well know, I can't hardly help myself. Ya heard!
The Dahl Sisters aka 'The Curly Tops' sang on the love song "Name of the Game," which was one of my great con jobs of all time. The song ends with them singing 'I am in love with you' over and over. So I stood in front of the mic and soaked it in. I had them do a couple unnecessary extra takes. Brillz. Perhaps my crowning achievement!
A horn section comprised of some of the best players on the planet including Ron Dziubla (Joe Bonamassa, Jon Batiste), Mark "Loveman" Pender (Conan O'Brien, E Street Band, David Bowie) & Elizabeth Lea (Tedeschi Trucks Band, Nikka Costa) play on a disco 70's Las Vegas glitter vibe tune called "You Got A Lotta Nerve." And also their fearsome fullsome notes lend some funky gravitas to the deeply groovy Fela Kuti reggae style jams on "Breaks Us Apart" (which the Webb Sisters also added soulful vocals to).
We got Charlene Huang (Leslie & The Badgers, Hans Zimmer) playing violin on "You Want Love." Another heartbreak tune, with the moral of the story being that you should change your phone password regularly.
Chris Murphy (Teahouse Music Co.) played violin and mandolin on a couple tunes including "Hesitatin'" which is something of a post-modern pop song that some people have compared to The Replacements. He also played on "You Ain't Got To Go On Home" which is a back porch down home country acoustic romp.
"White Girl Wasted" is a country rock anthem. Editor's note: You ain't gotta be white or a girl to be White Girl Wasted.
Travis Popichak added some tasty percussion flavors throughout. If you listen closely, you can hear his glorious Kentucky waterfall of a mullet spilling over on to the tracks.
I wrote a hit song with a Muscle Shoals vibe called "Best Old Screw" as a duet for my country break-up band that Katie Stratton & I started, and we recorded that one too.
Last year when I was in Chicago filming a movie that I co-starred in, I heard someone say the word - dynamite. But they broke it up so that I thought they were talking about a girl named Dina and implying that she might. I thought that would be a good premise for a song. Other girls wouldn't do it-- but Dina might! So we've got the core band playing some raucous rockabilly over that with the urgency of a time bomb ticking down and ready to explode at any moment.
And we finally recorded for the first time "Get In The Van" which is sure to make you lose your shit.
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