''Viva Nueva!'' is the fourth album by the

Rustic Overtones Rustic Overtones is an American rock band from Maine, United States, active between 1993–2002 and from 2007–present. They were the first group to perform live on XM Satellite Radio, and their 2007 album ''Light at the End'' was the fastest-s ...

, released in 2001 before their highly publicized breakup a year later. With 16 tracks, the album has the most songs of any Rustic Overtones album to date.

Tommy Boy Records Tommy Boy Entertainment is an American independent record label and multimedia brand founded in 1981 by Tom Silverman. The label is credited with helping and launching the music careers of Queen Latifah, Afrika Bambaataa, Stetsasonic, Digital U ...

distributed the album after relations soured between the Rustic Overtones and major label

Arista Records Arista Records () is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously handled by BMG Entertainmen ...

. The group produced a (supposedly) million-dollar record with Arista, then found themselves in trouble with the label after playing an extraordinarily hardcore set. It is said that an Arista representative was heard to admonish the group, yelling "We thought you were going to be like the

Dave Matthews Band Dave Matthews Band (also known by the initials DMB) is an American rock band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1991. The band's founding members were singer-songwriter and guitarist Dave Matthews, bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer and bac ...

!" The group claimed that they had made no such promise, and Arista allowed them to take the record with them when they left. This album was then given to Tommy Boy for release, with the approval their fans. In December, 2009, the ''

Portland Phoenix Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

'' ranked ''Viva Nueva!'' the tenth greatest local album of the decade, saying that, "The fact that the vagaries of the music business beat them back doesn't diminish its greatness," and called it, "Maine's first real major-league rock album."

Videos

The two singles from the disc were "C'mon" and "Combustible", and both had music videos made for them. An open casting call, in the summer after the album was released, was advertised for filming of the new video. The

go-kart racing Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on ful ...

portions were filmed in

Amesbury, Massachusetts Amesbury is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, located on the left bank of the Merrimack River near its mouth, upstream from Salisbury and across the river from Newburyport and West Newbury. The population was 17,366 at the 2020 ...

. Rumor has it that the video for "Combustible" had to be redesigned in the wake of the

September 11th, 2001 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated Suicide attack, suicide List of terrorist incidents, terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, ...

, terrorist attacks, since a video showing things blowing up was deemed not to be in the band's best interests.

Special guests

Guests on the album include

Funkmaster Flex Aston George Taylor Jr. (born August 5, 1968), professionally known as Funkmaster Flex, is an American DJ, rapper, record producer, and host on New York City's Hot 97 radio station. In 1992, he became host of the first hip hop radio show on Hot ...

(track six),

Imogen Heap Imogen Jennifer Heap (born 9 December 1977) is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. Her work has been considered pioneering in pop and electropop music. Heap classically trained in piano, cello and clarinet starting at ...

(track 11) and

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

(tracks nine and 16).

Track listing

#"C'mon" #"Gas on Skin" #"Love Underground" #"Hardest Way Possible" #"Crash Landing" #"Smoke" #"Baby Blue" #"Revolution AM" #"Sector Z" #"Combustible" #"Valentine's Day Massacre" #"Hit Man" #"Check" #"Boys and Girls" #"Beekeeper" #"Man Without a Mouth"

Personnel

* Dave Gutter – guitar, vocals * Spencer Albee – synthesizers, vocals * Tony McNaboe – drums * Jon Roods – bass guitar * Ryan Zoidis – saxophone, engineer * Jason Ward – baritone saxophone * Scott Pederson – guest trumpet *

– guest vocals on "Sector Z" and "Man Without a Mouth" *

– guest vocals on "Smoke" *

– guest performer on "Valentine's Day Massacre" * Tony Visconti – producer, engineer, bass (upright) * David Leonard – producer, engineer, mixing * Steve Drown – producer, engineer * Roger Sommers – engineer * Jim Begley – engineer * Chris Mazer – assistant engineer * Ryoji Hata – assistant engineer * Alex Chan – assistant engineer * John Goodmanson – mixing *

Shepard Fairey Frank Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970) is an American contemporary artist, activist and founder of OBEY Clothing who emerged from the skateboarding scene. In 1989 he designed the " Andre the Giant Has a Posse" (...OBEY...) sticker cam ...

– art design

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Viva Nueva! Rustic Overtones albums 2001 albums Albums produced by David Leonard (record producer) Tommy Boy Records albums Albums produced by Tony Visconti