GNV FLA is the seventh studio album by American rock band Less Than Jake, released on June 24, 2008, on their own label, Sleep It Off Records. Following the poor reception to their sixth studio album In with the Out Crowd (2006), the band started writing material for its follow-up less than a year later. They set up Sleep It Off Records after leaving Sire Records and recorded their next album in March and April 2008. It was produced by both Matt Allison and the band's co-lead vocalist and bassist Roger Lima. GNV FLA is a ska punk and pop-punk album that recalls the sound of the band's third studio album, Hello Rockview (1999).
GNV FLA received generally favorable reviews from critics, many of whom praised the return to Less Than Jake's earlier sound, while others complimented the songwriting. The album peaked at number 61 on the Billboard 200 in the United States, after selling over 10,000 copies in its first week. "Does the Lion City Still Roar?" was released as the album's lead single; coinciding with this, the band went on a US tour with Goldfinger until August 2008. They toured Canada with Reel Big Fish and ended the year with an appearance at The Fest. In early 2009, they toured Australia as part of the Soundwave festival, and went on a US East Coast tour with the Expendables, leading to performances on the Warped Tour.
Background and writing Less Than Jake released their sixth studio album, In with the Out Crowd, in May 2006 through Sire Records, peaking at number 78 on the Billboard 200 in the United States. The band had disagreements with the producer of the album, who wanted a rock sound, whereas they wanted a different sound. The album was poorly received by their fans; trombonist Buddy Schaub said the band was equally dismissive of it. While touring in support of the album, the band would only play a few songs from it live, instead opting to focus on the rest on their past releases. In February 2007, the band performed a series of shows where they played a few of the albums from their back catalogue in their entirety.
In March 2007, the band said it would a "writing year for us", hoping to release an album the following year. Two months later, they announced that they had left Sire and its parent company Warner Music Group. In July and August 2007, the band went on a co-headlining US tour with Reel Big Fish. Following this, work on a new album began in earnest. They wrote material in a warehouse where they practiced and at Lima's house; they recorded rough sketches that the members used as a reference to suggest ideas for.Sleep It Off Records 2008c, event occurs at 0:50–8 Drummer Vinnie Fiorello said the full-album shows "set a good direction in writing new songs". In September and October 2007, they embarked on a tour of the UK and Japan, and ended the year with an Australian tour.
Label and recording In January 2008, the band started their own label, Sleep It Off, through which they reissued their back catalogue. Alongside this, Fiorello revealed that they were allowed to leave their contract with Warner, despite still owing them another album. He mentioned that when they were on Sire, some members wanted opportunities such as radio play and MTV appearances, while others did not; being on their own label would allow them to find a common goal. Fiorello mentioned that the band potentially could have worked with labels such as Fat Wreck Chords and Epitaph Records, but they felt they had experience between them that they should self-release it.Sleep It Off Records 2008a, event occurs at 0:48–1:13
At Sleep It Off, Lima described each members' role: frontman Chris DeMakes "doesn’t really do that much, he’s the lead singer he’s allowed to do whatever he wants"; Lima tackles audio; Schaub handles video content; saxophonist Peter "JR" Wasilewski does the online aspect; and Fiorello "deals with everything else", with assistance from their publicist Rey Roldan. The album was recorded between March and April 2008 with producer Matt Allison at Atlas Studios in Chicago, Illinois. The workdays typically consisted of midday to midnight hours.Sleep It Off Records 2008b, event occurs at 3:24–6 Lima co-produced the sessions; Allison also acted as engineer and mixed the recordings, before the album was mastered by Howie Weinberg at Masterdisk in New York City.
Composition and lyrics
Themes and music The album's title is an abbreviation of the band's hometown, Gainesville, Florida. Corey Apar from Allmusic writes that: "Less Than Jake have essentially created a bittersweet tribute to their hometown of Gainesville, sparing no detail in naming the album GNV FLA, stringing the liner notes together with bleak snapshots of the city, and littering song names and lyrics with nods to both the state of Florida and the beloved college town of their inception." Sputnikmusic staff writer Dave de Sylvia said "in recent years, [Gainesville has] become a hotbed for property development as generic suburbia replaces the individual character the city used to possess". In the album's liner notes, the band thank the city, calling it: "the town that inspired the record."
