Zip City wrote:

dime in the gutter wrote:

Zip City wrote: I feel like many songs on this record DON'T sound like they're in a room together.

how so?

to my ears they are completely locked in and working in between and within each other's space and vibe.

can't put my finger on it, but some (not all) of the tracks feel a bit more controlled. I can't "hear the room" as much as I can on a track like, say, Go-Go Boots.

interesting take and nice contrast to ggb. i hear it more as tightness with no room for anything other than the music and lyrics....like no air or atmosphere, simply the sound of the band. quite remarkably so.

ggb had lots of space and stretch and bleed and loose.

or some shit like that.

jimmyjack wrote:There is also definitely a Phil Ochs song with a melody that is a little similar to the verses of SUP, but I can't place it

This is going to haunt me.

dime in the gutter wrote:darkened flags is a shit wrecking monster of a song.

Yep.

That fucking riff...

Southern Efficiency wrote:

jimmyjack wrote:There is also definitely a Phil Ochs song with a melody that is a little similar to the verses of SUP, but I can't place it

This is going to haunt me.

maybe I Ain't Marchin' Anymore?

whatwouldcooleydo? wrote:Amazon delivers right on time (also had the new John Prine & Rich Robinson Woodstock Sessions V.3 in same package)

I got the shipped email this week but it hasn't shown up yet. No biggie - I can wait for my new shirt and totebag.

dime in the gutter wrote: I feel like many songs on this record DON'T sound like they're in a room together.

how so?

to my ears they are completely locked in and working in between and within each other's space and vibe.[/quote]

can't put my finger on it, but some (not all) of the tracks feel a bit more controlled. I can't "hear the room" as much as I can on a track like, say, Go-Go Boots.[/quote]
interesting take and nice contrast to ggb. i hear it more as tightness with no room for anything other than the music and lyrics....like no air or atmosphere, simply the sound of the band. quite remarkably so.

ggb had lots of space and stretch and bleed and loose.

or some shit like that.[/quote]

Good ears, yall, I hadn't really noticed this, but listening now, you're spot on. Maybe it has something to do with Barbe not engineering. The difference between a mic pointed an inch from an amp or 3" can be huge. I really like the 'air' on GGB (something I have always noticed, and one of the things I love about that very underrated album) but hadn't really compared it with the punch-y, dry sound of AB, which I feel really suits it. It's definitely a different sound, sonically, but I think it totally works for this record. I still need to do a proper headphone listen. With DBT I usually prefer to begin with the all-important "car test."

ramonz wrote:

brett27295 wrote:Is this a great time to be a Truckers fan or what? I can barely contain my excitement for that run of shows in early November!

^^^^this^^^^

Have my 8 copies and handing them out to the unconverted. See you in Richmond buddy!

Are yall going to both RVA shows? I may just make one, but don't yet know which...

jimmyjack wrote:With DBT I usually prefer to begin with the all-important "car test."

In days of old, the first time I heard anything was on a turntable (with few exceptions), which meant you had to wait until you got home from the record store to listen. These days, it's my car. I remember hearing Johnny and Donnie Van Zant on the John Boy & Billy Show (yes, I know) a few years back and they talked about listening to their then new Van Zant album on a car stereo first as that's how they listened to most new music for the first time (same for their fans). Then, there was also the days of listening to new music on 8-track or cassette. Of course that meant a whole different level of sound quality but in a way it didn't matter because most everyone had jacked up sound systems, usually something like a Craig Powerplay with a pre-amp and 6 x 9 Jensen coaxial speakers. The only way to fly.

...ah yes, the 'car test' is coming. Meanwhile, having my morning cup of coffee listening to Cooley shred in the latter half of baggage... still only a couple of listens, but I just know I am going to like this album more and more.

ramonz wrote:See you in Richmond buddy!

I am literally counting down the days!

jimmyjack wrote:
Good ears, yall, I hadn't really noticed this, but listening now, you're spot on. Maybe it has something to do with Barbe not engineering. The difference between a mic pointed an inch from an amp or 3" can be huge. I really like the 'air' on GGB (something I have always noticed, and one of the things I love about that very underrated album) but hadn't really compared it with the punch-y, dry sound of AB, which I feel really suits it. It's definitely a different sound, sonically, but I think it totally works for this record. I still need to do a proper headphone listen. With DBT I usually prefer to begin with the all-important "car test."

