Man, I had just entered my freshman year in college up in Virginia and Hootie and the Blowfish (I had never heard of them at the time) was playing in the quad during what was practically the first weekend of the school year. There were like 50-75 people out there. They were up on a makeshift stage playing everything they could think of, taking requests, talking to students walking by, having a beer or two, basically acting like some student band. They finally finished up with a cover of, "Love the One You're With" before setting up their merchandise at a table they had dragged out of the student center. I thought they were good and entertaining so I picked up their "brand new CD" Cracked Rear View. A couple months later they show up on MTV and I'm like "Holy ****! NO ONE bothered to come out when they were playing live and now they're hitting the big time!" Now Darius hawks artery busters for Burger King. I feel old.
Here's an article that was written last week. It does give you a sense of its sound somewhat. Hootie-ized and Looking for Luck Ten years after “Cracked Rear View” went No. 1, Hootie and The Blowfish are still making records. “Looking For Lucky,” the band’s latest — and its first without Atlantic Records — is to be released Aug. 9 on Sneaky Long Records. Guitarist Mark Bryan said the album is sonic, with plenty of sound experimentation, noises and effects. Don’t get scared, yet, Hootie fans. “No matter what we bring in, it’s got to sound like Hootie to make the record,” Bryan said. “Everything we do ends up being Hootiezed.” The guys brought more than 50 songs into their recording sessions and narrowed “Looking For Lucky” down to the 10 best. Fifty sounds like a lot, but bringing in only a handful didn’t work out for the band before. “That would be called our third album (‘Musical Chairs’),” drummer Jim “Soni” Sonefeld said. “That’s not a great way to approach a record.” Going into recording, lead singer Darius Rucker could see the end of the band. “It was 70/30 I was gonna quit,” he said. “After recording, I was blown away. “I haven’t been this excited about a record in a long, long time.” Hootie’s first six albums were released by Atlantic, but the last of original material, 2003’s “Hootie & The Blowfish,” didn’t get the push from the record company the band thought it deserved. The guys say “Looking For Lucky” will get a better shot by going through Sneaky Long, which the band owns. And if it flops, well, bassist Dean Felber knows who to blame. “(The band’s manager) Doc McGhee said, ‘Well if this doesn’t work, it’s my fault. You’ve given me the best music you could give me,’” Felber said. “He doesn’t give compliments slightly.”
Well today is August 9th meaning "Looking for Lucky" is out in stores. For those of you who have liked their past work this is a return to a "Cracked Rear View" style. There isn't a bad song on the album, which i couldn't say about their 2003 disaster of an album. If you don't believe me take a listen at Vh1 http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/hootie_blowfish/949941/album.jhtml Best Material since 1996, thoughts?
I like "One Love", I haven't heard any of the rest of it yet. I loved "Innocence", was that from the 2003 album? If so, it couldn't have been a total "disaster."
Yeah, "Innocence" was from the 2003 album. It was the best track on the record. It happened to be the only track not produced by Don Was who butchered the rest of the album. Enough about that The song that seems to jump out to most people is "Hey Sister Pretty". It's got a great guitar riff and a catchy chorus. It sounds like something they've never recorded before and will probably wind up as the 2nd single. They released the video for "One Love" Today as well. You can check it out here One Love video They ended up writing all but 2 songs with nashville song writers so the material is strong from top to bottom. Everyone stepped up their game. Hopefully the fans show up and give them a respectable debut on the billboard. We'll see...
picked it up today, love it **12 hours later** at first i really liked about 4 or 5 of the tracks on here, but the more i listen to the album, the more the entire cd grows on me. i'm glad hbf is back
