Source: http://www.spinnermusic.co.uk

J. Geils Band will ring in 2010 as a group when the funkiest rock band out of Beantown reunites for a New Year’s Eve gig in Connecticut. The popular ’70s and ’80s group, best known for hits like ‘Centerfold’ and ‘Love Stinks,’ has played sporadic dates in recent years, but frontman Peter Wolf tells Spinner the group isn’t looking to join the reunion tour bandwagon.

“The Geils thing, we don’t really get back for a reunion,” he says. “It’s usually a benefit or some kind of phone call that comes in and it’s usually, ‘Well, let me phone around and see what the reaction is.’ And that’s how it usually works.”

According to Wolf, they know every show could be the Geils Band’s swan song. “Every time, we know it could possibly be the very last time because sometimes decades go before we play,” he says.

Wolf will however be hitting the road in March, he estimates, for his new solo album, ‘Midnight Souvenirs,’ and he’s looking forward to playing already. “I love to play and love to perform and I can’t wait to do these songs,” he says. “I have a really great band of friends of mine, many people who played on the record.”

Though it’s been eight years since his last solo album, Wolf has kept busy, including some touring with Kid Rock. How did the pair come together? “I’d met him several times with Ahmet Ertegun, who was an important figure in the music I loved. J. Geils Band were signed to Ahmet’s label, Atlantic Records,” he recalls. “And Ahmet even produced some Geils stuff. So Ahmet was pretty close with Kid Rock and I had met him at several functions with Ahmet.”

There was also the fact Rock was a fan of Wolf’s band. “Kid Rock was putting together a revue of the different influences he had. His first influence was Reverend Run from Run-DMC. He loved southern rock so Dicky Betts and the Allman Brothers seemed to make sense and when his manager was asking him who else he said, ‘Well, I love Bob Seger, but he doesn’t tour. My sisters and brothers played J. Geils every day in the house,’” Wolf recalls. “It was just rock ‘n’ roll and he had a really funky band behind him. They could do any song I wanted them to do, so it was a treat. I must say, Kid Rock treated me very fine and we enjoyed rocking down and partying on and shaking and rattling and rolling.”

‘Midnight Souvenirs’ is due out on Apr. 6 via Verve/UMe.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 24th, 2009 at 10:03 pm and is filed under Midnight Souvenirs, Neko Case, Peter Wolf. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.