Ain't that America...

[Bizarro]

Coming up next (about 45 minutes to upload, looks like) is "The Dirty South," the most recent studio album by the Drive-by Truckers, the band many credit with stealing the show at this weekend's Lollapalooza. Dig this review:

The Georgia-by-way-of-Alabama Drive-By Truckers had a leg up on most of the bands at Lollapalooza Sunday: They're used to braving 100-degree weather. They were also one of the few bands on the two-day bill to emphasize songwriting over style, and for that they were rewarded by the faithful even if they probably failed to broaden their fan base very far. Part of the problem was that the band is used to playing three-hour-plus sets rather than a mere 60 minutes, which barely gave the quintet time to warm up. Despite the handicap, the band gradually grew in Southern rock spirit, its impassioned tales of working-class life and political woes getting stronger as the short set stretched. "Putting People on the Moon" was about as political as any song sung at the oddly apolitical fest, while the narrative lyrics of "Decoration Day" and "Carl Perkins' Cadillac" may have been lost on a crowd that responded more to the massive riff that drove "Let There Be Rock," an ode to arena-acts that for once was played to almost enough people to fill one.

[attachment deleted by admin... had to make some room, kids]

[Bizarro]

Try Before You Buy for Wednesday, Part II (click to download)

Drive-By Truckers - The Dirty South (2004, mp3, zipped)

Amazing, amazing record. But why take my word for it?

Metacritic score: 86

Class warfare meets gangsta-rock. (Village Voice)

Both sucks the air out of Dixie legend and revives it. (Spin)

The band has never sounded stronger on record as they do here. (PopMatters)

The Drive-By Truckers are the best, smartest, and most soulful hard rock band to emerge in a very long time. (All Music Guide)

The Dirty South is more consistent and cohesive song-for-song, its wide scope more public than personal. (Pitchfork)

These are songs riddled with illiteracy, cancer, unemployment, crime and consequence, fashioned by the brutal pen of one of the most promising American songwriters of the last decade. (Billboard)

Display a lurid intelligence that seeks to explore an alternate American history. (Mojo)

[Doctor Rock]

Well, listened to that Drive by truckers record you put up, Jeff... Uh... Don't like it.  Sounds exactly like three millions things I've heard before.  Sooorryyy... It's not that I mind it when somethings a bit derivative, I don't... But this is straight faithful copy without any twists, man!  I mean, I know exactly were the guitar solo is going to happen, and that's not a good sign!  I'd rather listen to the mats... I'll give it another listen, just to give it a chance.  

[regular tom]

What happens to that initial gung ho attitude?

it's gone, ho.

the bubbles aren't tiny, either.

ask me why and i'll spit in your eye

[regular tom]

the brewers lost, but the bratwurst won.  at 50-1 odds.


good night, america!

bonne nuit, canadia!

[Bizarro]

Well, listened to that Drive by truckers record you put up, Jeff... Uh... Don't like it.  Sounds exactly like three millions things I've heard before.  Sooorryyy... It's not that I mind it when somethings a bit derivative, I don't... But this is straight faithful copy without any twists, man!  I mean, I know exactly were the guitar solo is going to happen, and that's not a good sign!  I'd rather listen to the mats... I'll give it another listen, just to give it a chance.  

I think it's easy for us indie rock types to get tripped up in the fact that they work from iconic styles, but the key is in the way they put a revisionist spin not just on the lyrical content (and really, compare the reactionary crap of Lynyrd Skynyrd to DBT's pro-poor, pro-labor rants), but on the old school three guitar southern rock sound itself. "Danko/Manuel" (which is about the two non-Robbie Robertson guys who were the backbone of The Band) is genius. A cursory listen will place it as standard stuff, but it's considerably more textured than that.

Anyway, it may not be for everybody, and it may only be for a certain breed of southerners, even. But holy crap, the people who get it, love it. You might reasonably ask yourself how what might at first glance seem a "derivative" band manages to consistently bowl over folks who consistently hate that shit (myself included).

Anyway, I'm one of their fans. They may not be for everybody, but they're sure as hell for me. I think they write the most evocative, genuine Southern character studies since Tom T. Hall.

[brainfiber]

that's one i definitely want to check out...i heard carl's perkins cadillac once on the radio and dug it.

I think they also have a whole album about skynard

NASA Grounds Future Shuttle Flights

Don't you think they could of waited until the current shuttle in orbit gets back to announce this.

[Bizarro]

that's one i definitely want to check out...i heard carl's perkins cadillac once on the radio and dug it.

I think they also have a whole album about skynard

Southern Rock Opera is a double album about growing up in Alabama, the truth/legend of Skynyrd, and "the duality of the Southern thing."