Fat Wreck Chords

For over 20 years Joey Cape has been lending his voice, his songwriting skills, his guitar playing and his casual charm to the likes of bands as disparate as Lagwagon, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Bad Astronaut and even as a solo artist. A rock and roll renaissance man, Joey’s a punk, an indie rocker, a troubadour and a shit-kicking cover artist all in one, and he’s been doing it all since before most of you were even born. Prolific as ever, now Joey finds his voice in a steady stream of acoustic releases. Most recently he’s teamed up with good buddy and No Use For A Name frontman Tony Sly and they’ve once again joined forces to release a split acoustic LP. Kind of a follow up to 2004’s Acoustic, this time the record is called Acoustic Volume 2, and it’s due out on Fat Wreck Chords on June 19, 2012.

Joey is probably most famous for his work fronting Lagwagon. As a pioneer of the classic Fat Wreck sound, Joey and Lagwagon first began in 1989 where they gained international notoriety for their rapid tempos, extreme technical proficiency and alternately heartfelt and goofy lyrics. Over the course of their over two decades as a band, Lagwagon has put out eight studio records, a live album, an EP and recently, deluxe reissues of their 90’s catalog and the comprehensive box set Putting Music In Its Place. Though they’ve slowed down considerably in the last few years, Lagwagon has long been known as one of the hardest working bands on the Fat Wreck roster.

That said, Lagwagon is only part of Joey’s story. Notoriously restless, the Caper has spent the last decade or so moonlighting as the guitarist in loudmouthed cover band/Pittsburgh antagonists, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes as well as exploring some of his more obtuse indie rock influences as the frontman and guitarist of the experimental act Bad Astronaut. As if that wasn’t a diversified enough portfolio, in 2004, Joey put out the aforementioned split LP with Tony Sly, Acoustic, which is pretty much exactly what the title suggests it would be. Then, in 2008, Joey and his acoustic guitar returned with his first in a long line of truly solo efforts, Bridge, which featured sparse takes on Lagwagon tunes as well as some never before heard songs that have drawn comparisons to such indie folk acts as Iron and Wine.

Now Joey and Tony are back with Acoustic Volume 2. Joey’s side features five acoustic Lagwagon songs and a new tune while Tony has matched him with five stripped down NUFAN numbers and his own new song. These two have been touring together like crazy over the past few years so it’s a safe bet that they’ll keep it going in support of Acoustic Volume 2. Wherever there’s a dim barroom with a microphone and a few beer taps, look for Joey and Tony, their acoustic guitars and their insistence that one of them will buy the next round, lurking around near the back. They’ll be doing select US dates as well as jaunts in the UK and Europe, so get out your lighters and your inside voices and get stoked to see the intimate, stripped down, slightly inebriated with no-one-else-to-blame-anything-on side of two of Fat Wreck’s most beloved songwriters.