
Genre: Pop/Reggae
Year: 2006
Where and when purchased: Promo copy arrived in the mail, 2006
What I paid: Nothin'
Why I bought it: Well, I didn't buy it, but that's not the point. The fact that I didn't buy it is the point. It arrived in the mail, unsolicited, like so much musical flotsam and jetsam. But I listened, as I always do. At first, I didn't know what to make of Still Flyin's askew indie-pop infused with reggae and rocksteady. White indie rockers playing reggae and smoking green? A bright red flag. While my first take on their first five songs was a bit mixed (I dug their slow-as-cold-molasses appropriation of the horn riff from Outkast's "Spottieottiedopaliscious", but otherwise found frontman Sean Rawls' songwriting lacking in the precision necessary to wrangle 18 musicians -- yes, 18 -- and to focus the band's unbridled energy), I eventually warmed up to its charms and found myself anxiously anticipating their next move.
Why I still want it: As it happened, their next move, the 2007 EJ (that's extended jam -- an E.P. in Still Flylin' parlance) Za Cloud, was good. And the move after that, 2009's full-length Never Gonna Touch the Ground, was great. Rawls had provided just what I'd been yearning for: sharp, concise songwriting filtered through one of the most joyous -- and, when necessary, tight -- party bands around. I was even moved to gush about them in the pages of the East Bay Express. Their concert three days later at Cafe du Nord was one of the best shows, and easily the most fun, I've been to all year. And now that I'm a fully-fledged, card-carrying Still Flyin' fan, each of the band's three records makes frequent rotation through my CD player, even if I didn't entirely get that first one, and maybe Still Flyin' didn't either.
Favorite track: You may have thought I'd say "Coupla Smokies," the track that borrows horns from Outkast. You'd be partially right -- it was, for a long while, my favorite song from Still Flyin's debut. But I would be a total IDIOT if I said that now, because "Rope Burn," which has a rad video, is obviously the better song.






