American Band reviews

[jr29]

I especially like the idea that five grown-ass men with families all simultaneously moved to Oregon together. "They hate the South."

I had to read that part 2-3 times.
It did make me wonder, do Brad and Jay both live in Athens ?

[Mr. B]

The Slate article is strong. And a very nice review on NRP's All Things Considered today:

http://www.npr.org/2016/10/04/496592302 ... y-truckers

[Clams]

I don't know the Daily Herald from Chicago but they've got a pretty decent review.

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/2016 ... 161009693/

[The Fool in Me]

I don't know the Daily Herald from Chicago but they've got a pretty decent review.

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/2016 ... 161009693/

Looks like they just picked up the Associated Press review.

[pearlbeer]

The Slate article is strong. And a very nice review on NRP's All Things Considered today:

http://www.npr.org/2016/10/04/496592302 ... y-truckers

I may be showing my age, but All Things Considered + DBT is like the perfect storm.

However, I do have to say "WTF, NPR?". They featured ALL Patterson songs???

[beantownbubba]

The album is #5 on the Amazon music chart. Van Morrison & John Prine are ## 1 & 2. What day is the weekly billboard chart published (or do they even do that anymore)?

I wish metacritic would pick up some of these stellar reviews like slate & christgau.

[beantownbubba]

I may be showing my age, but All Things Considered + DBT is like the perfect storm.

Yeah. You are. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[Clams]

http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2016/09 ... -interview

The usual insights and excellence from Aquarium Drunkard. Yes I know this was also posted last week in the AB thread (thank you TW) but I'm not afraid to risk eternal damnation to hell by putting it here too.

[Tequila Cowboy]

The album is #5 on the Amazon music chart. Van Morrison & John Prine are ## 1 & 2. What day is the weekly billboard chart published (or do they even do that anymore)?

I wish metacritic would pick up some of these stellar reviews like slate & christgau.

They update Tuesdays as a general rule although I think the radio based charts are on a different schedule. Their week runs Friday through Thursday so next Tuesday should reflect AB.

[Clams]

Excerpt from the Aquarium Drunkard interview linked above. Fuckin Cooley knows his shit.

AD: “Ramon Casiano” as an opener just punches you right from the beginning. It was one of two songs you wrote on this record, Mike, that I had to research to find out what you were talking about. And I found out that he was a 15 year-old Mexican boy who was killed by the person who would eventually go on to be the president of the NRA – the one that would really define them as a gun-rights organization as opposed to just hunting and sports. And if you just casually look for that story, Casiano’s name usually isn’t mentioned. It just says “15 year old Mexican boy” or something similar.

MC: Right. In fact, I was going to re-read some of that stuff at some point, just to remind myself. If you just search for Ramon Casiano, there’s another guy with the same name. I had to go and search for Harlon Carter [the NRA president] to find that stuff. I’m not even sure how I stumbled across it in the first place. Initially, I got up one Saturday morning and there was some news program and they were doing this thing about border security. They were showing all these militia type guys who like to get their guns and pretend like they’re patrolling the border because the government’s not doing it or whatever. Part of me wants to laugh at the silliness of these people and part feels, I don’t know, ashamed to belong to the same race. [laughs]

But I was thinking, what is it with these people and their obsession with the Mexican border? And I was almost going to write a parody song about how silly it looked to me, and somehow or another I went from there to finding the story [of Casiano.] I read that and I thought, ‘man, this is the song right here.’ On that same program, I think at one point Rick Perry and one of those Fox News douchebags was riding down the Rio Grande on one of these boats that looks like it’s out of Apocalypse Now, and it’s got this huge gun on it. And you’re thinking, you know, these people are dehydrated, starving to death, in no position to put up much of a fight by the time they get here, and you’re riding around here with a machine gun? What’s wrong with you, man? But that’s how I stumbled across the story and it was like, wow, what irony, this story – with this country’s obsession with the Mexican border and the guy who transformed the NRA into a cult began his journey to that by shooting and killing a Mexican.

AD: With “Once They Banned Imagine” – is that a reference to the Clear Channel banning of “Imagine” in the post-9/11 landscape?

