There is, quite simply, nothing like an Andy Frasco & The U.N. show. While other bands trudge through their setlists, these renegades fire off the songs from their four studio albums (including 2016’s breakthrough Happy Bastards) with explosive intensity–and leave fans with mile-wide grins. “Basically, we’re trying to freak people out,” explains Frasco. “I want people to be spiritually uplifted and happy–and also make them think a little bit.”

On June 30th, Frasco and the U.N. will release a new CD/DVD on Ruf Records that captures all the full-throttle mayhem of the group’s live show. The group’s first live album, entitled Songs From The Road, will be released on June 30th. Says Frasco, “We’ve been asked for years now to make a live record and we’ve been reluctant to make one until we as a band felt we were ready… Well, after 10 years of dive bars and festivals working out all the songs we have written over the years, the day is finally here!” Today, Live For Live Music is proud to premiere a new single, “Make It Work,” from the upcoming album. Says Frasco of the live cut off his 2016 studio LP “‘Make It Work’ was one of the first songs I wrote with my buddy Kenli to start the creation of Happy Bastards. Here’s a live version of my one of my favorite songs!”

Stream the live version of “Make It Work” from Andy Frasco & The U.N.‘s Songs From The Road below:

What’s captured on both CD and DVD on Songs From The Road isn’t just a regular show (even as much as no Frasco show is “just a regular show”)–It’s a street party! You join the band on Day 142 of their 2016 world tour, and in the sleepy German town of Bamberg, all hell is breaking loose. Fans invade the stage. Tubas are set on fire. And at the eye of the storm, there’s the frontman himself: a wild-haired whirling dervish who spends opening song “C Boogie” bucking his hips, hammering on his piano keys and dancing in the front row. “We’re recording a live album in your town,” Frasco announces to the crowd. “It’s gonna be awesome…”

Live bands don’t get this good overnight. Frasco’s own story goes back to the suburbs of post-millennial Los Angeles, where at the tender age of 13, he used his industrial-strength charm to score a job as a record label executive, fitting math classes around business calls. At the young age of 16, he was touring the States with one of his signings. “I grew up too quickly,” he reflects. “I fell in love with the road and I just kept going. Failure was not an option for me.”

In his early years as a hype man, Frasco always had charisma in spades, but he’ll admit that he “bullshitted my way til I finally learned how to sing and play piano”. In 2007, he pulled together The U.N. from the cream of the international scene and set out on a world tour that has never really ended. “This band is a group of gypsies,” he says. “We’ve been living in a van for ten years straight, doing 250 shows a year. That’s really not the norm. We’re basically blue-collar musicians, on the road every day, making a living. We might be sleeping on guitar cases, guitar amps, someone’s floor – but we’re happy. We’re fulfilling our dream.”

Since the release of 2016’s Happy Bastards, everyone wants a piece of them. With material that took in funk, soul, rock, roots and the band’s self-styled “party blues,” this was an album that you knew would sound amazing live. Sure enough, when The U.N. took the stage in Bamberg, the songs like “Mature As Fuck” never sounded better. As he tells the crowd in the recording above, after after singing “Make It Work,” “That song was for the ladies. This next song is for the dudes. It’s called “Mature As Fuck.” Says Frasco, “That song is basically about doing stuff for yourself and not worrying what other people think of you, because you’re a grown-ass man.”

Something for the ladies, something for the dudes, and a whole lot for anybody who gets their kicks from a cathartically unhinged rock and roll show. That’s what fans have to look forward to on Andy Frasco & The U.N.’s Songs From The Road, available on June 30th.

You can see a full list of upcoming tour dates from Andy Frasco & The U.N. below. For more information, or to purchase tickets, head to Andy’s website.

2017 Tour Dates:
6/27: Boulder City, NV – Boulder Dam Brewing
6/28: Boulder City, NV – Boulder Dam Brewing
6/30: Crystal Bay, NV – Crystal Bay Casino
7/8: Sun Valley, ID – Sun Valley Pavillion
Sun Valley, ID – Whiskey Jacques
7/20: Victor, ID – Music on Main
7/22: Park City, UT – OP Rockwell
7/23: Huntsville, UT – Snowbasin
7/28: Fort Smith, AR – Peacemaker Festival
7/29: Fort Smith, AR – Peacemaker Festival
8/4: Lincoln, NE – Hullabaloo Music Fest
8/5: Lincoln, NE – Hullabaloo Music Fest
8/8: Bethlehem, PA – MusikFest
8/11: Cedarburg, WI – Summer Sounds Music Series
8/12: Cedar Rapids, IA – Concerts on the Creek
8/17: Big Sky, MT – Music In The Mountains
8/26: Kansas City, MO – CrossroadsKC
9/27: Berlin, Germany – Bassy Club
9/28: Hannover, Germany – Lux
9/29: Bamberg, Germany – Live Club
9/30: Stuttgart, Germany – Universum
10/1: Frankfurt, Germany – Das Bett
10/2: Dortmund, Germany – Blue Notez
10/4: Luckenwalde, Germany – WunderBar

2018 Tour Dates

1/17 – 1/22: Miami, FL – Jam Cruise
1/30 – 2/4: New Orleans, LA – The Rock Boat

[Cover photo via Kayla Woyak of Emerald Tide Photography]