DRIVE BY TRUCKERS fans, UNITE!!!

Those shows are pretty futhermucking loud, though. On night two I occasionally popped in earplugs, which I never do. Do I smell a thread? "Earplugs at Shows?"

She had three televisions just like Elvis, the King, used to have...

1. The Company I Keep
2. Love Like This
3. Whiskey Without Women
4. Sink Hole
5. Wife Beater
6. Dead Drunk & Naked
7. Nine Bullets
8. Guitar Man Upstairs
9. Margo & Harold
10.Marry Me

>Playing the new Drive By Truckers album *Dirty South* now. It sounds even more tired than their last one; they've totally given up on trying to be Skynyrd, which sucks. Not horrible, though. Better than Patterson Hood's solo CD, I guess. So I bet it gets very good reviews.<

I'm now convinced, by the way, that *Dirty South* is their worst album ever, by far. The first song rocks okay, but just about everything else drags drags drags, almost 100 percent ballads, damn near no fucking memorable melodies, no fucking energy, nothing. Track #4 is okay, probably some others here and there, I forget which ones. Sometimes the high singing is kinda pretty, and the thing definitely is better to play at work than in a car, since the record does not move AT ALL. "Carl Perkins' Cadillac" strikes me as pandering bullshit. Track #9, "Cottonseed," is one of the most tedious, interminable songs I've heard all year. If somebody really believes I'm missing something, I wish they would explain what it is. Their three EARLY albums (as in pre Southern Rock Opera) blow this one out of the water, if anybody's curious.

Chuck's description doesn't worry me one bit if he really thinks "Cassie's Brother" is better than Decoration Day.

And yes, JMod, I agree - one of the loudest (and best) live shows i've ever seen.

Now, I haven't heard the Dirty South yet so I guess I can't sufficiently respond, but what I'd heard live sounded terrific.

Mr. Deeds 100% OTM about "Daddy's Cup" - blew me away live, and honestly unless they TOTALLY changed the demo version on the website and the way they play it live for the record, I'm really surprised Chuck wouldn't like "Carl Perkins" 'cause it's got such a GREAT poppy riff on it, one of the catchiest I've heard all year.

"Where the Devil Don't Stay" was a great rocker live as well, and "Danko/Manuel" was a terrific ballad to these ears. I will admit that Patterson's songs did sound kind of weak in comparison to Cooley and Isbell, and of course again I haven't actually heard the album so I might be totally off base altogether.

I will say however that I agree with Chuck about missing the humor and playfulness of the first three rekkids, the Truckers definitely do take themselves a little too seriously from time to time nowadays and I'd sure love it if they'd inject a little bit of that Panties in Your Purse/Steve McQueen/Too Much Sex (Too Little Jesus) spirit into their newer stuff.

the key line

I'll agree with this. Ah well, can't really argue with Chuck on this until I gets me a copy of Dirty South myself.

And I really like Isbell BTW, I thought his two contributions to Decoration Day were among the best on the album, and at least when I saw it performed live, I thought "Danko/Manuel" was absolutely haunting.

I can see Chuck's point about pandering as far the Dixie Chicks are concerned b/c that song did seem specifically geared to orient themselves in the "don't make 'em like they usedta" camp, but I don't see it with "Carl Perkins' Cadillac" - I mean, that's what the song's about, y'know? It doesn't seem to me to be contrived in the least, certainly it is a "history lesson" and maybe that's a bore for some, but I don't see it as pandering at all.

Funny you mentioned "Long Time Gone" Chuck b/c I referenced that song in my Stylus review of Gretchen Wilson today, how she's big-upping Bocephus while the Chicks prefer Hank Sr.

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/review.php?ID=2093

I might not think the history lesson was such a bore if it was, say, "Michael Murphey's Cadillac, actually -- which would be way more clever, too, given Geronimo's and all. (Plus, the Kentucky Headhunters did a better song about Carl Perkins on a way better Southern Rock/country album LAST year. And it was easily one of the lesser songs on *that* album.)

I honestly can't remember the last time I was actually excited to meet a band - comes with the territory of being a rock journo I guess

Anyway, I wholeheartedly disagree with chuck upthread - and if you miss the lighthearted stuff, well, there's two songs about Walking Tall, fer chrissakes!! What do you want?? What's more lighthearted than Walking goddamm Tall? :)

They were on Conan last night and they did an Isbell song I think. How old is that kid? His lyrics are just too much. So well written and so fucking defiant. He was all dressed up and looked like an American Idol contestant singing about his sort of fucked up/backwoods life and how he doesn't (or can't, I guess) give a shit. It was pretty perfect.