DeMakes and Lima wrote ideas acoustically for the album on their bus while touring; the pair would have a rough outline for a song, which the rest of the band then worked on.Sleep It Off Records 2008b, event occurs at 1:15–39 They left sections for horns that JR and Schaub would try to write some parts around these at the latter's house before showing the other members.Sleep It Off Records 2008b, event occurs at 2:03–13 DeMakes states that they came up with a "quintessential Less Than Jake record" and that the album includes "lots of horns and lots of vocals."Less Than Jake: Latest CD Is 'A Quintessential LTJ Record' | Interviews @ Ultimate-Guitar.Com Fiorello said they "wanted to make a record that had the urgency of earlier records but with tighter production". In a later interview, Fiorello considered it to be his least favorite Less Than Jake album. "I think I look at it as a transition record. [...] it was in the winter and my focus was a bit dark on the lyrical side. [...] I just feel the overall production is stiff and dark. [...] It was tribute to the state of Florida. I focused a lot on the darker side of what Florida has, instead of the good things. I concentrated on drug dealers and tourists and real estate scams and trailer parks and transients." Andrew Welsh of Daily Record said it was "[e]ssentially a concept album, GNV FLA turns the microscope on the seamier side of life in the Jakesters’ sun-kissed backyard".
Musically, the sound of GNV FLA has been described by Apar as ska punk, reminiscent of the band's third studio album, Hello Rockview (1999). Alex Young of Consequence of Sound referred to it as a pop-punk album where ska "only shines through a fraction". Apar said DeMakes and Lima "seamlessly switch off on vocals as driving power chords and sunny ska riffs alternately cut through hammering drumbeats, and high-spirited horns punch their way through it all". Some tracks, such as "Does the Lion City Still Roar?" and "This One Is Going to Leave a Bruise", lean on the punk side of ska punk. The lyrics touch on drunk nights, frustrations and time spent doing nothing. Fiorello said with the album he wished to "create a small movie based on a few different people. I wanted to make it a little more cinematic" than their past works. He took inspiration from the material of Billy Bragg, Elvis Costello and Bruce Springsteen: "I always refer back to those three particular people when it comes to just singing about normal people with normal problems". Fiorello mentioned that a majority of the album deals "economics and social-ness of small towns" in Europe and the US, as well as the "middle class that's shrinking because of how the economy is". Scott Klopfenstein of Reel Big Fish provided trumpet parts on the album, while Neil Hennessy of the Lawrence Arms contributed percussion.
Tracks GNV FLA opens with "City of Gainesville", a reggae track that recalls the work of Sublime, and is followed by the up-tempo ska song "The State of Florida", which talks about Florida sinking into the ocean. "Does the Lion City Still Roar?", which was released ahead of the rest of the album, showed a reversal to the band's sound at the time. They had toned down the ska parts of their sound in favor of a basic rock approach since their fifth studio album, Anthem (2003). "Summon Monsters" is a socially satirical track with elements of punk rock that tackles kids and drugs. It includes a spoken-word portion from a friend of the band's. "Abandon Ship" is introspective grunge song with an uplifting chorus section. "Handshake Meet Pokerface" discusses a single mother trying to do anything for her children. Discussing the title, Fiorello said: "You're shaking someone's hand and you're smiling but that smile's your poker face".
"Settling Son" features metal guitar riffs in the style of Avenged Sevenfold. "Malachi Richter's Liquor's Quicker" talks about Malachi Richter, a person that self-immolate as a protest against the Iraq War. Fiorello said: "it has everything to do with being at the end of your rope and thinking that the only thing you can do is fucking light yourself on fire to end it all". It features morse code because of a sample the band had included in the track, which translates to "We may lose hope but there's always hope", which was Richter's mission statement. "Golden Age of My Negative Ways" and "The Space They Can't Touch" are two ska songs, the latter of which evokes Panic! at the Disco during the chorus section. "The Life of the Party Has Left the Building", a short introductory song akin to "City of Gainesville", bookends the party song "This One Is Going to Leave a Bruise" and the aggressive closing track, "Devil in My DNA". The latter was reminiscent of the work of NOFX.
Release On April 23, 2008, GNV FLA was announced for release in two months' time; its track listing was posted online. Shortly afterwards, the band appeared at The Bamboozle festival. "Does the Lion City Still Roar?" was posted online on May 26, 2008, followed by "Abandon Ship" two weeks later. Preceded by a few shows with the Swellers, Mustard Plug and Suburban Legends, the band went on the Sleep It Off Tour with Goldfinger, Westbound Train, Suburban Legends, and Big D and the Kids Table until August 2008. GNV FLA was made available for streaming, as well as being released on June 24 through Sleep It Off Records. Fiorello's idea for the artwork was taking black-and-white photographs and adding on top "this world that's around Gainesville that you wouldn't necessarily see to the naked eye, but that's there, this sort of hyper-reality".Sleep It Off Records 2008d, event occurs at 3:15–36 When he contacted Richard Minino of production company Horsebites with this concept in mind, Minino was enthusiastic about the project.Sleep It Off Records 2008d, event occurs at 3:58–4:06 It was distributed in the UK through the label Cooking Vinyl. "Does the Lion City Still Roar?" was released as a single on June 30, with "All Time Low" and a demo of "Handshake Meets Pokerface" as the B-sides; a music video was released for the "Does the Lion City Still Roar?" on August 4, 2008.