“Boring life in a boring town with the same old crowd?” If the answer is yes, let it go for one night because Less Than Jake is coming to Columbus. I had an opportunity to speak with Vinnie Fiorello, drummer and lyricist, who penned the lyrics above for “History of a Boring Town,” and keep him company on his cell phone as he attempted to alleviate his cabin fever by wandering the mall.

The Lantern: How’s the tour going so far? Any crazy, on-the-road stories for us?

Vinnie Fiorello: The thing that has been happening as tour goes along is that I get weird; a week ago we got all these loaves of bread and made a huge bread ball that we wanted to light on fire, but we had no lighter fluid. So, we put it on an architectural sculpture at a college campus. The sculpture was a compass and we just put it on the point. Right now I just feel very cabin fever-y.

TL: When is the new album “In With the Out Crowd” coming out?

VF: It’s coming out in the middle of May, but we actually have an EP coming out April 4. It’s called “Absolution for Idiots and Addicts” and it has some songs from the new album.

TL: What are some of the songs on the new album?

VF: That would be “The Rest of My Life,” “Don’t Fall Asleep on the Subway,” “Negative Sides of Optimistic Eyes” and others.

TL: Will we get a chance to hear some of the new stuff at the show on Thursday?

VF: Probably two songs. We can’t play a lot of new stuff because it becomes a drag.

TL: What should fans expect at the show?

VF: Lots of songs from lots of different records. What’s weird is that, you know, as time goes on with our band, we start playing longer to keep up with our records. You should expect a lot of old material, but lots of songs from newer records. Chris (Demakes, guitar and lower vocals) has been pulling a thing where he’s been asking for Jagermeister from the stage, so you should watch for that.

TL: There’s been the theme in some of your songs about leaving town. Was it that bad?

VF: There’s a theme but it’s for different reasons. Sometimes your town outgrows you and you outgrow your town. Other times there are ghosts in your town that haunt you. Like in “Ghosts of Me And You,” it’s haunted with places and people from the past. So, it’s not that the town is bad, but different reasons. “Look What Happened” was about feeling like you’re busting out to leave.

TL: In “Look What Happened” you swore it was the last time you guys would talk about leaving town; was that literal?

VF: If you ever spent time with a significant other or best friend, sometimes you have these conversations and you’re like ‘I need to leave, I need to leave, I need to leave’ and the other person is like, ‘then f-cking leave.’ You’re trying to let the person who you’re talking to know it’s not words any more, it’s actions. Lyrics are multifaceted; that’s the great thing about music, it’s all different things to everyone.

TL: What would you say is your favorite album, from “Pezcore” to the latest stuff?

VF: I can’t do that. There’s so many records and it’s not about records, it’s songs. Records are snapshots of who we were at the time, who our influences were, who we were as people, what was going on – like looking at a photo album. But my favorite songs would be “Gainesville Rock City,” “My Very Own Flag,” “The Science of Selling Yourself Short,” “Look What Happened,” “Bad Scene And a Basement Show,” and I definitely would say “Motto.”

TL: I think one thing that fans appreciate is that you haven’t sold your soul to MTV and the like; do you often have incidences where your label or someone tries to mess with your music or image?

VF: Happens all the time, just people trying to interject – even fans do it. They say ‘more ska, more punk, less horns, more horns.’ It goes across the board – friends, fans, family, record labels. On this record, everyone and their f-cking uncle had an opinion. I’ll be honest with you, it gets tiresome after awhile. We’re just writing the music that we love to write and put it all on a CD to listen to. With fans, it’s a scarlet letter or gold star because they’ll either put it on a pedestal or slam it. You put your heart and soul into it and people analyze and overanalyze. As a band you live with it.

TL: I was curious about the real people mentioned in some of the songs, like Jen (from the song “Jen Doesn’t Like Me Anymore”), Johnny Quest (“Johnny Quest Thinks We’re Sellouts”) and Mike Sinkovich (“Where in the Hell is Mike Sinkovich?”). What were their responses to the songs? And has Mike ever been found?

VF: Yeah, he has; one of his friends actually came to one of our shows. But yeah, most people knew about the songs; they knew about it ahead of time. The names are code for other people. So, like with “Pete Jackson Is Getting Married,” it’s actually about our sax player. He didn’t want his real name used so we changed it to Pete Jackson because we were in Australia at the time. Pete Jackson is a redneck in Australia, a famous farmer there. And in “Al’s War,” there’s no Al. It was my friend Rich, but it’s Al, short for alcoholic, which he was at the time.

TL: Less Than Jake is one of the artists on the “Rock Against Bush” album. With you being from Florida, what did you think of the 2000 election debacle?

VF: It’s not anything against Bush on the compilation; we just want people to be politically aware. We have social commentary in our music, but nothing political. When talking about politics and Bush and Florida, I’m one person in a midst of five, but I can tell you that it’s my intent for everyone to be aware of politics because, Democrat or Republican, you should be involved.

TL: So besides the new album, what’s on the agenda for Less Than Jake this year?

VF: We’re touring till March, then going to Europe and the U.K., then coming home to do a bunch of in-stores and TV shows in May. In June we’ll be at Warped Tour and at the end of August do another U.K. festival. We’ll be busy.

Check out Less Than Jake at the Newport Music Hall Feb. 9 with opening acts A Wilhelm Scream and Rock and Roll Soldiers Damone.