DRIVE BY TRUCKERS fans, UNITE!!!

You should have been at Nottingham last night.

Actually, I was...

lol britishes.

Hey Mike t diva.
I wasn't one of those favoured ponces stood on the balcony either. I was mixing it in the pit with the chavs...
Nice summary btw.
I was under the impression that they would be loud?

One of the quietest bands ever esp. considering the 'three pronged guitar attack'

The initial sharing of the bottle was so fucking phoney too.
Did anybody have a slice beyond that?

Jimmy - what am i not getting fella me lad?

Fer Ark: I missed the bottle sharing, as the nutters down the front on the right were blocking my sight-line (and did you clock the twerp who kept offering Popeye-style bicep-clenches to Shonna?!), but my mate told me that the old JD was getting a hammering...

So I'm a big classic/hard rock fan, everything from Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac to Neil to Allmans. About 10 minutes ago I finally GOT the Drive-By Truckers. I've tried before but it never worked. Anyway, the third song on Southern Rock Opera, "72," made it all clear, especially the gnarled groove ''n'riff interplay. Just awesome.

Just curious, do these guys stretch out any songs when they play live?

Not really. Only the set closers, like their cover of "People Who Died" or "Buttholeville/State Trooper." Not a jam band (thank god).

Thanks for the info. Just because you stretch out a bit doesn't mean you're a jam band though. Look at Crazy Horse, CCR and even Skynyrd at times. That's all I was wondering.

Mike T ^ those annoying cuntocks down the front were about to get twatted.

It was like a care in the community bus trip. The idiot that tried crowd surfing looked like he'd come straight from a Limp Bizkit gig in the mid 90s.

I never realised that DBT were a teen band

I don't think of them as a teen band, but god help me there was a group standing near me at the Sacramento show, 4 girls and 2 guys, all dancing in a little circle and not even really watching the band...talked the whole way through the gig. firmly established my position as an old grump.

QuantumNoise, track down a copy of their legit live album, Alabama Asswhuppin'. Not terribly stretchy, but "gnarled groove 'n' riff" yes. Also prob some good live boots, but I haven't heard 'em, things posted here and there no doubt (did see some goodies on YouTube a while back).

Anybody seen any of the shows with Hold Steady yet? Have they started yet?

OK so Brighter Than Creation's Dark is a good drinkin album but it wasn't really blowing me away, I wanted more rock in my country. So I picked up Southern Rock Opera. Holy Hell if "Let There Be Rock" isn't my favorite shit I've heard in forever.

I like Decoration Day even better, especially Sinkhole, Marry Me, and My Sweet Annette. But I think all DBT discs are uneven. And I think losing Isbell was a big blow to the band.

I'm crazy, but I love BTCD more than any of the other albums, even with what's-her-name's boring tunes.

Yeah I mean I got drunk to BTCD the other day and really enjoyed it! The varying styles really helped even out the mood of the record I think.

Actually I think their best individual songs are on The Dirty South, and they're all by Isbell: Danko/Manuel and Goddamn Lonely Love. But it's one of my least favorite DBT discs, overall.

