Less Than Jake

The calendar is empty.

It's been a wild and crazy ride for Gainesville's Less Than Jake, who
first met at the University Of Florida over a decade and a half ago.
But instead of kicking their feet up and resting on their laurels, the
ever-busy quintet have been working hard on the next chapter of Less
Than Jake. Successfully extricating themselves from their major label
contract (even though they still owed one more record to the label),
they started their own label, Sleep It Off Records, and now are in the
driver's seat. "After a decade an a half of being in the band, we are
now our own bosses for real and the excitement of that can peel paint
off the walls," says drummer Vinnie.

Before the band starts recording a new album this Spring (for
release in the Summer 2008), however, they are planning the re-release
of albums from their catalog… and first up are Pezcore, Losers, Kings
and Things We Don't Understand, Goodbye Blue and White, and the DVD The
People's History of Less Than Jake (more re-releases are planned for
the future). "We wanted to start with Losers, Kings, And Things We
Don't Understand, which was our first recorded material as a band,"
Vinnie continues. "These literally are some of the first songs we
recorded together, and it seemed obvious that it should be one of the
first releases on our newly started record label Sleep It Off. As a
musician, the fact that I can help not only in creative marketing but
release the actual audible history of our band on our own label is mind
blowing. I think it's a great time for the Music Industry that, despite
the lagging sales, you are allowed to write and rewrite the rules.
These days, it's like the Old West, so to speak."

Through their decade and a half career, they've traveled the world
multiple times -- with the Warped Tour, opening for Bon Jovi, and as
headliners. "Each record is a snapshot of who the band is and was at
the moment of writing and recording," Vinnie says. And what better way
to revisit their history than with a fresh new take on their old
material. Each re-release will come with all new artwork and a bonus
DVD of previously unreleased material.

"If you look at the career of our band you have the roots of the
tree and that's our initial inspiration that we used for the band,
which was East Bay pop/punk; Screeching Weasel, early Green Day,
Operation Ivy," Vinnie says. "If you look at that as the roots, then
you have our career as the body of the tree, and the leaves are the
latest inspirations of things, whether they're friends, family, or
whatever."

"People have a preconceived notion that Less Than Jake is a ska/punk
band, that we're wacky and silly, and that may be a certain side of
ourselves live, but there's also another side and that's a beautiful
thing about our band - it's multi-headed," he says proudly. "We can be
different things at different times; we can be socially relevant and we
can still be musically relevant 16 years after being together, still
progressing musically, not only as players, but as far as musical
direction. We can jump outside the box of what people expect, and now
that we're in control, what you'll be getting is Less Than Jake
-unfiltered and over-amplified."