It’s hard to know where you might catch the lead singer of a band when you set up a phone interview, so I was relieved to catch Spookie, the vocalist and keyboardist of Boston-based Spookie Daly Pride the day after playing High Sierra Music Festival in California.

I talked with Spookie for about twenty minutes during the mid-afternoon as he enjoyed a day off listening to fest music. But whether you’re in California or St. Louis, it’s summertime and hard to be serious about anything other than the weather. It is seriously too hot to move. I recommend this tried and true method to circumvent a mid-July meltdown: strip down in front of your oscillating fan, relax, keep your body in a vegetative state, and keep your head full of summer tunes. The only good excuse to move is getting up to go to a show, and in this case you better make it down to see Spookie Daly Pride at Mississippi Nights on Friday, July 19th.

Spookie Daly Pride’s album Marshmallow Pie, released last October, is one of those albums that you’re glad to happen upon during the summer; the album seems to soak up summer qualities that will undoubtedly stay with it through other seasons. Marshmallow Pie wallows in fun, spontaneity, funk, and a bluesy-throaty rhythm as thick as this humidity, with a current that gets under your skin and stay there. The jam band scene has become so serious as of late, as festivals of the overloaded summer pass by almost like a series of Herculean trials. Every fan knows that musicianship is one thing, but isn’t what we’re missing a band that has as much fun as, well, we do?

Marshmallow Pie is more fun than anything else I’ve heard this season. The album compels listening in a physical way; it makes you want to hear every layer, and then shake it to the groove, taking as much energy from the music as obviously went into making it. Still, hearing the energy on the album only betrays how much fun this band must be to see live. Reflecting on playing the west coast’s premiere festival the night before, Spookie said, “It was a blast. We had a great set and sat in with Leftover Salmon. There must be eight to ten thousand people here.” Spookie Daly Pride also played with Leftover Salmon at Salmon Fest last year after playing with them for the first time at a gig in Philly.

Reviewing the album before seeing them perform live seems almost unfair considering the band’s reputation as a live act not to be missed. Based on stories I’ve heard from those who have seen the Pride, with highlights such as “he jumped out onto the pole, man,” I am psyched about the show. Spookie Daly Pride has stopped in St. Louis before, playing a packed show at Cicero’s with Speakeasy, local favorites from Springfield, MO. Hopefully there will be as good a turn out at their July 19th show at Mississippi Nights, if not better. I cited other cities like Chicago and New Orleans as perhaps being more receptive to the Pride’s varying sounds, but Spookie quelled my suspicions. “St. Louis besides Boston has been the best for us,” he said, “but we’re babies. We’ve only been doing this like, ten months, so bigger cities can be tougher to crack.”

It may be tough, but with music as infectious and appealing as Spookie Daly Pride’s, the cracking is inevitable. Spookie Daly Pride is funky but not funk-driven, with healthy helpings of blues, reggae, and ska driven, with healthy helpings of blues, reggae, and ska on the Pride plate as well. According to Spookie, “It’s funky but it’s not funk.” Spookie’s voice thickens melodious songs, even songs that have floating surf-like melodies like the album’s opener “Karma Thunderbolt.” The texture of his voice and the song combine into something Sublime-like, but the album quickly veers off in its own direction, which has been compared to everything from Phish to G-Love & Special Sauce. I’m hesitant to refer to the Pride as a jam band based on this album. The album is too much fun for that. Its closest relation to any jam band is in the recollection it brings of those heady Phish days of beach balls and chess games with the audience.

The album slides through its thirteen tracks with unabashed, sultry joy. “Birthday Song” had me, no joke, up and out of my chair as I was writing, and shaking bootie in my bedroom. “Pleasure Appointment” continues the revelry by sounding like a brothel, so much so that it seems like the noun has suddenly been gifted with musical self-expression. The inclusion of songs paced on a slower reggae-reminiscent beat like “Happy Happy” fill in the blanks and breathe life into summer clich‚s like waves on the beach or driving down a strip of highway with the top down. This album passes that seminal test that all great albums must face: If you don’t feel like dancing to it, you can drive to it. Props must of course be given to “Splash (In the Nighttime)” as must be given to any song that closes with anything even slightly resembling a drunken Viking chorus. Follow that with a song about coffee and pot, and you’re at the pinnacle of rock album approachability. Spookie Daly Pride is that rare band that imparts the feeling of having instilled their songs in your head before the album is over, and you know you’re going to want to listen to this album at least twice tomorrow, and again the next day.

Sometimes, even as a head who supports the scene and jam based music, I sympathize with up-and-coming bands who feel they have gotten lumped unjustly in the jam band genre. Spookie took a refreshing angle on the subject, saying “I don’t at all think of us as a jam band, but I’m sort of happy that we’ve been accepted into that world. We’re definitely wackier and sillier than most of the bands, but the community is so strong and so wide-people just come to hear music.” Being 100% pro-taper, as Spookie Daly Pride is, doesn’t hurt, and Spookie marveled at the filtration of the band’s music into the scene. “It’s amazing how quick it’s spread,” he said, genuinely impressed with the word-of-mouth and tape-trading credo of jam band fans that has long been the source of many a band’s initial success.

By song seven on an album, if you’ve liked every song, you’re feeling pretty good about a lot of things, including yourself for choosing the album. Such is the joy of Spookie Daly Pride. In order to share this special feeling of self-worth, I recommend (I would demand, but that’s impractical) buying Spookie Daly Pride’s album Marshmallow Pie. Check out their website (www.thepride.com) or get online and download a show. And don’t miss their upcoming show at Mississippi Nights on Friday, July 19th. You’ll probably break a sweat, but it’ll be worth every drop.

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