North Hollywood Shootout is American jam band

Jam band

-Ambiguity:By the late 1990s use of the term jam band also became ambiguous. An editorial at jamband.com suggested that any band of which a primary band such as Phish has done a cover of be included as jam band. The example was including New York post-punk band Talking Heads after Phish performed...

 Blues Traveler's

Blues Traveler

Blues Traveler is a rock band, formed in Princeton, New Jersey in 1987. The band has been influenced by a variety of genres, including blues-rock, psychedelic rock, folk rock, soul, and Southern rock...

 ninth studio album, released on August 26, 2008, and produced by David Bianco, a 1996 Grammy winner. In a notable departure from previous Blues Traveler releases, the album includes a spoken word

Spoken word

Spoken word is a form of poetry that often uses alliterated prose or verse and occasionally uses metered verse to express social commentary. Traditionally it is in the first person, is from the poet’s point of view and is themed in current events....

 piece featuring Bruce Willis

Bruce Willis

Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...

.

This album marked the band's return to Universal Music Group

Universal Music Group

Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...

, which owns their previous label A&M Records

A&M Records

A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...

, and also their current label, Verve Forecast Records

Verve Forecast Records

Verve Forecast Records is a record label specializing in cutting-edge material which was founded in 1967 by Verve Records and since been revived twice....

 (along with the catalog of Sanctuary Records

Sanctuary Records

Sanctuary Records Group Limited was a record label based in the United Kingdom and a subsidiary of Universal Music Group. Until June 2007, it was the largest independent record label in the UK and the largest independent music management company in the world...

, another label the band was on at one point).

History

During early writing and production of this album, the members of Blues Traveler began to experiment with re-arrangements of various older songs, and put this album on hold to record Cover Yourself

Cover Yourself

Cover Yourself is Blues Traveler's ninth album. It contains previously released songs reworked with acoustic instrumentation and, for some songs, different arrangements from the originals.-History:...

for their twentieth anniversary. The recording sessions for the two albums were held back-to-back.

Track listing

1. "Forever Owed" – 4:43
2. "You, Me and Everything" – 4:21
3. "Love Does" – 3:31
4. "Borrowed Time" – 3:38
5. "The Beacons" – 3:14
6. "Orange in the Sun" – 3:53
7. "What Remains" – 4:48
8. "How You Remember It" – 4:06
9. "The Queen of Sarajevo" – 4:01
10. "Free Willis (Ruminations from Behind Uncle Bob's Machine Shop)" – 5:51
11. "Alleviate" (Japan-exclusive track)
12. "The Landing" (iTunes-only track)

Early reports cite the disc as having 11 tracks, but the supposedly official track listing released to amazon.com had only 10 tracks listed on it. However, a later version of the track listing released on the Barnes and Noble website included the supposedly missing 11th track (apparently track 10), "The Landing," along with a 30 second sample of the song. "The Landing" eventually became an iTunes exclusive song.