DRIVE BY TRUCKERS fans, UNITE!!!

Wow, "Surrender Under Protest" is great, Cooley has a tremendous way of simplifying complicated issues into great songs.

Cooley has become the more reliable songwriter, I think. Before English Oceans Cooley would generally only contribute three or four songs per album, but the 50/50 split behooves them. Really liking my advance of the new album, actually, especially for Cooley's songs, but a couple of surefire hreatbreaking Hood tracks like "Guns of Umpqua" help, and his "When the Sun Don't Shine" doesn't sound like anything else he's written.

And this one is a keeper:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU-j3Vmspxc

Have loved to Truckers for, wow, maybe 15 years now? More? 16? Anyway, I need to give the new one some more time.

Time is passing. Their records do hold up to continued listening. I always thought the multiple singers and songwriters made many bands records more interesting.

I got one sad funny story about the last time I saw The Drive By Truckers live a few years back. I was taking the lady I was dating for a couple months to the show and she had me get a ticket for a friend of her's to go and she would pay me back later. That's cool I figured...we went to the gig had a grand time and then pretty much afterwards I got the ole' never returning your call ever again treatment. For some reason it oddly seemed appropriate, except if it was a DBT song the band in question would have been Blackfoot.

The new one is exceptionally good.

def their best in a long time, p much no filler

oh my god you guys -- this album is a stone fucking bore. Not a single interesting rhythm: two songwriters strumming to the same backbeat. By the time I got to "What It Means" I couldn't be bothered with listening to the hot takes on racism and America Today.

Their last record I cared about was released in 2008.

*jordan shrug* idk man

and I like songs on every record since 2010 (I like the opener on this one) but it's all ehhhh

Well, that's what makes horse racing.

xp i will say that its def kinda monochromatic, sonically, more so than some of their other records. i just think they happened to pick a sound they do really, really well. an album like Go-Go Boots is way more adventurous musically but there are huge duds on it (fireplace poker, anybody?) same thing's true of english oceans, which starts p good and just kinda peters out, or the big to-do, which has by far one of their best songs ever ("birthday boy") and also real weak tracks like "flying wallendas" and "eyes like glue" (the v rare cooley misfire)

none of these is ever gonna be Dirty South-level again. granted, thats a p high bar.

I do think the arrangements are dull, but especially Cooley's lyrics are better than ever. I think I'd be into it more if I approached it as more of a loud folk record.

Their last record I cared about was released in 2008.

I agree with this, and if anything BTCD is underrated

Their best, which means, yes, better than The Dirty South, Decoration Day, and the Shonda tunes on BTCD.

BTCD is their peak, I think. Ever since then it's been just a little too much yet not quite enough. Still love 'em, still great live, etc.

OK, listening again, and there are some great, great songs (esp. Cooley's) and performances. But I think the problem may be as simple as sequencing. "Darkened Flags" is just not a terribly good song, and it sort of kills the momentum before it even begins, especially between "Ramon Casiano" and "Surrender Under Protest."

Watching them kill it right now. Right band for the right time.

just covered The KKK Took My Baby Away!

Best tracks of their last LP: "Ramon Casiano" (another biting Cooley song), "Surrender Under Protest", "Guns Of Umpqua" and "Ever South".

Wow, just heard that awesome brand new song they snuck out. Called The Perilous Night, and it is without question the most political thing they've written to date. Calls out Trump by name, and so on. Hood on point.

Incidentally heard it in tandem with a new Neil Young protest song, Already Great, which sounded pretty awesome too.

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