Big & Rich: Album of the Decade?

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0422/eddy1.php

And this is related (and they're inside a picture frame, too!!):

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0422/eddy2.php

this is even worse than kid rock.

1. That they are a total and long-deserved slap in the fact to the sexless white-bread goody-goody PURITANISM of country, as typified not only by alt-style No Depression horseshit but also by such semi-talented superstar bores as George Strait, Randy Travis, Alan Jackson, Clint Black, etc (all of whom have a few great moments, but who cares. Especially now.)

2. That their sudden ubiquitousness on country stations may well represent the most quantum leap taken by ANY musical genre in, I dunno, decades. At least.

3. That the preacher stuff at the beginning and rap in the middle of "Rollin'" always make me think of "Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out)" by the Hombres.

4. That the way they pronounce "sit-TAY" and "prit-TAY" in "Save a Horse" always reminds me of old funk guys, especially Larry Blackmon of Cameo, and I assume this is absolutely intentional.

5. That the way they suddenly exclaim "...and we made LOVE!" in the same song has more sex in it than any country, rock, rap, pop, OR dance song to hit the radio in recent memory. Prove me wrong.

6. That their album could easily wind up being the first album by anybody that I give 30 points to on a Pazz and Jop ballot. Ever.

Disclaimer: What I mean by this is that, since I've owned the album, I've ASSUMED that was only the sixth or seventh best song. But maybe I'm wrong: maybe the A&R people at Warners Nashville know something I don't. I would not have picked this track as one of the most obvious early singles, either. But if all the songs that sounded even better to me the first 20 times I heard the album sound even better than this one when they get released as radio singles, watch out...

I mean "slap in the face," duh.

Also holy fuck the end of Real World!

too "somber"/boring
as a single but on disc
it sounds very nice

good contrast to the
Western Myth song at the end,
but both are like "eh"

my daughter's fave song
is "six foot town", she always
laughs, "he's a giant!"

--and andrew OTM end of 'real world'--

easily best couplet of the year

first it wasn't easy--
Changin' Rock & Roll and minds

I play guitar and I play my songs in the swuuuuuuuunnnshiiiiiiiiiiiiine!

Haha, I just heard this last night for the first time and when "Wild West Show" came on I was like, "is this the Mission?" Roll on goth-country takeover!

While I do think Chuck may be taking it a bit far with some of his declarations on this one, here I think he may (may) have something. To the above quote, I'd say that the difference lies what B&R walk in the video and talk in the music is where he has merit.

Chuck, I get what you're saying here, and I kinda agree, but do you really think Big & Rich is that big a leap from the ironic jiggle-and-bling videos that have been all over mainstream country for at least the past 5 years? the quasi-hip hop bravado of Toby Keith, etc? I mean, B&R definitely are the most dramatic shift in this direction so far, but I don't see it as that surprising or unprecedented.

Yeah, really remember those old Hank Jr all my rowdy friends videos....and that God Bless Texas one from about 10 years ago?

refusal to bend,
if we're feeling ten feet tall
then screw the midgets

permission structure to continue writing off all other country music

― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Monday, December 14, 2020 12:37 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i see zero evidence of this

Peak into any year-end thread when an Eric Church single appears.

I don't really follow those too much

I guess why would anyone need permission not to like country music much less pretend to hate Big & Rich when secretly in your dark little heart you love it so much and listen to Save a Horse every day crouched in the closet in secret shame?

no one has to like anything

i was unclear, i didnt mean ppl were being disingenuous about hating big & rich, what i meant was a certain amount of the big & rich praise on ilm had a framing of "we all know country music sucks but FINALLY this is GOOD" that struck me as self soothing a little bit, giving themselves permission to continue writing off country as music for dumb racists because they like the album where the guys rap about not being racist.

yet they turned out to be racists

ahhh sorry OEO totally misread

"FINALLY these are GOOD racists!"

this place is not the friendliest toward country, a genre which mixes schmaltz, arena moves, bad jokes, and pathos in ways that confuse people (and sometimes me).

I love country music from some mega-schmaltzy eras (e.g. 1987-1997) but have completely loathed Big & Rich from day one. It's just terrible stuff and I don't get it at all.

I also hated Lonestar so I guess I do hate these guys specifically

KiNG would have to be on that ilm hive list. And chuffing Balloon.

avalanches are the classic ilm act for me. never seen them in anyone's record collection irl or heard anyone talking about them

Oh yeah, I used to put some of their early stuff on mix tapes way before seeing anything about them on ilm. I guess they weren't all that well-known in the US, but I got compliments for the tapes.

I was actually into Since I Left You before I came around to ilx, can't remember where I heard about it, probably some magazine review.

I think Sim0n Reyn0lds reviewed it pretty ecstatically in Uncut? I could be remembering that wrong.

Yeah think I first heard them on magazine bonus comps.

Ah, that Reyn0lds review was in Spin. That is definitely where I would have seen it.

I have "Save A Horse" on my Elliptical Jams playlist, mostly unplayed since March.

the first B&R record still rules--but there was a lot of great Country music in that era

Yeah, and that was when I started paying attention to it, beyond Willie---pop arena mainstream country was big fun, and I thought so much of it was going to keep being like that---spoiled me, waaaah

he paid out, it went to a military charity: https://tasteofcountry.com/john-rich-joe-biden-donald-trump-election-bet/

I met with @GovBillLee and @SchwinnTeach today at the Capital building. They told me new legislation will be put on the docket in this session to deal with "literature" that our kids are being exposed to containing obscene and pornographic content. They listened. We'll see.

— John Rich (@johnrich) January 11, 2022

sounds like a cool jerk sesh bro

The press release calls Cowboy Troy "the world's only six foot five inch, 250 pound black cowboy rapper, who throws down in three languages and has a degree in economics to boot."

Seems like he should be Big In Europe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tofbP46Ohd4

He's 6 foot 5. Probably big everywhere.

That first one’s kind of rapey. Guess who’s lyrics… pic.twitter.com/Gj7CklQ2E6

— Rep. Gloria Johnson (@VoteGloriaJ) January 12, 2022

lol. She's my state rep, one of our few local Dems. She just got redistricted out of her own district.

Doubling down, I guess.

Cepicky bill criminalizing "obscene" materials in school libraries rolled one week because of time constraints after singer John Rich compares librarians to perverts in a "white van."

— Sam Stockard (@stockard_sam) February 23, 2022

I want to know how a kid working at a fast food restaurant found the funding to purchase thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of rifles, ammunition and body armor. We need answers.

— John Rich (@johnrich) May 27, 2022

Well clearly this is why we have to keep the minimum wage down

And then America tells him to step right up despite not allowing him to buy a glass of whiskey.

— John Legend (@johnlegend) May 28, 2022