Nineties alt-rock icons the Spin Doctors have announced their first studio LP in 12 years — Face Full of Cake — due on April 11th via Capitol Records. The group has also released the album’s first single “Still A Gorilla” and its accompanying music video. “Still A Gorilla” finds the band showcasing a noisier, heavier sound but with the same sense of humor they’ve come to be known for. Inspired by the hard-hitting energy of Robyn’s “Konichiwa Bitches,” the track finds the long-running group exploring new territory after 35+ years.
In celebration, the band will play an album release show at New York’s Brooklyn Bowl on April 12th. Presales begin on Monday, January 20th with tickets on sale on Friday, January 24th.
“‘Still A Gorilla’ is a heavy-duty track about what it is to be human,” shares vocalist Chris Barron. “[Drummer] Aaron [Comess] had that piece of music around for quite a long time, and whenever he and I sat down to try and write some lyrics to it, it just never quite came together.” But then Comess sent Barron the Swede’s aforementioned 2005 song as a reference point and things came together. “Aaron was like, ‘A vibe like this would be cool,’ and the humor of that song gave me the entree into the song, so I just sat down and wrote that in an hour.”
The followup to 2013’s If the River Was Whiskey, the upcoming LP marks their debut on Capitol Records and the first Spin Doctors record with new bassist Jack Daley who joined the band full-time in 2021. Face Full of Cake can trace its origins back to the early days of the pandemic, but after several writing sessions – including time spent at the Vermont studio space of Phish’s Mike Gordon – and intimate hangs between guitarist Eric Schenkman and Barron, the album began to fully take shape. Recorded at Daley’s Asbury Park, NJ studio, the project has exploratory and easy energy that came from a laidback and low-pressure recording process.
“We weren’t really thinking of it as a record,” shares Comess. “We’ve gone through a lot of phases in our 35 years, and sometimes things really gel and sometimes they’re just extremely difficult. When we made this record, we captured a moment where it felt effortless. There’s a really fresh energy in the tracks—a sense of us discovering the songs as we played them.”
That energy is evident on the new LP, which features a combination of the easy-going hook-forward songs that made them so popular and the freewheeling jam sensibilities they’ve always exhibited with bluesy funk flavor and straightforward rock. It’s not so much a reinvention of the wheel but a fusion of everything they’ve done up to this point with an added fearlessness that comes from knowledge and practice.
“Spin Doctors fans are going to be knocked out by this new record,” shares Barron. “It’s got that vintage Spin Doctors sound of ear candy and denser material that harkens back to Pocket Full Of Kryptonite but with years of experience under our belts.”
Formed in 1988 in New York City, Spin Doctors’ full-length 1991 debut Pocket Full of Kryptonite sold over ten million copies across the world and spawned two massive singles: “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong,” which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart, and the now ubiquitous Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten hit “Two Princes,” which was the No. 1 Rock radio hit of 1993 and was nominated for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group at the Grammys. They’ve appeared on SNL, played major festivals like Glastonbury and opened for The Rolling Stones. And after three decades and nearly two thousand shows, Spin Doctors remain as committed as ever.
1. Boombox
2. Rock ‘N’ Roll Heaven
3. Still A Gorilla
4. The Heart Of The Highway
5. Double Parked
6. I Liked You Better When Your Butt Was Big
7. The Buddha On The Lawn
8. She Don’t Love Me Anymore (Anymore)
9. I’m The Man (You Got)
10. While You’re Holding The Moon (Over Me)
11. She Stands Alone
12. When You Got Turmoil In Your Mind
Spin Doctors 2025 Tour Dates:
Feb 22 – Saint Paul, MN @ Rock From The Heart
Mar 1 – Suquamish, WA @ Suquamish Clearwater Casino Resort
Apr 12 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Bowl
May 25 – Allston, MA @ Boston Calling Festival
June 5 – Park City, UT @ Egyptian Theatre
June 6 – Park City, UT @ Egyptian Theatre
June 7 – Park City, UT @ Egyptian Theatre
June 8 – Park City, UT @ Egyptian Theatre
“Face Full Of Cake” Bio
Spin Doctors’ first album in 12 years is at once a bold leap for a legendary band and the sound
of a group truly revitalized. Marking their debut on new label home and iconic major Capitol
Records, Face Full of Cake finds the alt-rock veterans in top form with an abundance of hooks
in their arsenal and the warm, funky sound that longtime fans have come to expect from them.
The record truly marks a new era for Spin Doctors, and with a blockbuster summer tour on the
horizon and new bassist Jack Daley in tow, it’s impossible not to catch the thrilling feeling that
this 35 years strong-and-running crew is, despite their wealth of experience, just getting started.