I didn't realize Barbe was not engineering. Interesting.

I also feel like there is more reverb on the vocals on this record.

Unless I've missed it, have ya'll noticed that no one in the press has picked up on (or is willing to mention) the "heroes may be rapists" part of WIM? Hot potato no one seems to want.

Good News is my pre-order from DBT's website showed up a day earlier than expected (on release day)...

Bad News is they gave me the black vinyl instead of the red that I ordered...

Music Today, the company that just keeps on giving...

gepman wrote:Music Today, the company that just keeps on giving...

http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/local ... 369de.html

Really due to parent company's (Delivery Agent) bankruptcy, but....

ramonz wrote:

gepman wrote:Music Today, the company that just keeps on giving...

http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/local ... 369de.html

Really due to parent company's (Delivery Agent) bankruptcy, but....

Not surprising, but...

It's really interesting reading the press this album is getting and seeing how much of it is basically preconditioned on the way the band messaged and talked about the album leading up to its release. On the one hand, I think there is a pretty clear difference in Cooley's writing, in particular, that has made his songs' meanings a bit less opaque this time around. But I'm just not really seeing it for Patterson's tunes, with the exception of "What It Means" and possibly "Darkened Flags."

For example, let's take that CoS review that contrasted AB with Shearwater's disc. It says, in supposedly pointing out how on-the-nose this record is, "Hood makes a case for stricter gun control on 'Guns of Umpqua', a recounting of last October’s shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon, the very state he moved his family to last year." Based on what the band said about the record before it was released, that is probably a fairly accurate assessment. And because I happen to agree with the band politically, that's more or less how I interpret it.

But I could easily see a more 2A-oriented person hearing the same song, and lamenting that this trained, ex-soldier protagonist wasn't allowed to open carry on the college campus, or whatever. Or that if only the whole classroom had been armed, the carnage could have been avoided. I don't agree with that, but I think it speaks to the song's power that it's open for interpretation and isn't grandstanding with regard to an issue that practically begs to be grandstanded about, on either side.

Put another way, I guess I'm saying what a lot of people have said: anyone who sees this as such a radical departure clearly hasn't been paying attention. Even just taking recent history as a comparison, "Made Up English Oceans" is significantly more political (or at least broader in its target and more scathing in its assessment) than "Kinky Hypocrite" is, to my ears. Cooley said in some interview that these people who are pissed off probably wouldn't have noticed the undertones if those undertones hadn't been explicitly pointed out for them, and I think that's exactly right.

There's nothing particularly "political" about SDS, ES, Baggage, or F&F. Not to say that you can't hear "Ever South" and think about how it applies to "new" immigrants or Syrian refugees. Certainly F&F touches on gender norms that are inherently political. But those connections can be made based on a closer look at basically any song in the band's 20-year career.

It'd be really interesting to see what a "fresh" reviewer would write about this album, without having been exposed to any of the pre-release press.

I agree. It's far less overtly-political than the press kit implied

And just to be clear, none of that is to say that I wish the band had messaged the album differently. They wanted to start a conversation, and I think it's pretty clear that they've succeeded in doing so. Just a few observations based on months of anticipation and three or four complete listens.

Got mine this morning! Red vinyl of course! I do not plan to ever break the seal on it though.

Zip City wrote:I agree. It's far less overtly-political than the press kit implied

This, exactly. For unscrupulous journalists, the presskit has always been more important that the record. I call it 'leading the witness." Some friends and I had a fun theory a few years ago that you could put literally anything in the presskit / bio--no matter how outlandish--and the majority of the reviews would parrot those sentiments, sometimes verbatim. For example, if I put out a bog-standard rock and roll album and the accompanying bio said "For this record, Jimmyjack spent a great deal of time listening to nothing but Wagner's Ring cycle,, EPMD, and his car alarm, and says the album's lyrics were inspired by a trip to Epcot," the reviews might read something like "Clearly, the influence of Wagner and car alarms informs the album's insistent, dramatic librettos, while the 4/4 rhythms suggest a fixation with late 80s hip hop; Jimmyjack's songs, framed in the context of educational amusement parks, provide enough thrills and suspense." Or some dumb shit. And then someone would crib from that review, and so on and so on.

