GNV FLA

About

GNV FLA is the seventh studio album by Less Than Jake, released June 24, 2008 through the band's own label, Sleep It Off Record. Chris Demakes states that the band "wrote a quintessential Less Than Jake record" and that the album includes "lots of horns and lots of vocal." The album's title is an abbreviation of the band's hometown, Gainesville, Florida. Corey Apar from Allmusic writes that: "Less Than Jake have essentially created a bittersweet tribute to their hometown of Gainesville, sparing no detail in naming the album GNV FLA, stringing the liner notes together with bleak snapshots of the city, and littering song names and lyrics with nods to both the state of Florida and the beloved college town of their inception." In the album's liner note, the band thank the city, calling it: "the town that inspired the record." In an interview promoting the record, saxophonist JR states that when the band were: "conceptualizing what we wanted to do with the next record, we were like, "We should do what we've always done, and do what we do best. I think that's why we ended up calling the record "GNV FLA' (Gainesville Florida), because it's like we've come full circle, we've come home." Similarily, the press release for the album reads: It's a return to form that could be called the “traditional” Less Than Jake sound, complete with their trademark bouncy ska grooves and horns galore, GNV FLA comes full circle with the band’s beginning, when they were scrapping up money from gigs to augment their Pez collection. "Does the Lion City Still Roar?", was uploaded to their official website on May 25, 2008 for fans to download for free, and released as a single on June 17, 2008 with a b-side entitled "All Time Low." Scott Klopfenstein, from Reel Big Fish, provided additional trumpet parts on several track, while Neil Hennessy, from The Lawrence Arm, provides additional percussion throughout the album. The album debuted at #61 on the Billboard 200 and at #9 on the Top Independent Albums charts on the week ending on July 12th, selling 10,300 copies in that week. Regarding the band's decision to release the record on their own label, JR mentions that the band: "could have gone with Epitaph Records or Fat Wreck Chord, but we figured we had enough experience among the five of us doing almost every facet of what it takes to run a label. Now we control everything we do. It's kind of scary, kind of creepy and a lot of fun; I wake up every day at, like, 9 o'clock in the morning and I work on my band. And it's not just the music side of things; it's marketing, online promotion, talking to dudes at radio station. We work really hard and try to do it as best as we can. We're our own band, we're going to go on tour, put out record, and go on tour. That's it." .

via Last.fm

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