When Southern California rockers Unwritten Law release their Lava Records debut, Music in High Places, on January 28th, they'll owe a thank you to Interscope Records, who unceremoniously dumped the band earlier this fall. The record company let them walk with the rights to what frontman Scott Russo thinks might be their best album yet.

"It's eleven of our best songs all acoustic," Russo says of the set, recorded in Yellowstone National Park for the MTV DVD series of the same name. "Fuck yeah, we'll take that. And we'll bring it right over here to our friends at Lava, and they can run with it."

And considering they weren't supposed to be on the series in the first place, Unwritten Law came out of the deal just fine. "Our manager's name is Bill Silva," Russo explains, "and Jimmy Eat World's manager's name is John Silva. The MTV producers wanted them, but they got the wrong manager's name. So they called Bill and said, 'We want your band for Music in High Places,' and he was all over it. Then they said something about Jimmy Eat World, and he said, 'I manage a band called Unwritten Law.' We had a couple songs on the radio, so they were fine with it."

"MTV sends bands everywhere -- Jamaica, Australia," Russo says. "And we got Cody, Wyoming. I grew up on the beach. I'm not really used to dirt and camping and becoming part of the food chain."

Not tropical paradise, but not bad, either. Russo says the band worked hard to match its songs to the setting: "MTV wanted us to have a set list done before we started playing, but we weren't that into that idea. It's like sequencing a record -- every song has its own time and place. One location was surrounded by dead trees, where a forest fire had gone through, so we choose 'Before I Go,' kind of a 'death' song. I think it made MTV really reconsider the way they wanted to do the show, in terms of making artists come up with a set list. They said ours was the best one they'd ever done."

The band also got a little help from some locals: Crow Indians come out in full dress for ceremonial dances. "Those people are beautiful," Russo says. "We ended up playing the song 'Babalon' to their drum beats. It didn't make the record because the sound was all bleeding to the drum kit, so it couldn't be mixed, but is definitely going to be on the DVD."

And Russo says that when Unwritten Law visit Denver this month on their tour in support of this year's Elva, the Crow will join them on stage for a reunion.

Music in High Places track listing:

Before I Go
Rest of My Life
Seein' Red
Up All Night
Blame It on Me
Geronimo
Cailin
Rescue Me
Elva
How you Feel
Shallow

Unwritten Law tour dates:

12/6: Norfolk, VA, Constant Convocation Center
12/7: West Palm Beach, FL, Coral Sky Amphitheater
12/8: Clearwater, FL, Coachman Park
12/10: Vail, CO, 8150 Club
12/11: Denver, Fillmore Auditorium
12/13: Boise, ID, Big Easy
12/14: Los Angeles, Hollywood Palladium

AUGUSTIN SEDGEWICK
(December 4, 2002)