Spin Doctors<\/p>\n
Spin Doctors\u2019 first album in 12 years is at once a bold leap for a legendary band and the sound of a group truly revitalized. Marking their debut on new label home and iconic major Capitol Records, Face Full of Cake finds the alt-rock veterans in top form with an abundance of hooks in their arsenal and the warm, funky sound that longtime fans have come to expect from them. The record truly marks a new era for Spin Doctors, and with a blockbuster summer tour on the horizon and new bassist Jack Daley in tow, it\u2019s impossible not to catch the thrilling feeling that this 35 years strong-and-running crew is, despite their wealth of experience, just getting started. Face Full of Cake marks the quartet\u2019s return after 2013\u2019s If the River Was Whiskey; according to drummer Aaron Comess, its creative genesis began while the group was isolating during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. \u201cIt had been a while since we had made a record,\u201d he recalls. \u201cWe had talked about it for a while, but nobody was really motivated enough to get together and start the process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Initially, several writing sessions took place; at one point, guitarist Eric Schenkman and singer Chris Barron hunkered down at the Vermont studio space of Phish member Mike Gordon. No one in group had seen each other since before lockdown, so these early creative huddles provided a sentimental bent that supercharged their creative energy. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t just a writing session\u2014it was a very heartwarming reunion between two old friends,\u201d Barron says of his and Schenkman\u2019s time in Vermont. \u201cWe really missed each other. We would goof off and end up writing three songs in like, three hours.\u201d <\/p>\n
The album continued to come together after a series of intimate hangs between Comess and Barron (\u201cI\u2019ve figured out after 35 years that the best way to get Chris to write with me is to invite him over for dinner,\u201d Comess chuckles), but a crucial element to Face Full of Cake\u2019s formation was the addition of new bassist Jack Daley, who makes his studio debut with Spin Doctors after joining the band full-time in 2021 to replace former bassist Mark White while on tour. Following the extensive demoing process, the quartet decamped to Asbury Park, splitting time between hotel digs and Daley\u2019s studio space where recording took place. \u201cI was super psyched that they wanted to do it at my studio,\u201d Daley recalls. \u201cWhen we got into the studio, everyone was really supportive and gave me some pointers about not being afraid to step out a little bit or play a little busier. We had a blast making this record\u2014it was nothing but positive energy.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cJack is very humble, and he\u2019s good at being a journeyman\u2014but he\u2019s also a great freaking ensemble member,\u201d Schenkman beams when talking about the latest addition to the band. \u201cThe studio was great, the vibe was incredible, and we were getting to know each other even better than before.\u201d \u201cAny time you add a new member to a band, it can go either way\u2014but there was a renewed energy, and Jack just brings this really fat groove to the band while also sounding authentically like Spin Doctors,\u201d Comess adds. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to understate what a monumental musical achievement that is. The second we started playing with him, it was instantly evident that it was going to work out.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a freewheeling and easy energy to the 12 tracks that make up Face Full of Cake, reflecting the refreshingly breezy recording process that the band experienced as a result of fostering a low-pressure environment. \u201cWe weren\u2019t really thinking of it as a record,\u201d Comess explains. \u201cWe\u2019ve gone through a lot of phases in our 35 years, and sometimes things really gel and sometimes they\u2019re just extremely difficult. When we made this record, we captured a moment where it felt effortless. There\u2019s a really fresh energy in the tracks\u2014a sense of us discovering the songs as we played them.\u201d <\/p>\n
At times, inspiration would come from surprising places: The riff-heavy \u201cStill A Gorilla\u201d had been knocking about in Spin Doctors\u2019 drafts for a minute, and at times it seemed like the song was a locked door with no key. \u201cAaron had that piece of music around for quite a long time, and whenever he and I sat down to try and write some lyrics to it, it just never quite came together,\u201d Barron explains\u2014but after Comess sent over Swedish electro-pop sensation Robyn\u2019s \u201cKonichiwa Bitches\u201d as a possible reference for the energy they wanted to capture, Barron locked his part in. \u201cHe was like, \u2018A vibe like this would be cool,\u201d he laughs, \u201cand the humor of that song gave me the entree into the song, so I just sat down and wrote that in an hour.\u201d <\/p>\n
The shimmying \u201cRock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Heaven\u201d is a wry slice of observational lyricism from Barron, reflecting on his and the band\u2019s career as musical journeymen and the highs and lows of being a musician at large. \u201cI\u2019ve always been obsessed with the idea of a rock and roll afterlife,\u201d he recalls while explaining the song\u2019s lyrics, which came together during a trip to Spain.\u201d I was walking around jotting stuff down about what it would be like to go to heaven and be around a bunch of other musicians. I\u2019ve never been the kind of person who complains about rock and roll and stuff, but it\u2019s a job, and just like any other job there\u2019s a lot of b.s. that you have to deal with. What would it be like to eternally have all of those things be solved in the most pleasant way possible?\u201d <\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s the soaring, passionate \u201cHeart of the Highway,\u201d which Schenkman enthusiastically refers to as \u201cemotive as fuck\u201d and zooms in on the risks and rewards that come with a life lived on the road. \u201cOne of the ongoing themes of this band is the juxtaposition of living your dream and doing what you love,\u201d Barron says, \u201cbut paying the price of being away from home and the people that you love in order to do that. The song is a bit of a poem about how it feels to be far from home.\u201d <\/p>\n
Indeed, Spin Doctors have been on a journey for the last three-and-a-half decades, and they show no signs of stopping\u2014and as Schenkman points out, Face Full of Cake feels like a true full-circle moment in regards to their starmaking 1991 record Pocket Full of Kryptonite. \u201cThe moment that we walked into the room, there was plenty of reasons to believe it wouldn\u2019t work\u2014 but as soon as we played three notes, we knew we had it,\u201d he says. \u201cThe same thing happened with this record. There\u2019s a lot of joy emanating from all of us in this band.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spin Doctors Spin Doctors\u2019 first album in 12 years is at once a bold leap for a legendary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-232018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}