He knows his southern writers I guess.

god, i love them truckers.

(judging from the song samples I heard on Northern State's site he's dead on about that album though)

Maybe NPR asked them?

Sorry, these guys have always seemed like try-hards to me.

I like this band, but their stupid—stupid like “Goo Goo Dolls” is stupid, not stupid because I assumed anything malicious on their part—name kept me from paying any attention to them for years.

The more I think about this the funnier it seens

I had always been under the impression (held by probably only me) that their name held a double-meaning: Firstly as Hood explains it in the piece, and secondly as a reference to some obscure trucking industry slang ("Oh, that guy's just a drive-by trucker..." or something).

next: David Byrne regrets abelist bandname

'Gangstabilly' is far more regrettable than the band name.

I had the same thought! I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned.

BTW, I'm not too up on slang, but what's a "try-hard?" Does that mean they ... try too hard? I don't know, if that's the accusation, I'd rather they try too hard than do what 99.9% of acts do, which is to say, next to nothing. Buncha white Alabama rock guys in their '50s trying hard to be allies and supporters to progressive people and causes? That's OK by me.

I uh, don't get what is 'offensive' about the name. Is it just using the term 'drive by'? who gives a fuck?

Never in a million years would it have occurred to me that "drive-by shooting" was the intended reference. Maybe it would have been more salient in 1996? Idk. Agree that the essay feels try-hardy, but also that try-hard is preferable to do-nothing.

I know I've read the name origin name a million times but I still always assumed a "drive-by trucker" was sort of a part-timer. Like, nota poseur or not the real deal.

Woowww... privileged much?? /s

try-hard is preferable to do-nothing

normally I agree with this sentiment but this one is pretty ridiculous. I guess it must be nice to be able to call up NPR and publish the fart of your choice

I definitely assumed it was about drive-by shootings by truckers - a juxtaposition reinforced by debut album Gangstabilly.

^^ same, peace.

What we should definitely be doing is shaming people for trying, even if it comes off a little misguided. Absolutely, that's the best course of action.

He'll be fine.

I never thought of a different connotation for drive-by... but I also just thought it was a nonsense combo of words because '90s band name

Barenaked Truckers.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51WIPXrqcML._SY445_.jpg

I don't know Jerry Joseph, but apparently the band backed him up on his new album? And Isbell adds slide to a track?

Jerry Joseph is ... like, look up 'earnest grizzled veteran journeyman bar-rocker dude' in the dictionary and there'll be a picture of Jerry.

i think he's an OK songwriter who occasionally cranks out a pretty great song, but he has been such a sort of regional lifer in Portland for so long, i always dismissed him. that said, he is well-connected *and* he has been grinding it out long enough that i think i have no choice to come around to respecting him.

nice enough guy, though. takes his art real serious like. And I think he kicked a serious addiction somewhere along the way, too.

(short version: it's a coup for him to have DBTs and especially Isbell on his record)

New album (already) out in December, called "The New OK." Curious, because of course that will be post-election, which could provide two very different contexts to the songs. Maybe they will be more thematically general this time?

There's a short piece on them on Rolling Stone. Apparently most of the songs were leftover from the last sessions, though some of the leftovers from the last sessions are being saved for their *next* album already. This one apparently has a Ramones cover, which I presume to be "The KKK Took My Baby Away," and a Cooley song about how Sarah Palin essentially did Trump before Trump. He jokes in the piece that the GOP can't even give a woman credit for *that.*

Wait, the new album is out Friday!?

Yeah, out digitally this Friday and physically in mid-December.

Weird, listened to the title track just now and towards the end I picked up that it's built from the DNA of Soul Asylum's "Cartoon," which could be a coincidence, but I can almost certainly guarantee those dudes are familiar with that song.

I was underwhelmed by the album from earlier this year.

a Cooley song about how Sarah Palin essentially did Trump before Trump

man these guys have fallen very far indeed

Nah they're still good, it's everything else that's fallen.

