House of Pain may be reuniting, but don’t expect a new album anytime soon.
In fact, don’t hold your breath for any more shows besides the seven that are already planned in celebration of Saint Patrick’s Day week — the timing makes sense, given two-thirds of the group’s much-vaunted Irish heritage. The ’90s hip-hop group best known for the single “Jump Around” hit the road on March 12, and Sunday night’s performance at Northern Lights will be the group’s last performance under the name — at least for the foreseeable future.
“I love playing live music now with my band, so it’s like, this is a good excuse to be able to do the old stuff and have a lot of fun without it being some old school circuit thing,” said Everlast, one-third of House of Pain, from his home studio in downtown Los Angeles. “It felt natural, and if it feels good, fun and natural, not fake, I’m more likely to be down with it, to be involved. All’s you’re gonna see is Danny Boy and me, 25 pounds heavier, doing the songs. There ain’t gonna be fireworks — we’re just gonna get up there and we’re gonna get busy.”
House of Pain
With: La Coka Nostra, Sev Statik, Shyste, Animal Cracker, Jack and Malk, DJ Playground
When: 7 p.m. Sunday
Where: Northern Lights, North Country Commons at Routes 146 and 146A, Clifton Park
How Much: $22 (doors); $20 (advance)
More Info: 371-0012, www.northernlightslive.com
A full-fledged reunion wouldn’t really make sense, anyway, considering that it’s already sort of happened. Everlast (born Eric Schrody), Daniel “Danny Boy” O’Connor and DJ Lethal (born Leor Dimant) have been performing together with rap supergroup La Coka Nostra since 2006. That group, started by Danny Boy in 2005 and also featuring rappers Slaine (born George Carroll, Jr.) and Ill Bill (born William Braunstein), opens the House of Pain shows.
Sticking with formula
Fans jonesing for new House of Pain material would do well to check out La Coka Nostra’s debut album from last year, “A Brand You Can Trust.” The album found Everlast returning to his hip-hop roots after his eclectic solo albums of the late ’90s and 2000s, while still maintaining some of the experimentalism found in his solo songs. But as Everlast insists, hip-hop is always the key ingredient in what he does, even through the bluesy, folky songs that dominate his solo outings.
“As far as I’m concerned, the furthest thing I’ve done from hip-hop, is still hip-hop,” Everlast said. “I’m a hip-hop artist; all of it starts with that same feeling hip-hop gives me.”
All three House of Pain members remain busy with other projects. Everlast is in the midst of writing and recording his next solo album, following up 2008’s “Love, War and the Ghost of Whitey Ford.” Lethal, meanwhile, is still deep in recording sessions for Limp Bizkit’s comeback album, on the heels of that band’s successful 2009 tours. As such, he hasn’t been present for these House of Pain and La Coka Nostra shows — DJ Eclipse has been performing with the groups.
“His beats will be present all night,” Everlast said. “Just for the . . . record, he’s not Irish anyways. But we made him an honorary Irishman.”
Getting reconciled
The House of Pain “reunion” in La Coka Nostra occurred after Danny Boy started the group with Slaine. Before that, Danny Boy and Everlast had not spoken to each other for a couple of years.
“We had our differences, but we reconnected as friends,” Everlast said. “That’s what allowed La Coka Nostra to happen; I wouldn’t even have been involved in any of it.”
Slaine first approached Everlast to record vocals on one of his solo tracks, which led to his involvement with the rest of the group. The group spent roughly three years releasing an album’s worth of material free online before cutting “A Brand You Can Trust.”
“I got on the phone with him [Slaine] and had a blast,” Everlast said. “A week later, Bill was in town, so me and him jumped on a track, and that turned into the song that was our first release. . . . And it was fun; we thought, ‘This is a blast; let’s keep making jams.’ We could have all got greedy — ‘I want it for my record, I want it for my record,’ but La Coka Nostra never bubbled up anything. It was just, let’s get involved, let’s make something out of it.”
With La Coka Nostra and solo work occupying Everlast’s time, he didn’t have too much time to prepare for the House of Pain shows. Rehearsals only took place roughly a week before the first show. According to Everlast, working with Slaine, also a member of Special Teamz, has helped him to reconnect with his past in House of Pain. “We’re lucky to have Slaine in the group; he grew up on House of Pain,” Everlast said. “If I miss a lyric, I’ll look at him and he’ll be on it. It’s been really beneficial to have that in the band.”
Most casual listeners probably only know House of Pain from “Jump Around.” The 1992 hit was ubiquitous around the time of its release, and has continued to loom large over its makers’ careers, despite Everlast scoring another big hit with 1998’s “What It’s Like.” However, this clearly hasn’t bothered Everlast or the other members of the group.
Not chasing a hit
“It’s just kind of hard — when the one . . . hit you have was a worldwide, 20-year smash, I’d like to meet the person who could get out from under that,” Everlast said. “But our second album sold six, 700,000 copies without a radio hit at all, and we went really dark on the second album. We wanted to purposely not chase that thing — no, we’re not gonna chase that.”
“I heard at that time, ‘Oh, “Jump Around” is just another hit record,’ ” he continued. “Not until now do you realize, . . . that record’s monstrous. It’s been huge for 20 years. I guess a lot of people still buy that record every week; it’s crazy. . . . I don’t know a place on earth that’s heard music that you can’t put on ‘Jump Around.’ ”
Categories: Life and Arts
