After picking up my two friends, coworkers, and carpoolers Tuesday to make our daily pilgrimage to Ocala for work, the passanger turned my way, grabbed my iTrip and plugged into her iTouch claiming she had a surprise for me. I instantly knew what it was; today wasn’t just Tuesday, it was Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King release day, a day other DMBers have been looking forward to for four years. I was pumped when “Grux” came on cooing out a saxophone solo that could only be from LeRoi Moore (the band was in their initial recordings when LeRoi died in August 2008, and while they don’t mention which songs he played on, it was unmistakeable that this was him) and made a side-swap comment that I had to run to pick up the CD after work.

If I hadn’t been driving, the breaks would have been slammed.

I gunned onto I-75 while the two of them gawked at me like I was in a side ponytail and legwarmers, followed by a rather, ghastly “You still buy, CDs?” when I knew what they really meant: “What the hell? Download it from iTunes when we get to work, and don’t waste your time and money on something that’s going to break in a year, anyway.”

The iTouch owner was a designer no less, and I was banking on her backing me up as a Dave fan, but moreover as a fanatic of good design. (She did later admit she would probably buy this CD to complete her collection.)

But I’m emotionally invested in this band. And moreover, I’m a firm believer that you can’t fully appreciate music without that CD case. Sure, with iTunes you get that cover artwork, but you lose that physical aspect of checking out all the crevices while the music plays in the background. (I realize I do sound like 65-year-old man pining over his lost vinyls, but bare with me, OK?) And with this album, adorned in an original sketch by Dave memorializing his friend and bandmate, you walk away with such a greater appreciate for what the band is getting across with the ablum. It’s like that first cigarette after a couple of beers: that one rush of nicotine just takes your buzz to a whole new level. You get such a better high with that visual image.

Rolling Stone posted some great videos of the band talking about the new album and their good, good friend LeRoi in preparation of the music coma I was self-inducing myself into later. When I got home from work, I gave Big Whiskey my first full run-through, and it really is the GrooGrux to say the least.

Watch the videos, you’ll understand.