Brand New Shoes

The new Ryan Shupe & The Rubberband album has just been released. I attended the release party last week and had a chance to catch up with Ryan Shupe, and play ultimate frisbee with the guys in the band.

I was lucky enough to help with recording of two of the songs on the album. I was eager to see if I could hear myself in the recordings, and see my name printed in the cd booklet. I have always wanted to be involved in some kind of professional recording, and now I finally got that chance. It's so exciting listening to the songs I am in. I laugh every time, because for some reason my voice stands out. Ryan told me that he could totally hear my voice in Beep above all the rest. I think I was just closer to the microphone than everyone else. I told Ryan that I hoped that I didn't ruin the song, but he reassured me that it sounded great.

This album was recorded 2 blocks down the street from my house in a small recording studio. The band put a lot of hard work in to the album and produced it themselves. It features such classics as "Baldy", "He knows Karate," and "Beep, Beep, Beep."

Ryan wrote "Baldy" as a country music parody about "the greatest cat he has ever known," because Shupe wanted to write the best country song that ever existed. People in Nashville would tell them that their music just wasn't quite country enough, so Shupe decided to pen a country song that involved typical country items such as cowboy boots, county fair, SUV, shot out to the military, etc. According to Ryan, these are all a variety of items generally included in a standard country song.

"This album features top notch musicianship, witty creative songwriting and great musical depth. The title track is a fun jam dance tuned about a kid's pair of 'Brand New Shoes' that not only helps him run faster and jump higher, but lands him on the news stations and gets everyone talking. It's post Heehaw, Funkadelic Hiphop New Grass in its finest form."

In addition to the new album, the band recorded the music for the new Toy Story 3 video game. How much fun is that? That will be interesting to play a game with their music in it.

Check out their new album. You can listen to it free on their website where it can also be purchased. Shupe.net