The Glasgow School

Outtakes:What did you think about Blues Traveler before you joined in 2000?

Ben Wilson:Like the rest of the country, I was sick of hearing "Run-Around" every time I turned on the radio. I was ready for Blues Traveler to go away for a while [laughs]. I heard that they were just a smoking live band, and obviously John was a killer harmonica player. I guess I thought they were kind of a cool, hippie-rock jam-band like everybody else.

We're not going anywhere till one of you sobers up.

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How did [producer and former member of Wilco] Jay Bennett get involved with¡Bastardos!?

I was the Jay Bennett connection, but I wasn't friends with him, I just had a lot of respect for the way Wilco changed once he got into the band. I thought this was a guy who would help us use the studio less to capture what we do live and more as an instrument. His ideas were kinda fresh and different and at the same time not so far away from us that we couldn't kind of visualize what they would sound like.

What's the idea behind the¡Bastardos! theme? The CD art reminds me of a Sergio Leone spaghetti Western.

Sergio Leone -- that's exactly what it is. We had seen a bunch of old Mexican photos around Austin, and we liked the idea of us being banditos -- it's kind of ridiculous but fun. And also the idea that we're bastardos -- we're doing what we wanna do, and screw you. There's been a feeling among the band, especially with the limited success of [2003's] Truth Be Told,that if we're only gonna sell such-and-such number of records and have the outcome that we did, let's just make records that we love. That's what ¡Bastardos! is all about. -- Jonathan Zwickel

Blues Traveler and American Minor play at 8 p.m. Friday, September 30, and Saturday, October 1, at the Culture Room, 3045 N. Federal Hwy., Fort Lauderdale. Tickets cost $24.99 or $40 for a two-day pass. Call 954-564-1074.