San Jose, Calif. hitmakers Smash Mouth have decided to let fans name their forthcoming album. In a contest running now through Jan. 15, 'Mouth men and women can send in their title suggestions for the follow-up to 1999's poly-platinum Astro Lounge.

"It's time to give somebody else a shot to do this," Harwell says. "We could be doing other things. I think there's enough talent out there, I wanna see someone else show their skills. I'd love to see a kid do this." Harwell says the band will be sorting through the entries in the coming months and that the winner will receive full credit on the new album.

The foursome, now with official new drummer Michael Urbano firmly in the fold, have tracked roughly fifteen tunes (a few will be trimmed off) for the untitled set over the past month at Skywalker Ranch Studios in Marin, Calif. The album should be completed in the coming months with all remaining work to be done at the Los Angeles studio the band's longtime producer, Eric Valentine, recently purchased from Stevie Wonder. The band hopes to have a single on the airwaves in early March, with the album to drop in April. For the release, Harwell is plotting a "massive, crazy, wacko release party" in his adopted hometown, Las Vegas.

On the nature of the forthcoming release, Harwell says, "Everything that's on this record so far is definitely about what the band has gone through in the last couple of years. We've been through a lot of ups and downs: band member changes, relationships, having kids . . . The new record is heavier. I think we have a couple of songs that are a little more Foo Fighter -ish. I love what Dave Grohl does, his guitar parts. We need to get alternative radio back in our pocket. Alternative radio changed and didn't bring us with it. We started in alternative and want to go back there." Specifically, Harwell's discussing alternative radio's current tryst with Nü Metal, a love affair that's pushed Smash Mouth and like acts (Sugar Ray , No Doubt) over to softer formatted stations. While the past few years found them more often spun between Vertical Horizon and the Wallflowers than Blink-182 and Green Day, Harwell welcomes any band aficionados even as he's confident their new record will please a disparate set. "Fans are fans. I don't give a shit. I love everybody," Harwell says. "Radio play in general is great but I'm hoping this time, we can corner Top 40 and alternative. Songs like 'All-Star' and 'Then the Morning Comes' [from Astro Lounge] don't exactly fit with what's on alternative radio right now. We're concentrating on making a record that can go everywhere."

Though Harwell dabbled in songwriting for Astro, scripting "Come On Come On" and "Fallen Horses," for the upcoming album he's bowing out of the penning process. "I know my role in this band." He says. "My role is to be the frontman. I always tell Greg [Camp, guitarist], `You build the fucking racecar, I'll drive it.' Greg is a great mechanic. I'm not gonna step in and fuck with a perfect equation. Once we start doing that . . . you start having Third Eye Blind syndrome where everyone wants to put their song on the record and then the all the sudden a guy gets kicked out of the band for being more talented than everybody else."

As for the departure of drummer and founding member Kevin Coleman, the band had begun using different skinsmen early in the Astro Lounge tour in 1999, first Mitch Marine (late of Tripping Daisy) and later Urbano, who has worked with Sheryl Crow, Paul Westerberg, John Hiatt and Buffalo Tom, among others.

"It might not have been a mutual decision," Harwell says of Coleman's departure. "It was at a point where our record label [Interscope] wanted to pull us off tour 'cause we were sucking so bad. It wasn't because Kevin didn't know how to play, it was 'cause Kevin couldn't play. We were committed to him but at some point we had to decide what we wanted to do."

Harwell says that, despite persistent rumors, Coleman's dismissal had nothing to do with drug problems (the drummer had struggled with chemical dependency in his pre-Smash Mouth days). "What's true is that [Coleman] was having back problems. Kevin was clean and sober when he was in Smash Mouth and I think he still is, I hope so. I think about him everyday. I heard he had a child recently. I heard from a mutual friend that he's been wanting to talk to us. Greg and Paul [DeLisle, bassist] spoke with him once since all that stuff happened but I really haven't. We grew up together. I miss him. If you see this, Kevin, give me a call."

In the meantime, Harwell and his wife are expecting a baby boy on Feb. 16. No public contest will be held to name the child as the couple have already agreed on Presley Scott, the first name an homage to the King. Harwell's also founded his own record label, Spunout, and hopes to have the imprint's first album (from Bay Area popsters Fuse) out in early 2001.

And as for fans interested in naming the next Smash Mouth album, they can procure an entry form for the name-game by sending a request to:

Smash Mouth "Name Our Album" Contest
Fanscape
3201 West Cahuenga Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90068
Attention: Smash Mouth Contest

Aspiring namers can also enter via the band's Web site at www.smashmouth.com.

GREG HELLER
(December 14, 2000)