BON SCOTT SINGIN
LET THERE BE ROCK TOUR

BON SCOTT SINGIN
LET THERE BE ROCK TOUR

BON SCOTT SINGIN
LET THERE BE ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOCK

~~~~SOLO~~~~

i agree with Daniel, Esq. Isbell became a force, not just a piece of the puzzle. He owns Decoration Day which is my favorite album & song.

Though "Sinkhole" is a close second.

new album, Go-Go Boots, out Feb 15

Pre-order here: http://www.drivebytruckers.com/

I sprung for the deluxe version with the DVD.

Judging by the live versions of songs from this new one, it's gonna be a lot better than The Big To Do, which I thought was sort of a stinker.

Not quite a stinker, but I've found the last couple to be varying levels of disappointing. I was actually kinda hoping they'd slow down with the next one and wait til they get an album full of awesome tunes instead of cranking one out with like 5 great tunes and a bunch of filler. Granted, their filler is still pretty good, but I think it is pretty obvious that their quality control has dipped of late and not just because Isbell left. Remember when they used to release one front-to-back classic after another? I miss those days.

Miss Isbell but his solo record was meh

His first one was decent, but I really liked the second one.

yeah, the last couple albums have been disappointing. Not BAD, but very forgettable.

I like The Big To-Do a lot. While it didn't have as many peaks as Brighter did, there were fewer valleys than that record has, so it's an overall more enjoyable listen front to back.

And yeah, Isbell's first one was very good, but he's gotten a little too MOR for my liking.

The Big To-Do is probably their worst album. What a letdown after Brighter Than Creation's Dark.

As for Isbell, his biggest problem is that his songs sound a heck of a lot better with the Drive-By Truckers playing them, instead of the 400 Unit.

As for Isbell, his biggest problem is that his songs sound a heck of a lot better with the Drive-By Truckers playing them, instead of the 400 Unit.

^^^^ this. Sorta hate his band.

Upcoming Truckers album is kind of mellow, but in a good way. Half the songs slow and soulful, other half the usual stories of working class folks getting shot/killing others. Two Eddie Hinton covers on the disc.

That's.....sort of encouraging.

The best thing I've ever heard Isbell do is a solo acoustic show that's floating around the web, from before either of his albums came out. Originally, the song Dress Blues was called Mickey Rooney.

Isbell's Twitter feed is more interesting than his solo albums. I really like him, I just hope he puts out a really solid album. I don't know anything about his split from the Truckers (other than the fact that he divorced the bassist), but it seems like he got a rough deal. He was great for that band and vice versa.

It's kind of sad. For awhile I thought he coulda been a contendah. His contributions to Decoration Day and Dirty South set the bar so high.

I think the reason for the split is generally thought to be some combo of the following:

1) Divorce from Shonna (duh)
2) Their fighting was distracting
3) Isbell and Cooley would fight, which was leading Cooley to drink more
4) Isbell was writing more music than there was room for
5) He was much younger than the other dudes, and pretty much the only dude without a family

Just general conflicts all around, I guess. I agree he was really good for the band, but then, the last couple times I saw the DBTs they were as awesome as I've ever seen them.

http://www.hearya.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/dbt.jpg

Ugly Buildings, Whores, and Politicians: Greatest Hits 1998-2009 is a compilation album released by New West Records of songs coming from the first seven albums of the Drive-By Truckers discography. It was produced by David Barbie, and "leads fans on an abbreviated journey of what the band has accomplished in their first 11 years."

1 The Living Bubba
2 Bulldozers and Dirt
3 Ronnie and Neil
4 Zip City
5 Let There Be Rock
6 Marry Me
7 Sink Hole
8 Carl Perkins' Cadillac
9 Outfit
10 The Righteous Path
11 Gravity's Gone (Remix)
12 Never Gonna Change
13 3 Dimes Down
14 Lookout Mountain
15 Uncle Frank (Alternate Version)
16 A World of Hurt

Very cool of them to include two Isbell songs even though he's no longer in the band.

Of course everybody's going to have a few favorites not included--Puttin' People On The Moon and That Man I Shot are mine--but overall, it's a pretty strong representation of their career.

This band, man... When they nail it, I really feel it. I never heard this story about "The Living Bubba" before: http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2003/06/the-living-bubba.html

Two brief observations:

-How great is that cover of "Hey Ya" with Booker T?
-Their cover of Rebels is pretty earnest and awesome. (And it was used in an episode of King of the Hill because of course.)

new Patterson solo album next month!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/998685_10151650349149854_785727654_n.jpg

love that photo so much

http://bittersoutherner.com/patterson-hood-the-newer-south#.UhS5E2TEq_J

Mike Cooley livestreaming here fyi

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tds-streams

I've got the new album. Gotta say, after a couple of listens, I'm glad to have them back, but this is not the album I wanted from the band right now.

Drive-By Truckers - English Oceans

Emerging from my longest break from listening to the band in a while. Digging into "The Big To-Do," which sounds great. Still love this band, wish they weren't so popular that they could return to playing Chicago three times a year, let alone lil' clubs again.

Patterson Hood has a must-read article in the New York Times on the Confederate flag.

Really great piece

Wonder why Pitchfork reviewed the live set two weeks early? Unless I missed something.

Looking forward to catching them here a couple of nights in November (Thalia Hall). Sounds like the band is in a sweet spot again.

A statement from Drive-By Truckers Patterson Hood:

We are beyond thrilled to announce the release date of our new album American Band. We are launching the pre-order and our friends at NPR are posting a first taste so you can get a little sample of what we've been up to.

"Surrender Under Protest" is a Mike Cooley composition that is unlike any DBT song we've ever recorded, yet somehow sounds unmistakably like us. In a way, that's pretty indicative of the album as a whole.

These are crazy times and we have made a record steeped in this moment of history that we're all trying to live through. We've always considered ourselves a political band, even when that aspect seemed to be concealed by some type of narrative device i.e. dealing with issues of race by telling a story set in the time of George Wallace or class struggles by setting "Putting People of the Moon" in the age of Reagan.

This time out, there are no such diversions as these songs are mostly set front and center in the current political arena with songs dealing with our racial and cultural divisions, gun violence, mass shootings and political assholery. Once again, there is a nearly even split between the songs of Cooley and myself, with both of us bringing in songs that seem to almost imply a conversation between us about our current place in time.

"American Band" is a rock and roll call to arms as well as a musical reset button for our band and the country we live in. Most of all, we look at it as the beginnings of some conversations that we, as a people very much need to begin having if we ever hope to break through the divisions that are threatening to tear us apart.

Drive-By Truckers are celebrating our twentieth anniversary as a band in an election year where some people are trying to define what it is to be American. Definitions based on some outdated ideology of prejudice and fear. We are loudly proclaiming that those people don't speak for us. America is and always has been a land of immigrants and ideals. Ideals that we have often fallen short of achieving, but it's the striving that has given us whatever claims to greatness we have had. That's what America means to us and "We're an American Band".

American Band - the eleventh studio album by Drive-By Truckers. Coming September 30th, 2016 from ATO Records.

And don't miss the Darkened Flags 2016 Tour, beginning in August.

See you at The Rock Show,
Patterson Hood
Drive-By Truckers