By Dan Mayfield
Journal Staff Writer

Felonious Groove Foundation, from left, is Todd Lovato, Paul Cornett, Noah Wolters, Ragon Espinoza, Cali Soberanes and Bryan Highhill. The band’s new CD will be released tonight at the Launchpad. ADOLPHE PIERRE-LOUIS/JOURNAL

Todd Lovato and Cali Soberanes finish each other’s thoughts. And beers. And it seems the pair has been like this since they met in high school in Santa Fe 12 years ago. Like Smokey and the Bandit or Starsky and Hutch, the two may be different, but have a similar outlook. The combination has worked as a songwriting duo for more than a decade in Felonious Groove Foundation, one of the best-known local bands.

But the duo is going beyond the funk and Latin beats Felonious has become known for with a new CD, “Felonious Groove Foundation Presents … Fantastic Planet,” which will be released tonight at Launchpad.

“This is our anti-funk album,” Soberanes said.

“You get defined as a Latin band, and that bugs me,” Lovato said.

The new CD is bringing to the forefront the Fantastic Planet side of the band, a rock-oriented side that tries to do more than make an audience dance.

“Felonious is a high-octane, alcohol-induced, good-time party band. We want people (on this record) to pay attention to what’s being said,” Soberanes said.

“It’s our most cohesive album ever. We found our niche with funk and Latin and it taught us how to do it,” Lovato said. “It’s darker, but it hits a lot harder. We got over ourselves as musicians.” “Felonious Groove Foundation Presents … Fantastic Planet,” though, asks a bit less than the previous Felonious record, “Paper Tiger.” “Instead of acting like we just released the opus of our lives, it’s a well-produced demo,” Lovato said. “We try not to exhaust the listener,” Soberanes added.

The new disc is shorter and doesn’t feature saxophone or horn sections, but it does have acoustic guitar, slide guitar and banjo, which is all new for the band. The new disc, however, was born to a darker time for Felonious. It’s dedicated to David Diaz, a longtime friend and band member who died in April.

“Two days before we recorded, he arranged it,” Soberanes said.

“He was a big part of the planning,” Lovato said.

Dealing with the loss of such a talented friend who was expected to be a bigger part of the band, the duo said, permeated the entire album.

“The fact that we were forced to get into the studio while that was happening was a real creative catalyst,” Lovato said. “Our mourning was right there in the back of our head.”

Felonious Groove Foundation CD Release Party

WHEN: 8 tonight

WHERE: Launchpad, 618 Central SW

HOW MUCH: $7, with a free CD. Visit www.launchpadrocks.com

to the right, i’ve now added a page where you can stream all of the “lumpy demos 2″ without scrolling through posts.

Despite everything (gorilla thrilla and brenna)  is coming to santa fe today on their “ride out the recession tour”.  We will be playing a show here tomorrow at “Acousticasa” and possibly recording a song or two.

On another note, while I was in California 2 weeks ago my friend Emily gave me a copy of the album she just finished recording with her friends.  It’s a very sweet album and you can hear it too.  It is in the “free downloads from friends” page, so check it out.  I have also added the track listing for all the albums on that page.

The picture is from Ro’s roof in LA.
Blacklight soul played well in California, and I hope to get some pictures and video up from those shows.
Check out my buddies tour diary as they are traveling, exploring, and playing music across the country on their “Ride out the Recession Tour“, and they even made a badass Despite Everything/Lumpy Recordings T-Shirt.
Next week I will begin working on the album again.