Musical Musings | Spin Doctors: A sweet new sound after 12 years!

The group recently released their new album, Face Full of Cake, their first new studio outing in 12 years.

The album was slowly crafted over a period of several years, with the seeds planted during the pandemic when the group began the writing process.

“Later we went into the studio and recorded all songs that appear on the album,” the group’s guitarist, Eric Schenkman, told me last week.

“We did that thing where we’d do like a song a day.

“Once that was done, we spent a day doing some rough mixes, before sending it off for proper mixing.”

Schenkman still vividly recalls the group’s first and only tour of Australia back in September of 1993.

“I remember getting the flu in Sydney, and that the weather was super hot,” he says.

“But we had a great time while, and it was a really cool.

“We’d love to return in 2026.

“It’s just about trying to schedule and arrange a tour in such a way that we can make it work.

“Everybody’s getting old, but we do have plans.”

Not long after the 1993 tour, Schenkman quit the band.

“It was mostly because I didn’t really agree with the direction that we were going in,” he says.

“There was a little bit of animosity between me and Chris [Barron, vocalist] and I didn’t really agree with the songs that we were picking for the show, too.

“Plus, I wanted to take a step back and play smaller venues.”

Seven years later though, Schenkman returned.

“Enough time had gone by and the moment we got into a room together again, it all clicked,” he says.

“We played four notes, and we were like, ‘Oh, what were we thinking?’ Oh my God, this is great!’”

With Nineties music experiencing a renaissance at the moment, Spin Doctors are keeping busy with live shows and soon will head out on an American tour.

“We’re doing a tour this summer with Gin Blossoms and Blues Traveler across America as part of the Nineties thing,” he says.

“The songs are really fun to play out on the road, and they’re just getting better and better as we do them.

“And the band sounds really good; it’s never been better.

“So, everybody’s playing so good, and we all get along really well.”

For more on the Spin Doctors, check out spindoctors.com

Music news

Singer and actress Barbra Streisand will be releasing a new album titled The Secret Of Life: Partners, Volume Two on June 27.

It features Streisand duetting with artists such as Bob Dylan, Sir Paul McCartney, Sting, Ariana Grande and Mariah Carey among others.

Also coming in June is the new album by New Zealand born singer-songwriter Lorde. Titled Virgin, it too hits the streets on June 27.

Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson recently confirmed in an interview that he had set plans in motion to begin recording sessions in 2026, for a follow-up to 2024’s acclaimed The Mandrake Project album.

Former Van Halen singer, David Lee Roth, returned to live performances last weekend after a five-year break.

His performance at the M3 Rock Festival in the US, saw Roth play an all Van Halen set.

At the same time, he has also announced a summer US tour that kicks off in July and wraps up in September.

Also, over the weekend, Lady Gaga set a new world record after her concert at Copacabana Beach, officially becoming the highest attended concert of all time by a female artist.

With an estimated 2.1 million fans in attendance, the show also becomes the biggest show for any artist this century.

Seventies prog-rock group Pavlov’s Dog will tour Australia for the very first time in October.

The group had a minor hit in Australia with the single Julia, which reached #79 on the Australian chart.

Behind the album

Blizzard Of Ozz (1980) — Ozzy Osbourne

When Ozzy Osbourne was fired from heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath in 1979, he was determined make it as a solo artist.

He quickly put a new band together comprising bassist Bob Daisley (ex-Rainbow), a then rising hot shot guitarist Randy Rhoads and drummer Lee Kerslake (ex-Uriah Heep), under the moniker of The Blizzard Of Ozz.

The group quickly signed to Jet Records and entered Ridge Farm Studios in Surrey, England to record the album.

“Many people think that Blizzard of Ozz is Ozzy’s solo debut album,” Bob Daisley explained to me in an interview.

“Yet the band was called The Blizzard of Ozz, and it was to be a group album, but it later got changed by the record company to an Ozzy Osbourne album.”

Early recording sessions saw producer Chris Tsangarides at the helm, but after several days, things weren’t working out with Tsangarides, so he was given his marching orders and everything got scrapped.

Sessions resumed when in-house engineer Max Norman came onboard.

Eventually 10 tracks were recorded, with nine making the final album cut.

Released in September 1980 amid a musical landscape of punk, disco and the burgeoning new wave scene, Blizzard of Ozz went on to become one of the most influential heavy metal albums of all time, and established Osbourne as one of the genre’s enduring characters.

This week’s top 10 albums in Australia

1. Skeleta — Ghost

2. Short N’ Sweet — Sabrina Carpenter

3. The Secret Of Us — Gracie Abrams

4. Hit Me Hard And Soft — Billie Eilish

5. So Close To What — Tate McRae

6. +-=÷x (Tour Collection) — Ed Sheeran

7. SOS — SZA

8. The Highlights — The Weeknd

9. Brat — Charli XCX

10. Mayhem — Lady Gaga

Fun fact

Reggae king Bob Marley gave away his songwriting credit on his song No Woman No Cry to his childhood friend Vincent Ford, so that the royalties from the hit song would help keep the soup kitchen that Ford ran in Jamaica going.

Joe Matera is a local singer-songwriter, recording artist, guitarist and music journalist providing readers with all the latest music news.