JACKSONVILLE, Fla - "Jacksonville can YOU hear ME!?!"

This past weekend Less Than Jake made a quick trip down to Florida, a fitting trip for the release of their new album, which is all about the sunshine state. A few hours from their hometown and namesake of their new album, the guys gathered in Jacksonville’s Freebird Live. With colorful banners representing art from their new album and black lights glowing bright, the five members of the long lasting ska band encompassed the same energy of sixteen years prior.

The show kicked off with "Does the Lion City Still Roar" and the favored “Johnny Quest,” and the crowd became immediately energized. A guest performance from Chris Rhodes of Mighty Mighty Bostones on trombone in Buddy’s absence was a bitter sweet but surprising treat. The compact, two-story venue was raging with liveliness, colorful lighting and confetti shot from the stage. A little ways into the show the band announced that this particular show was being streamed live on the internet which only made the crowd become more intense. Given this factor, the band also seemed to be extra enthusiastic.

Songs from the entire Less Than Jake catalog were performed, including “Dopeman,” “Automatic,” “The Science of Selling Yourself Short,” and “Conviction Notice.” Half way through the set, the band brought four guys on stage to try and duplicate the opening scream to Disturbed’s “Down With the Sickness,” only to have all of them lose to Chris Rhodes.

Rodger, Chris, JR, and Chris Rhodes bounced around the stage from the opening chord to the final notes of “Plastic Cup Politics.” Vinnie on drums was entertaining and didn’t miss a beat. At one point during the show the entire band came out adorned in masks and random props, like a giant snake. The show in its entirety was an all around blast and the guys of Less Than Jake put on an impeccably diverting performance.

 
Less Than Jake - Johnny Quest (Thinks We're Sellouts)
Jacksonville, FL - Freebird Live
10/3/08

My recent chat with JR, saxophonist from Less Than Jake, about their new album and coming full circle.

First say your name, what you play and the band that you play in.

My name is JR and I play Saxophone in Less Than Jake.

You have your new album GNV FLA, which is basically an ode to Gainesville where you guys are all from. You named it this because you’ve said you feel like you’ve come full circle, back to home. Why would you say that this is the point in your career where you’ve come full circle?

Probably because this is the first record we’re doing on our own label. When the band first started out, it wasn’t a record label; we put everything out on our own. So its kind of the same thing just on a bigger scale I suppose then when we were first a band. Again, we wrote the whole record in Gainesville and demoed most of it in Gainesville so it just made the most sense I guess at the time to call it GNV FLA. That’s where the full circle thing comes in. That’s where we’ve been and that’s where we still are.

Would you say that you’ve come full circle in your sound also, it seems like the new album sounds a lot like your older stuff?

Yeah, that’s what a lot of people have said. I don’t know it’s kind of weird to think about it because we just write songs ya know. I don’t ever think it was like drastic intention like “oh we’re gonna do this,” I think when we wrote this record we were all just kind of like “well we know who we are and we know what we do so lets just try and do that the best that we can.” And I think that we did pretty good, id like to think. I like the record.

Since you mentioned your record label Sleep It Off, how would you say that being without a record label over you and doing it all by yourself will affect writing your music performing it and all of the behind the scenes work?

Well, it wasn’t like a weird thing when we were on other record labels or whatever, up until the last record we were pretty much told that if we didn’t write with people we wouldn’t be able to have the producer Howard Benson do our record. But ya know all decisions that are made are ultimately our decisions. It’s really no different accept its more work on our end, you know what I mean? There’s more work in developing the marketing plan, there’s more work working on the online side of things and there’s more work with the video stuff, and there’s more work with everything. Because we’re all doing it ourselves. So it’s more work but it’s probably more satisfying than anything we’ve done up to this point.

So would you say you have more fun being totally in charge of what things like your videos or myspace will look like?

Yeah, I mean it lets you be more creative in that aspect of stuff, but like I said it is still work everyday.

Are you looking to sign anyone onto your record label?

Maybe.

Do you have any particular sound ideas, are you gonna keep it punk/ska-ish?

No, I mean, I would love to sign The Matches, that’d be an awesome band to sign, but I don’t know what would happen. There’s a couple other bands that we’ve talked about, but it has to be the five of us deciding, and that’s kind of hard sometimes to come to a mutual decision, if and when we decide to do it everybody will know.

A lot of bands are starting to try to do things on their own with the way the record industry is now. Do you think you guys are kind of pioneering a trend that may or may not start of bands doing everything on their own?

That’s a big word, pioneering. I would like to think, I know that there’s a lot of other bands that have done it. A band like NOFX has never been on a major label, they’ve always done it themselves. So I would say they’re really pioneers of this whole thing. But I think us, we just got to a point where we were like “why are we gonna pay somebody else money to do something that we know how to do?” So I think that’s what it boiled down to. We were confident in our abilities to do these other things that go along with running our own label. We wanted to be able to do that before we did anything else. I wouldn’t say that we’re pioneers but I would say that maybe we’ve put a new spin on it, some people haven’t seen yet.

Since you have been a band for so long now, how does it feel to know you came from a genre that was so popular and has since kind of faded out, but have stuck it out and continue to make hit records in your genre?

Confused. I suppose. Yeah, I don’t know. I’ve had that question asked before and I don’t know what made us outlast a lot of those other bands, but I’m sure as shit glad that we did! We’re just gonna kind of keep doing what we’ve always done. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it! So we just try to think forward, and try and do new things and cool things and keep our fans as involved and informed as possible. I guess that’s the secret.

And you love it as much as always?

Yeah!

Same hard work but same fun times?

Yeah, of course!

Going along with that last question, what would you say is personally your favorite Less Than Jake song and why?

Favorite Less Than Jake song? That’s a tough one. It’s like picking your favorite kid. I would say currently my favorite song is on our new record, it’s called “Abandon Ship,” and I think that song really encompasses us as a band. Everybody had an input on that song, so that’s what happens when everybody in the band puts input into a song, that’s what it is. I really think it’s a great song. I think lyrically it’s probably the strongest song on the record, ya know what I mean? Its one of those songs that everybody can relate to at a time, I mean lyrically. I think the melodies are really good, I think the chorus is different. It’s a good song, we’re proud of that. We’re proud of the whole record but I think that’s my favorite song right now.

Last question. As a band what are you listening to right now. What’s influencing you or what is just your favorite?

I’ve been listening to The Ramones a lot lately. Just cause, I don’t know, I’ve been on this Ramones kick. I’m trying to think if there’s anything newer. The new Dillinger 4 records are really good. This band Punchline just put out a new record that’s really good. Let’s see…And there’s a band called The Flatliners, they’re fantastic. I really think that they’re awesome. Their record’s really good, the band is really good. It’s cool. Those are basically the records I’ve been listening to.

Ok well that is the last question I have so if you want to add anything go ahead.

Yes! Go buy our record GNV FLA!