DRIVE BY TRUCKERS fans, UNITE!!!

huh, i really dig isbell doing stretched out marvin gaye jams

every thread gets the troll it deserves

https://www.npr.org/2020/06/17/879393187/now-about-the-bad-name-i-gave-my-band

AFAICT there is not a single mention of the band's name, positive or negative, in the 16-year span of this thread

Drive By Wokesters

dont really want to read that whole thing whats the gist if you dont mind?

It's actually a decent read, but pretty well summed up by the last paragraph:

Our name was a drunken joke that was never intended to be in rotation and reckoned with two-and-a-half decades later, and I sincerely apologize for its stupidity and any negative stereotypes it has propagated. I'm not sure changing it now serves any higher purpose, but I'm certainly open to suggestions. In the meantime, you're welcome to just call us Lady DBT.

After all that I don't even understand what he's apologizing for. Or if it was worth taking up so many words if he's not changing it.

Pat's been in Portland too long

yeah, it's a stupid name, but most band names are pretty stupid. I'm not sure what there is to apologize for.

sorry for having such a bad name for such a cool band?

"I'm woke too!"

very weird

xpost Eh, this band has been in the woke zone for some time now. That Black Lives Matter sign has been a stage fixture for at least 4 years.

No one was asking them.

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.