It's a fun road trip game, anyway: trying to come up with the most ridiculous 'influences' you can, and then trying to translate that to a review by the kind of 'critic' who doesn't bother to actually interface with the music at all.

As far as DBT, I think they did on AB what they've always done. They wrote songs that say something, and mean something, and did so without clubbing anyone on the head (more or less). That's just one of the things I have always really admired about this band. It's a very, very fine line to walk, but they make it look easy.

In summation (sorry, too much coffee) I agree with yall that the 'political' nature of this record is a tad overstated. Not because it isn't a political record--it is, and fiercely so--but because it doesn't seem a great deal more political than any other DBT album since SRO

I am curious if the red vinyls are numbered. The only numbers I see on this thing without opening it are 0882262112/ATO0335

I know the numbers before the slash are the UPC. Is the ATO# the print number? Does that mean I have 0335/2500?

Edit: Nope that is not what that number means. They all have that. That is the ATO catalog number.

Also, this site is stating the red was limited to 5,000 copies. https://www.discogs.com/Drive-By-Trucke ... se/9129006

Discogs is also saying some record stores have a CD EP included with the purchase. Has anyone got that yet? I had not heard about this.

Limited edition red vinyl pressing limited to 5,000 copies. Includes 1-sided "Kinky Hypocrite" 7' single.

Select independent record stores also included a CD EP with the following tracks:

Daddy Needs A Drink (Live at The Fillmore, San Francisco)
Ramon Casiano (Live at the 40 Watt, Athens)
What It Means (Live at Chase Park Transduction, Athens)
72 (Live at the 40 Watt)

potatoeater wrote:Discogs is also saying some record stores have a CD EP included with the purchase. Has anyone got that yet? I had not heard about this.

It was posted a day or so ago on this thread. I believe the live CD EP is limited to independent record stores. This website has it (while supplies last). You can also search for other stores here.

I've noticed that some folks are saying that David Barbe didn't engineer this record. According to the booklet, he co-engineered the record:

Engineered by Matt Ross-Spang and David Barbe

I was just going by an interview I read with Patterson where he talks about bringing in a new engineer (assuming it was the in-house guy in Nashville) and that Barbe sent more time 'producing' this time, ie listening, tweaking, etc, which probably meant less hands-on-the-faders and mic placement type stuff.

I'd call it more topical than political. In most of the songs the politics are there but you have to go beneath the surface or read between the lines to find them. That's the beauty of it.

Kudzu Guillotine wrote:

potatoeater wrote:Discogs is also saying some record stores have a CD EP included with the purchase. Has anyone got that yet? I had not heard about this.

It was posted a day or so ago on this thread. I believe the live CD EP is limited to independent record stores. This website has it (while supplies last). You can also search for other stores here.

really surprised to see them list Daddy Needs a Drink as being recorded at the Fillmore Auditorium. I'm picking nits but it's a pet peeve--the venue is simply the Fillmore, it hasn't been called the Fillmore Auditorium since the late 60s, before Bill Graham opened the Fillmore West. It's sloppy and lazy, sort of like when bands play Mountain View but put "San Francisco" on the shirts/posters, even though 45-50 separate the two citues

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fillmore

I usually only correct people when they refer to it as the Fillmore west.

sactochris wrote:I usually only correct people when they refer to it as the Fillmore west.

Equally as bad and gear-grinding

not as bad as this

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... et-w442405

The Last Waltz finds the Band performing their iconic last concert on Thanksgiving Day 1976 at San Francisco's Hinterland Theatre.

Chris, sometime when we are face-to-face remind me to tell you my Fillmore West story, pretty cool

whatwouldcooleydo? wrote:

sactochris wrote:I usually only correct people when they refer to it as the Fillmore west.

Equally as bad and gear-grinding

not as bad as this

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... et-w442405

The Last Waltz finds the Band performing their iconic last concert on Thanksgiving Day 1976 at San Francisco's Hinterland Theatre.

Chris, sometime when we are face-to-face remind me to tell you my Fillmore West story, pretty cool

Now you got me all curious.