moe.: New Album

To begin with, moe. has signed with Sugar Hill Records, the band's first label sojourn in nearly a decade. The group also chose to work with an outside producer for the first time since 1998's Tin Cans & Car Tires, with John Travis (Kid Rock, Social Distortion, No Doubt) getting the call.

"For most of our career we've done everything on our own in a very cottage industry, home-y kind of way," notes Chuck Garvey. "With most of our recordings, we've gotten the equipment together, we've paid for everything ourselves, we've produced it ourselves and we've had complete control over it. For this album we actually made the leap of putting ourselves in someone else's hands to help us come out with something different."

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LA LAs features 10 tracks of compact melodies, each textured by moe.'s signature rock riffs and flourishes, and backed by a roller coaster ride of pulsing drums. It's that pure moe. sound which the band's ardent fans -- affectionately dubbed moe.rons -- have come to love over the band's decades of industrious touring.

Most of the material on WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LA LAs has been road-tested at moe.'s rollicking concerts. "Bones of Lazarus" has been part of the moe. repertoire for more than 10 years, says Rob Derhak, though it went through a major transformation in the studio. Chuck Garvey's "Suck A Lemon" was written for moe.'s fan-inspired psychedelic Halloween show.

"Downward Facing Dog" is a newer moe. song, written by Al Schnier. It came together rather organically when Schnier realized what had been several different songs actually flowed together into one composition. Lyrically, the song addresses a time when Schnier was dealing with his father's poor health.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LA LAs will be released on January 24, 2012. The album will be available for pre-order at moe. concerts and at www.moe.org.

Tracklisting