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)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Luoe-6ok_TE

Not into the political stuff. Not why I listen to DBT.

Weird. They've always been pretty political!

Dad drunk and Amex

It's okay. And every song by every act is political. Breathing clean air is a political act.

Women Without ILX

Angels and SNA

Wow, the enthusiasm is overwhelming.

Seriously, if this is not why you listen to the Drive-By Truckers, then I guess I don't know why any of you listen to the Drive-By Truckers.

And every song by every act is political.

Oh, come on.

I think they've always been political, but in the new song they name names.

I love the DBTs even though their work is very disciplined and rarely exciting. I'm seeing them live in Feb and also seeing Cooley and Hood's local solo shows.

If you're gay, every love song is political.

This song is topical.

I thought the political songs on the last album were great but this one’s pretty awful. Boring music, super on the nose lyrics.

This is fucking awful. I can just sense that my opinion is in some way regressive or rockist or whatever, but so be it. I wouldn't run screaming from a room where this was being played, but who could actually get into this

God knows we need something from music right now, but it's not a cringey, ham fisted explication of a sensible if obvious POV, set to pubrock

truly sorry for the triple dip, but I do want to say I love the exultant defiant The High Road by Isbell, which deals just as directly with this administration. I guess it's because the message is, transcend it instead of griping about it or wallowing in it. TPN's message is more suited to an op-ed or blog post imo

Into the Perilous Night: An Essay by Patterson Hood

I mostly like the riff and the faster than usual tempo. I also like Hood in righteous mode.

xpost that's a great essay, I love his honesty.

He's a fantastic writer.

Something about the wrinkle in your forehead
Tells me there’s a fit about to be thrown
If we get the van out of the ditch before the morning
Ain’t nobody gotta know about what I’ve done

As good as I have ever seen them tonight, and I've seen them a lot!

They just released an album by Hood/ Cooley’s 80s band Adam’s House Cat, with re-recorded vocals. It is excellent as usual. If you haven’t heard it yet, definitely check it out.

Saw them again last night, playing a truncated set at a beer fest. Great as usual, if shorter than usual. Hold Steady opened!

I was so worried the Adam's House Cat album would sound like some alt-era reject, but it actually sounds like a lost '80s Amerindie classic.

Let's rank these awesome Patterson Hood songs.

C’mon no Heathens?!?!

No Living Bubba?!

no!

NO EIGHTEEN WHEELS OF LOVE!?!??

Alfred why do u hate irl trucking

I like this imo

https://img.discogs.com/uB_x_iunwCVuF90mHIwUyi9X33Y=/fit-in/600x602/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-3419423-1519135654-3674.jpeg.jpg

well that gives me some hope

His songs have gotten slower

aaaaaand here are Mike Cooley and Jason Isbell's songs.

Interesting. I think "Ghost To Most" and "Gravity" Gone" both deserve a nod. Plus a bunch of Cooley, really (there's not much Jason to choose from). I mean, this is chorus!

"So I'll meet you at the bottom if there really is one
They always told me when you hit it you'll know it
But I've been falling so long it's like gravity's gone and I'm just floating"

Space City is my favorite Cooley

"Goddamn Lonely Love" is one of my favorite songs of all time, full stop.

I mean...

If I could have one wish right now
I'd be about as half as tough as I pretend I am
Then I wouldn't care how empty this old house feels
I could take her things and take them far away from here
I could make sure no dirt ever got on her name
Cause looking at that stone wouldn't bring me so much pain
I could go into town wearing my finest clothes
I could turn these tears into blood and make it run ice cold
Space City's one hour up the road from me
One hour away from as close to the moon as anybody down here is ever gonna be
And somewhere beyond that big white light is where my heart is gone
And somewhere she's wondering what's taking me so long
My hands are as good to me as they've ever been
And I ain't ashamed of anything my hands ever did
But sometimes the words I used were as hard as my fist
She had the strength of a man and the heart of a child I guess
Space City's one hour up the road from me
One hour away from as close to the moon as anybody down here is ever gonna be
And somewhere beyond that big white light is where my heart is gone
And somewhere she's wondering what's taking me so long

"Goddamn Lonely Love" is one of my favorite songs of all time, full stop.

― resident hack (Simon H.), Sunday, January 13, 2019

Same! I didn't think so in 2004. Now I understand the desperation.

I need to make a concerted effort with Drive-By Truckers as I've only really dabbled here and there. The thought that there might be three songs better than Outfit staggers me.

"Goddamn Lonely Love" is one of my favorite songs of all time, full stop.

― resident hack (Simon H.), Sunday, January 13, 2019 10:15 PM

It only started cutting into me last year.

The thought that there might be three songs better than Outfit staggers me.

The fact that this band has remained so prolific yet turned out so many amazing songs is itself pretty staggering.

Uncle Frank is my favorite DBT song, and probably my single favorite song of the century.

I even like "The President's Penis is Missing."

women w/o whiskey

still trying to wrap my head around the absence of Gravity's Gone

"Goddamn Lonely Love" is one of my favorite songs of all time, full stop.

― resident hack (Simon H.), Sunday, January 13, 2019

OTM

women without whiskey is so good

whiskey's hard to beat

They've got such a catalog of great albums that it's hard to keep them all in rotation, but I put on "Go-Go Boots" for the first time in ages and it ruled. Still love "Used to be a Cop" (which could be a movie easier than most Hood songs he wrote with movies in mind), but "The Thanksgiving Filter" really got to me tonight. One of the few Thanksgiving songs! Just put on "English Oceans" now, and it's already ruling, too.

almost time for Mrs Claus’ Kimono...

I was curious, so I did some googling, and saw this tidbit:

For ideological opponents who think that the current state of affairs has beaten the Truckers into silence, however, Hood has a message: Hold onto your hats. There’s a new record coming in time for 2020. And there may be another out by the end of the next year.

“It’ll be out in time for the next election cycle, and it is a political record. I would say it’s as political as (“American Band”), but it’s more personal,” Hood told The Daily Times recently. “It’s a little less broad based, a little less ‘Surrender Under Protest’ (the Truckers’ excoriation of Confederate flag culture) type of stuff and a little more inward, I guess. I’m really, really proud of it.”

With more than three years between it and “American Band,” it’ll be the longest gap between Truckers’ records ever, but for album No. 12, the guys wanted to get it right, Hood added.

“It was hard, writing a new record right now,” he said. “I’ve never really been given to having writer’s block. Cooley has, but we both struggled this time out, just trying to find a way to articulate how we feel at a time like this. What we ended up doing was basically record about an album and a half. So we’re putting out an album in January, and then we’ll be kind of finishing up the next record over the next year or so.

“The follow-up is not political. It’s a very personal record, maybe the most we’ve ever done. I’m excited about it all. I’m ready to go out as the primary season starts kicking up, to raise hell and be all in for any good we can do — we’re even thinking about trying to do voter registration drives and, as it gets closer to next fall, some other creative things in some swing states. We want to be all in. But my hope is, shortly after the election, we’ll release the other record and go out and do something different.

So it's a little confusing, but that implies a new album in January 2020, and then maybe another one at the end of '20?