Album Notes

DD69's first record, Funk Out With Your Junk Out, is a rip through a well-stocked jukebox, with smooth funk that would have been at home on a turntable three decades ago mixing with a contemporary guitar-heavy party vibe that could have been recorded two weeks ago.

Or at any point between 1998 and 2007. But we'll get to that in a minute.

Funk Out is remarkable in displaying the ease that the double-d-6-9 moves among styles, kicking off a song with meaty guitar riffs before sliding into a reggae groove in the bridge. Witness "Sleeper", which offers an off-kilter reggae base supporting the rest of the song's muscular frame; "FWOP" takes it a step further, gliding from a smoky late-night groove to an angular ska and a respectable shot at white-boy hip-hop. The disparate styles should be difficult to manage - especially within the framework of a single song -- but DD69 makes the adventure seem natural.

The musicianship is solid throughout as well, reflecting - and supporting - the wide range the band is willing to tackle. "Get U Fed" is a rhythmic machine, with bass and guitar meshing perfectly into a razor-sharp edge. That song's weight contrasts nicely with "Advice Again" and its slippery guitar lines or "Cherry Kool-Aid" and its loping reggae background. This is what the Red Hot Chili Peppers wished they still sounded like.

Funk Out With Your Junk Out is a heavyweight record, fitting for musicians Scott Martin and Mike Adams, who did take only eight years to finish the project. Hence, the earlier reference to 1998 and 2007, the dates during which Funk Out was recorded. Hey -- they're perfectionists, OK?

Of course, the record couldn't have happened at all without help from the drunkdude69 collective: amazing musicians in Nashville (Jim Evans - drum wizard), Los Angeles (Maurice Adams - guitar stroker), New York (Joe "Coach" Hanna - drum pummeler) and Cleveland (Jeff Nagel - guitar noodler, Mike Holloran - percussion smacker, Jay Goodman - special sauce vocals). Having exhausted their talented friends with the demanding eight year production schedule, Adams and Martin lured wizened-sage-turned-drummer Charley Newcomer and former hair metal string bender K-Billy into rounding out the full-time DD69 lineup.

Let's just hope it doesn't take another eight to get that next record done.

- Michael Pound