Moe. - What Happened to the la Las - Music & Performance - CD

After funding, producing, and releasing their own albums for the better part of two decades, moe. went corporate (by jam band standards, at least) by signing with Sugar Hill Records. What Happened to the La Las kicks off the new partnership with a mix of heady Southern rock and rootsy, festival-friendly funk. Longtime fans may be worried about the loss of moe.'s cottage industry, and some of the band￢ﾀﾙs defining characteristics -- the improvised sprawl of their jams, the multi-minute length of their guitar solos -- do get tempered this time around, thanks in large part to John Travis, the band￢ﾀﾙs first outside producer since 1998￢ﾀﾙs Tin Cans and Car Tires. Travis polishes up the band￢ﾀﾙs sound and smooths down their rough edges, but moe. still sound like moe., particularly on guitar-heavy songs like ￢ﾀﾜDownward Facing Dog￢ﾀﾝ and ￢ﾀﾜPaper Dragon.￢ﾀﾝ Several of the remaining eight songs have been kicking around moe.'s set lists for years, meaning even the most conservative-minded moe.-rons -- i.e. the ones who don￢ﾀﾙt want to share their band with a label, even one as sympathetic as Sugar Hill -- will have something familiar to cling to. But What Happened to the La Las doesn￢ﾀﾙt want to throw its listeners for a loop. It wants to evolve, to amplify the band￢ﾀﾙs eclectic noise, to bring another musical mind into the creation process and see what happens. ~ Andrew Leahey, Rovi