Face Full of Cake marks the quartet’s return after 2013’s If the River Was Whiskey; according
to drummer Aaron Comess, its creative genesis began while the group was isolating during the
early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. “It had been a while since we had made a record,” he
recalls. “We had talked about it for a while, but nobody was really motivated enough to get
together and start the process.”
Initially, several writing sessions took place; at one point, guitarist Eric Schenkman and singer
Chris Barron hunkered down at the Vermont studio space of Phish member Mike Gordon. No
one in group had seen each other since before lockdown, so these early creative huddles
provided a sentimental bent that supercharged their creative energy. “It wasn’t just a writing
session—it was a very heartwarming reunion between two old friends,” Barron says of his and
Schenkman’s time in Vermont. “We really missed each other. We would goof off and end up
writing three songs in like, three hours.”
The album continued to come together after a series of intimate hangs between Comess and
Barron (“I’ve figured out after 35 years that the best way to get Chris to write with me is to invite
him over for dinner,” Comess chuckles), but a crucial element to Face Full of Cake’s formation
was the addition of new bassist Jack Daley, who makes his studio debut with Spin Doctors after
joining the band full-time in 2021 to replace former bassist Mark White while on tour. Following
the extensive demoing process, the quartet decamped to Asbury Park, splitting time between
hotel digs and Daley’s studio space where recording took place. “I was super psyched that they
wanted to do it at my studio,” Daley recalls. “When we got into the studio, everyone was really
supportive and gave me some pointers about not being afraid to step out a little bit or play a little
busier. We had a blast making this record—it was nothing but positive energy.”
“Jack is very humble, and he’s good at being a journeyman—but he’s also a great freaking
ensemble member,” Schenkman beams when talking about the latest addition to the band. “The
studio was great, the vibe was incredible, and we were getting to know each other even better
than before.” “Any time you add a new member to a band, it can go either way—but there was a
renewed energy, and Jack just brings this really fat groove to the band while also sounding
authentically like Spin Doctors,” Comess adds. “It’s hard to understate what a monumental
musical achievement that is. The second we started playing with him, it was instantly evident
that it was going to work out.”
There’s a freewheeling and easy energy to the 12 tracks that make up Face Full of Cake,
reflecting the refreshingly breezy recording process that the band experienced as a result of
fostering a low-pressure environment. “We weren’t really thinking of it as a record,” Comess
explains. “We’ve gone through a lot of phases in our 35 years, and sometimes things really gel
and sometimes they’re just extremely difficult. When we made this record, we captured a
moment where it felt effortless. There’s a really fresh energy in the tracks—a sense of
us discovering the songs as we played them.”
At times, inspiration would come from surprising places: The riff-heavy “Still A Gorilla” had been
knocking about in Spin Doctors’ drafts for a minute, and at times it seemed like the song was a
locked door with no key. “Aaron had that piece of music around for quite a long time, and whenever
he and I sat down to try and write some lyrics to it, it just never quite came together,” Barron
explains—but after Comess sent over Swedish electro-pop sensation Robyn’s “Konichiwa Bitches”
as a possible reference for the energy they wanted to capture, Barron locked his part in. “He was
like, ‘A vibe like this would be cool,” he laughs, “and the humor of that song gave me the entree into
the song, so I just sat down and wrote that in an hour.”
The shimmying “Rock ‘n’ Roll Heaven” is a wry slice of observational lyricism from Barron,
reflecting on his and the band’s career as musical journeymen and the highs and lows of being
a musician at large. “I’ve always been obsessed with the idea of a rock and roll afterlife,” he
recalls while explaining the song’s lyrics, which came together during a trip to Spain.” I was
walking around jotting stuff down about what it would be like to go to heaven and be around a
bunch of other musicians. I’ve never been the kind of person who complains about rock and
roll and stuff, but it’s a job, and just like any other job there’s a lot of b.s. that you have to deal
with. What would it be like to eternally have all of those things be solved in the most pleasant
way possible?”
Then there’s the soaring, passionate “Heart of the Highway,” which Schenkman
enthusiastically refers to as “emotive as fuck” and zooms in on the risks and rewards that come
with a life lived on the road. “One of the ongoing themes of this band is the juxtaposition of
living your dream and doing what you love,” Barron says, “but paying the price of being away
from home and the people that you love in order to do that. The song is a bit of a poem about
how it feels to be far from home.”
Indeed, Spin Doctors have been on a journey for the last three-and-a-half decades, and they
show no signs of stopping—and as Schenkman points out, Face Full of Cake feels like a true
full-circle moment in regards to their starmaking 1991 record Pocket Full of Kryptonite. “The
moment that we walked into the room, there was plenty of reasons to believe it wouldn’t work—
but as soon as we played three notes, we knew we had it,” he says. “The same thing happened
with this record. There’s a lot of joy emanating from all of us in this band.”
(source: official press release, photo used by permission)
