The summer of an odd-numbered year has nearly slipped away. It seems unlikely that the absence of a Smash Mouth album has had anything to do with sagging record sales, but in dropping their first two albums in the summers of 1997 and 1999, the group had become something of the unofficial boys of summer, picking up the gauntlet abandoned by Major League Baseball after the sport soiled its purity with a no-show World Series in the Nineties.

Smash Mouth initially planned on releasing their self-titled third album this summer, but recording delays have pushed the album back to a November 14th release, suggesting that the San Jose foursome might be pumping some sun into the winter months.

"We've moved it twenty times," frontman Steve Harwell jokes about the album's release date. Harwell says that a combination of factors led to the album's delay, including the relocation of their producer Eric Valentine's studio from the Bay Area to Los Angeles. "This thing should have been done a year ago," he continues, laughing. "That was my biggest worry, because we are a summertime band. And radio was like, 'Wait a minute, something's wrong here.' I'm like, 'Sorry, we're almost there, we're almost there.' In that time we were writing more songs and just trying to figure out what everybody wanted from us. We just wanted to put out a really good third record. I think personally it's ten times the last record."

The eponymous title was the result of a contest the band held, allowing their fans the opportunity to name the album. Due to disagreement among the band about the thousands of suggestions, two lucky, minimalist-minded fans will receive a mention in the liner notes, for coming up with "Smash Mouth." And after two albums of spacey-kitsch cover art, the band has opted for a relatively calm photo of the members. Could this suggest a newfangled Smash Mouth? "It's not a reinvention," Harwell says. "It's more of a drastic change. I said, you know what, it's our third record, we've never self-titled anything, why don't we just call it Smash Mouth. It's kind of the cool thing to do right now. And when you start working on cover art, you can get overwhelmed by all the stuff coming at you. I said, 'Let's just get a great photo of the band and throw some good colors behind the picture.' We were way more worried about the music. You see bands who put out these super-elaborate, over-the-top CD covers that cost more than the CD's worth and the music sucks."

As for the music within, Harwell suggests the album will fuse Smash Mouth's garage rock past with some forward-thinking sounds. "We have a song called 'Force Field' that's a little more guitar oriented," Harwell says, "and we've got the classic Smash Mouth sound on there with a song called 'Holiday.' It's definitely got the 'Walking on the Sun' vibe. We've kind of covered the gamut on this one. If you listen to it front to back, it feels really good. You can't really disappoint your old fans, but we want to be able to gain new fans and prove to everybody that we can do it. It's just fun, man."

The album's first single, "Pacific Coast Party," will be released to radio on September 20th. "It opens up with a string section that sounds like a C.Hi.P.S. episode," Harewell says. "It's very danceable, but it still has that Smash Mouth edge to it, but it's super poppy and fun and it just felt good."

The band is currently will tour into late October.

Smash Mouth tour dates:

9/25: Philadelphia, Theater of Living Arts
9/28: Charlotte, NC, Queen City Music Festival
9/29: Antioch, TN, AmSouth Amphitheater
10/13: Tucson, AZ, KROQ Radio Show
10/14: Scottsdale, AZ, Cajun House
10/15: Las Vegas, The Joint
10/17: San Diego, Canes
10/18: Los Angeles, El Rey Theater
10/19: Los Angeles, Loyola Marymount University
10/20: Ventura, CA, Ventura Theater
10/21: Arcata, Humboldt State University
10/23: Santa Cruz, CA, The Catalyst
10/24: San Francisco, TBA

ANDREW DANSBY
(September 25, 2001)