Reel Big Fish are back with the surprise release of their boisterous new single titled, ‘You Can’t Have All Of Me,’ and have announced plans to release ‘Life Sucks…Let’s Dance!,’ their first LP of brand new material in 6 years, on December 21 via Rock Ridge Music.
The single, a high energy skank-athon that is sure to please both longtime fans and new converts, is one of 14 new tracks that makes up the upcoming album.
Founding member and frontman Aaron Barrett says, “I have an unhealthy obsession with my dog Walter and I started singing little songs to him about how cute he was. Then I realized I had written some pretty catchy songs. So I changed all the lyrics because I didn’t think anybody would want to hear a rock opera about my dog.
We started recording the album in January 2018 and really took our time with it. Our friend and engineer David Irish just finished building his new studio “Pot of Gold” in Orange, CA, and we loved how everything sounds there, and there’s just really good energy and good vibes there and there’s a really adorable studio kitten named Iggy Fluff there, so we may have accidentally made a positive, happy record instead of a pissed off, hateful record, oops…well, there’s a little pissed off-ness in there and some sarcastic, funny lyrics as usual!
Also, I just got married so there might be a few sappy love songs on the album too! Yuck!
Recording the album with this line up was really fun, we all get along really well these days and everybody was excited to make a new record. Everybody had lots of great ideas and really got creative with everything and I really think it shows.
The new single is a danceable sing along, catchy, hooky good old Reel Big Fish song.
We didn’t reinvent the wheel…
We just painted more checkers on it!”
Regarding the video, Barrett adds, “We just wanted to keep the new video simple, just the band playing in the studio and rocking out…mostly because all of us were out of town after warped tour till the night we left for this current tour so we only had a few hours to shoot a video. Tunnel Light pictures did an awesome job making a quick video and it was easy and a lot of fun.”
The long-running ska heroes, fresh off a summer-long stint on the final cross-country Vans Warped Tour, and appearances at Scallywag! Fest (with Bad Religion, Pennywise, Less Than Jake and The Interrupters) and Sammy Hagar’s Hightide Beach Party, are back on the road, headlining the The Tickle My Tiki TOURch with support from Ballyhoo! and We Are The Union. The tour will be followed by a UK co-headline run with their old pals in Less Than Jake.