I liked The Unraveling, heard the highly-acclaimed American Band as clumsy with the political comments---trouble getting to fresh expression, esp in songshapes that lure---go back to Woody G, DBT: he always found a good tune somewhere, still got that P Domain for public discourse---anybody listened to all/any of these live sets? They've been pretty good live in my experience, even w material I didn't care for as studio tracks, but where should I start w all this?
https://drivebytruckers.bandcamp.com/music

Alabama Ass Whuppin' is a real good sweatbox set of prime early material, from when they still had a sense of humor.
This the official reissue of the bands long 'out of print' live album from 2000, ALABAMA ASS WHUPPIN'. Recorded in various Georgia clubs during the Pizza Deliverance Tour of 1999, it is probably the most punk rock thing they have ever done. ATO Records & Drive-By Truckers have restored the original 1/2' analogue mixes of the album which have been re-mastered with some beautiful new art work

I do agree that The Unraveling did a better job of being topical and political than the overt American Band did. That said, I don't think the band has lost their sense of humor so much as not having a whole lot to be happy about at the moment.

xp that was a fun time to be in athens. their shows felt like big parties with patterson hood hosting and making sure you had a good time and got shitfaced. elephant six had such a different thing going on but it all lingered together so well

That's what came across on the album! And their humor didn't depend on happy stuff: This food tastes the way Ah feel...She's the best-dressed gurl in Butt-holevilllle. Ditto on Southern Rock Opera and Pizza Deliverance (still need to check Gangstabilly. "Go-Go Boots" is a good later example, with that creepy Sardonicus groove.

Based on a true/testified to story, let the record show.

Okay, three songs in and this is the most I've liked one of their records since Brighter than Creations Dark, so I'm hopeful.

Still good! Strong melodies, great (and successful!) use of southern soul tropes.

Ramones cover is just eh, haven’t listened to rest yet

"The New OK" has bee DBT's modus operandi since 2010.

it's better than ok.

""The KKK Took My Baby" away is good jolty closer, turning up the volume after sleepless swirl of "Watching The Orange Clouds," and I like the processing of Cooley's voice here and elsewhere, although his trademark corrugating crooning fills in pretty well for Shonna Tucker's touching tones, which I immediately started jonesing when the Spoonereque piano intro of "Sarah's Flame" commenced. Also like the way all his words roll with the keys, and baritone voice that occasionally shows up after he mentions "Barry's baritone."

That one a and the near beach music of "Sea Island Lonely," with soul horns grooving by sometimes, and "The Distance"---tracks 5., 6., 7.---will or would def. make it to my personal mixtape of DBT through the years. Also liking several more, although the big shoe stomp can still plod at times (drummer's doing what they want, or he'd probably be gone, like several longtime companions over the years).
https://drivebytruckers.bandcamp.com/album/the-new-ok

Also "Tough To Let Go" : "Know that the weight of your expectations won't fit in the door."

There are a couple clear REM inspired moments (specifically nods to Automatic for the People), too.

Good interview w Hood, posted Oct. 23:
https://www.al.com/life/2020/10/patterson-hood-talks-new-drive-by-truckers-album-eddie-van-halen-jason-isbell.html Also: writing projects to keep from going crayzee, Petty as punk etc.

@ShonnaTucker
Shout out to the elderly lady up the road today wearin
a sleeveless pearl snap collared shirt workin a leaf blower
with one hand and a Coors light in the other. I 100% get it.

<3

P. Hood, "I Know A Place---Growing Up Muscle Shoals":
https://www.oxfordamerican.org/magazine/item/1987-i-know-a-place

And his accompanying playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5AzVQ0Be9NoAaM3xXPQF9O?si=CBstknviRDaelqqKclAJkg

I thought this was fun:

https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/interviews/drive-by-truckers-patterson-hood-nine-favourite-songs

Yeah. Good check-in w Cooley too:
His relationship advice involves Foghat.
And his wit’s dry enough you can’t always exactly tell if he’s messing with you or not.
He's doing a few more acoustic solo shows---says full-band shows could get out of hand these days, re social distancing etc.---before the venues he's playing shut down again (as the owners have told him) ,'til the vaccine gets around (a very slooow process in Alabama), and conditions improve----anyway! https://www.al.com/life/2021/01/mike-cooley-talks-drive-by-truckers-tour-riders-sarah-palin-pandemic-shows.html
Oh yeah, and he mentions this benefit acoustic show w Isbell, now posted on Truckers' bandcamp:
https://www.al.com/life/2020/11/jason-isbell-2-drive-by-truckers-reunite-for-live-lp.html