By JOHN SAKAMOTO --
The Crash Test Dummies have wrapped up their new album, and are preparing to hit the road this fall.
Titled A Worm's Life, the album was initially skedded to be released in Canada on Aug. 28, but has been bumped back to Oct. 2 to allow "more set-up time," according to BMG Canada's Cam Carpenter. It will be preceded by a single, The Over-Achievers.
The 12-song set was recorded at Compass Point studios in the Bahamas, and produced by the band. Tellingly, the engineering duties were handled by Terry Manning, best known for his work with ZZ Top. Manning's presence is apparently indicative of the guitar-heavy sound that Brad Roberts and the rest of the band have opted for this time.
"Terry has got a guitar collection to rival Randy Bachman's," Dummies manager Jeff Rogers is saying recently from his Toronto office. "And Brad got to play every one of them on the record." Though Roberts spent time in New York last year to try to write material, he ended up travelling a lot outside North America. "One writing trip took him to Prague," says Rogers. "Somebody said to me, 'Does he really have to go to Prague to write songs?' Well, no -- but he CAN," he says, laughing.
The album's title track is a guitar-driven rocker featruring the lyrics, "A worm's life can be easy/If you lay low and out of sight."
Other numbers include a ballad called My Own Sunrise, which Rogers calls "a headphone classic. It sounds like he's singing in your ear." Another tune, He Liked To Feel It, appears in two separate versions, one of them as a hidden 13th track. Says Rogers, drily, "It's about a boy who liked to have his teeth pulled out."
As for touring, the band has one firm show, Aug. 27 at Vancouver during the PNE. "We haven't confirmed any other dates in North America," says Rogers. "We're looking at a European tour in October to the beginning of November. We'll probably have dates in Toronto and the rest of North America in late November."
Up next is the video for The Over-Achievers. "We've got feelers out to three different directors asking them to hit us with some concepts," says Rogers. "We'll see what we get."
