Welcoming you in with the gregarious porch-hang manifesto Cheap Beer and fare-thee-welling on the post-romantic I Don’t Love You, Albert and His Dreamboats’ debut album Glad We Spent the Time effortlessly pairs high musicianship with lyrical wit in an odd brand of honky tonk that is half Roger Miller, half Frank Zappa, and kissed all over by the Southern Californian sun. Prior to the Dreamboats, all the members— Thomas Berg, Robert Anderson, Lincoln Mendell, and Albert himself— were crackjack session musicians, trained to nail down an album in a matter of days. So naturally when Albert gathered up these long-admired talents and locked them into the Dreamboat line-up, out would pop tightly-arranged songs gleaming with flourish— New Boots, Friday Nights, and I Think You Kinda— all produced and dialed to effect by Jason Soda down at Palomino Studios. The album consists of roughly two halves: one for the pals, the other for the gals. For the gals are the songs of tender uncertainty— I Think You Kinda or Ready for Someone— that warble with the negotiations of love. For the pals are grinning numbers like California, New Boots, John Wayne, and Friday Night, all about loving life— even when that life consists of napping after a TV dinner or cruising up the generally-unappreciated 405 to Northern California where “the air is always brisk and clear. All the girls are playing bongos are rarely ever wash their hair. You can find me up at the Fisherman’s Wharf with a brown bag bottle of beer.”

The Dreamboat humor has a longer story, but was evident from the get-go, when Albert and His Dreamboats first truly synergized during a month-long residency at the Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles. On top of their musical acts and stage antics, and as Albert himself delivered a keynote presentation in a Steve Jobs turtleneck, the crowd was plugged with a thumbdrive replete with videos, songs, those same songs converted into ringtones, a folio of printable, pre-autographed band photos, and— à propos of nothing— a basketball videogame. The attendees left puzzled but well-apprised of the humor at the heart of the Dreamboats project. “I actually had do some of the animation for the videogame myself,” Albert notes, “because originally the player jumped up and down but didn’t let go of the ball. But you know, letting go of the ball— it’s a big part of basketball.” Albert was made and raised by two comedic actors who taught their son how much laughter lifts even the heaviest of things. And it’s this same mix of laughter and pathos that inspired both the record and centerpiece track, Glad We Spent the Time, a tribute to the time Albert remained home for the golden years of his father and life-inspiration, Dwayne Hickman, best known from the TV series The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. As Albert reflects, “It’s strange to have been so superhappy during such a difficult time. There’s this closeness with friends and family, where we get to rehearse all day then sit down for a big spaghetti dinner all together. And at the end of the day, that’s what this record is about— it’s about regretting nothing...and letting go of the ball.”