What is The Lost Weekend Band and One Hell of a Time? It’s a guy named Hardcore Dave fronting a country band. It’s Paul Fig who has worked with Slipknot and Alice in Chains producing a country record. It’s a country rock n’ roll blues band with a frontman who likes to jump off things during shows—“The higher, the better” and writing “love songs, nothing but love songs— well, and one song about lifetime financial struggles”. But mostly, it’s about really solid musicians getting together and creating both the 5-song EP and experience of One Hell of a Time (due out June 14th).
As an integral component of Los Angeles’ country music renaissance, The Lost Weekend Band is about working hard and getting out into the scene and building a community of like-minded musicians. They are regulars and favorites of Hollywood’s The Desert 5 spot (owned by Nikki Lane’s boyfriend, Wade Crescent), and The Hotel Cafe where Dwight Yoakam once heard HCD sing. “He rode up on his Indian Motorcycle with a friend and saw me play a solo show and said, ‘Sounds like Waylon Jennings meets Leonard Cohen…keep it up.”’
Today Glide is excited to premiere the standout track “Pay The Rent,” which touches on financial struggles that are all too real in our current era and are especially true for many if not more working musicians. For a song that focuses on a downer of a topic, the band comes at it from a hopeful angle as they unload a fierce country-rock jaunt. Bring to mind the likes of the Waco Brothers, Shooter Jennings, the Supersuckers, and Blackberry Smoke, the song is overflowing with rock and roll swagger that comes courtesy of defiant vocals, lively organ and piano, and big flashes of electric guitar.
Hardcore Dave describes the inspiration behind the tune:
Pay The Rent deals with having hope in a life of financial struggle. That we can always make it. It actually began as song to my Mom. I feel like my parents were always trying to keep their heads above water. My Dad was grinding at work until he just got too old. They worked their whole lives and that’s where the song came from. I was at Jones Hollywood, sitting at the bar, and I thought, “One hand pays the rent and the other my debts.” How people live check to check. One check is rent. One check is debts. Hopefully somewhere in there you find the money to have a little fun. This whole situation will never end. Its just a cycle designed to keep you where you down, but just because you live like that doesn’t mean you aren’t proud. You keep your head high and own it. You love people, you love life. The bridge is about staying the game. Everyone has those moments where they want to permanently check out. But you need to know that people love you and you live to fight another day. During the pandemic there was a lot of darkness for a lot of people and keeping your head high in spite of it all and embracing life and the love around. We have all had that struggle.
LISTEN:
