Alt-Country - Search and Destroy

fibrotown "s/t"
Royalchord's "I gave you a mountain"
hired guns "between here and the night"

anyway, here is a review of my favorite recent alt-country record, followed by reviews of two non-alt-at-all country records, the latter of which genre i usually (but okay, not always) much tend to prefer:

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0405/eddy.php

unless drive-by truckers count (at least when they play loud.)

Powerpop and indie rock are both brilliant genres. Particularly Powerpop. The entire ideology behind Powerpop is so completely right.

Hee. OK, but that all depends where you draw your lines. I mean, by No Depression definitions, Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle are alt-country royalty. They both have detractors, I know, but it seems like a stretch to call them timid, bland, whitebread -- or even arhythmic (I actually like Steve Earle's country-reggae bits, "Rivers of Babylon" and "Johnny Too Bad"). It's always seemed to me there were distinct schools of alt-country: the Uncle Tupelo/Jayhawks Midwest/California division, and then separate (though sometimes overlapping) circles in Nashville, Austin, Chicago and elsewhere. If you're going to limit the definition specifically to the Farrar/Tweedy school, OK, I can see the complaints (although all those guys have written some good songs, and Mermaid Avenue is a classic on any planet). But I'm guessing that's limiting the definition way more than anyone who actually listens to it does.

Anyway, people not yet mentioned, besides Earle and Williams:
Lonesome Bob
The Bottle Rockets
The V-roys (and Scott Miller solo, especially his first album)
Kelly Willis (I guess her MCA stuff is hard to call alt-, but her more recent stuff qualifies)
Jason and the Scorchers
Lone Justice (especially the first album)

And lots of other things not leaping to mind right now.

For whatever record exists for someone who posts with a fake name, I don't like a lot of the alt-country superstars like Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams & Ryan Adams. Can't stand 'em! Mainly cuz they seem to believe their own press. Or maybe cuz a bunch of people I think are fuckfaces absolutely fawn over them. So, like, suck-by-association.

Anyway,any music label will ultimately be proven false or redundant unless it is at heart meaningless (the label, like say, crunk or gobot-pop (good-time music made by cars that turn into robots with very few moving pieces).

Well, the Eagles having made better records than Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, the Bottle Rockets, Casey Chambers, Ryan Adams, Jason and the Scorchers, Lone Justice, Alejandro Escovedo, Wilco, Son Volt, Uncle Tupelo, the Jayhawks, Lambchop, Iron & Wine, and just about everybody else mentioned on this thread *might* have something to do with it. But that's just a wild guess.

I never liked the Goats much, myself. Or Lubricated Goat, for that matter. Or Lambchop, though I guess we already mentioned them. Or Lamb, for that matter. Or the High Llamas. I think I like the Mountain Goats okay, though (and not just because John Darnielle might be reading this), but I need to listen to them more. And I definitely think "I'm on the Lamb But I Ain't no Sheep" by Blue Oyster Cult is an excellent song, for whatever that's worth.

just read this excellent article which is a few weeks old: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/far-from-the-old-country-music-1643705.html

the assessment of alt country at the end rang 100% true for me

yes, Bush totally OTM here, and I think this is well put...

Bush can barely hide his impatience at alt.country's arrogance. "The songs that will survive 40 years from now will have to do, not with their excellence at how they interpreted post-modern Appalachia, but how they interpreted the human condition. And in the end, as much as I'm a huge Wilco fan, no one's going to remember them. They're going to remember Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl" – because that story is true. There'll be another girl sitting at a window who's kissed someone and that song speaks to her. And really, (Wilco and ex-Uncle Tupelo singer-songwriter) Jeff Tweedy singing about being lonely and poor and dumped, all these things which he is not...

"There are only so many thirtysomethings who'll emotionally connect to style over substance, which a lot of (modern) Appalachian stuff is. I'm a huge Gillian Welch fan, but she's from Malibu, California. I'm from Dolly Parton's hometown Sevierville, Tennessee. I should be playing what she's playing, according to our histories. Our song "Baby Girl" deals with some sort of human archetype, anyway, a story of the hero. It just rings differently in your bones. Country music is unafraid of that human substance."

BUT...and this is a big but...dude is the heir to the Bush's baked beans fortune! Black pot, meet black kettle...

Please can anyone recommend some good and recent alt-country from a UK band? I was asked to import some. I forgot. And I have no idea what's out there anyway, let alone what's new and decent. So I need to raid Amazon, but not until I've had your advice.

brinsley schwarz "silver pistol"

not actually recent.

Sorry ljubljana - i kept meaning to return yr email but I couldn't think of anything. How about Dropkick though?

What do The Mekons sound like now?

Thanks Ian, Ned - have ordered the Brinsley Schwartz on the basis that it's old enough to be interesting so scores as many points as something new enough to be interesting. Also got the latest Dropkick. I think the Mekons are already well-known here in the US. Any more thoughts welcome...

Other mandatory U.K. country-rock/roots rock from the early 1970s: Mighty Baby (jug of love album), Help Yourself (first couple albums), Ernie Graham solo album (f'n brilliant) and Cochise (first two albums).

In defense of Steve Earle:

Steve is venerated by No Depression by I don't think he should be lumped in with Ryan Adams or even Lucinda in the "timid, whitebread, a-rhythmic alt-country" category that someone described

He's a damn good songwriter IMO

and listen to a song like "Copperhead Road" or "I Feel Allright"

those songs ain't timid, they kick ass!

i think my main problem with this genre is that I actually like real good old fashioned twangy country music quite a bit, always have, so most of this stuff sounds pretty diluted for my taste

one thing about this "genre" is that there are people coming at "altcountry" from a lot of different dierctions. some come an indie rock background, some are looking for the next Crazy Horse, some are punks mellowing out from the meat puppets & mekons & black flag, etc

a lot of so called cowpunk bands pretty much just sounds like barbands it seems

http://www.dixiestreams.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ryan-bingham-junky-star.jpg

this is the cover of a record called "junky star"

listen to it

What's been great in the alt country scene the last few years? Bloodshot's slipped lately but I dug the Paul Burch/Waco's album. It seems like lots of my old faves have moved away from the sounds I loved - Ryan Adams turned into Jerry Garcia while Chris Mills and Neko Case are still making great music but moved away from the country underpinnings.

Phospherescent, Richmond Fontaine

The Volebeats have been one of the best alt country bands since the 80s. Their self-titled record from a few years back is fantastic.

Here is an older song of theirs, one of my favorites. If you like this, you'll like everything they do.

One of their singers, Matthew Smith is also the singer of Outrageous Cherry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQAYK8PGL_c

Fred Eaglesmith's last album "6 Volts" has been curing my alt-country jones for the last month.

I don't know if he wants to put the work into making Southeastern a bigger label but that would be a cool home for the Bloodshot artists getting screwed.

That would have to be a bigger label indeed! Meanwhile, I suppose something like a class action lawsuit would be like Bloodshot from a stone---?

would accomplish little more than enriching the lawyers i'd imagine

Maybe they could use the kind who ONLY GET PAID WHEN YOU DO (true ambulance chasers, but Chicago must have some)

With same financial results, but some vengence----maybe whoever defendants might be would settle? They prob don't have shit, unless it's under mattresses etc

I'd imagine any lawsuit would instantly throw Bloodshot into bankruptcy, then I'd assume any music rights/publishing would be auctioned off to the highest bidder

Reading some of the comments under the Isbell tweet, particularly a couple from people who would know, it sounds like Nan might be the problem.

The settlement might well be, at best, "Here's your masters"---but with an auction, as you say----or would those in effect or fact be auctioned too?

https://chicagoreader.com/music/bloodshot-records-is-bought-by-exceleration-music/

i love the butthole surfers alt cunt tree song! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is0hVNZJTOU

Rob Miller's such a good writer, even if most of what I've read from him has been during PR crisis times. Would love it if this freed him up to do more of it publicly.

Been getting some emails from the 'new' Bloodshot Records. Let's see if they can recapture the original spirit...