MC: Yes, and that’s the same idea. From the McCarthy era of looking for communists, the war on crime, the war on drugs, the war on terror – it’s always the same people that get blamed for it and the same status quo doing the blaming. Joe McCarthy had a list – people who were most likely to be associated and sympathetic to communists. And it was homosexuals, Jews, Hollywood types, beatnik types, blacks. [laughs] Always the same scapegoats. What I thought when I first learned of the Clear Channel list and all the artists on it – was specifically that song, “Imagine” by John Lennon. First thing I thought was, ‘Holy shit, Nixon is still trying to deport Lennon from beyond the grave.’ [laughs] It’s the same shit. The same people can’t possibly be at the root of the problem no matter what the problem is. But it’s always used as an excuse to stick it to or crack down on the same people regardless of their relation to the fear.

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

Yes I know this was also posted last week in the AB thread (thank you TW) but I'm not afraid to risk eternal damnation to hell by putting it here too.

I've got your back! If they come for you, they deal with me also

[Clams]

Yes I know this was also posted last week in the AB thread (thank you TW) but I'm not afraid to risk eternal damnation to hell by putting it here too.

I've got your back! If they come for you, they deal with me also

[ramonz]

http://exclaim.ca/music/article/drive-b ... rican_band

Another 10/10

[Rocky]

http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/iptac-D ... interview/

A must read.

[Markalanbishop]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/09/arts/ ... bands.html

[Clams]

A feature in today's Sunday Phila. Inquirer....

http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists ... _year.html

[beantownbubba]

A feature in today's Sunday Phila. Inquirer....

http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists ... _year.html

Very similar to the article in the Times that I think MAB linked to. I guess the Truckers are now part of the latest media meme. (Which is not a bad thing, just funny how the media travels in packs).

Is that 3.5 stars out of 4 or 5?

[Clams]

A feature in today's Sunday Phila. Inquirer....

http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists ... _year.html

Very similar to the article in the Times that I think MAB linked to. I guess the Truckers are now part of the latest media meme. (Which is not a bad thing, just funny how the media travels in packs).

Is that 3.5 stars out of 4 or 5?

4

The Inquirer music critic is Dan DeLuca, he's always written pretty favorably about the truckers.

[beantownbubba]

Something is happening and I think I do know what it is:

My sister called today to insist that I take her to see DBT in NYC. Apparently a few paragraphs in the NYT is worth more than my 10 years of fanboy drooling*. Go figure. I'm pretty sure the next generation of the already converted who some of you met in Williamsburg (nieces, "family by choice" and assorted others) will also be there (on their own w/out me making the arrangements or paying for the tix!).

*Including the times I stayed at her place after seeing a rock show when it almost would have been easier for her to join me than not.

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

The new “American Idiot”: Why Drive-By Truckers’ “American Band” is essential listening in the Trump era

[beantownbubba]

The new “American Idiot”: Why Drive-By Truckers’ “American Band” is essential listening in the Trump era

Very nice. It's amazing, though, how a minor mistake jumps out in giant letters to fans (at least this fan). "Neil & Ronnie"??? <cringe>

[tinnitus photography]

Glide - interview with Cooley and review
http://www.glidemagazine.com/171536/dri ... interview/

"no question, the best DBT record to date."

Nice press, but there was probably a cringeworthy line per paragraph. The writing was really not my cup of tea. To say nothing of whatever the fuck "socialwebs" means.

c'mon man, he tells you right away!

The thing with the socialwebs (Facebook, Twitter, etc..)

[Clams]

The Salon editor was obviously hungover or still drunk when that article came through.

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

The new “American Idiot”: Why Drive-By Truckers’ “American Band” is essential listening in the Trump era

Very nice. It's amazing, though, how a minor mistake jumps out in giant letters to fans (at least this fan). "Neil & Ronnie"??? <cringe>

didn't even catch that. I'll never read Salon again

[ramonz]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertain ... olumn.html
Chicago Tribune 3.5/4

http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/ ... 68567.html
"Brilliant" ....and interesting choices for top 5 DBT songs.

[beantownbubba]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertain ... olumn.html
Chicago Tribune 3.5/4

http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/ ... 68567.html
"Brilliant" ....and interesting choices for top 5 DBT songs.

That's what I'm talking about! Love to see enthusiastic and knowledgeable reviews like those two. Several juicy quotes, but I like this one from the Trib best:

"It's being billed as the band's most political record, but that's selling it short. This is a record about the notion that the so-called melting pot that is America is in reality more often like a collection of cul de sacs, a country divided by suspicion and fear. At the heart of these 11 songs is a plaintive question: How to live in a democracy when everyone who doesn't look, talk or act like you is perceived as a misfit or a threat?"

[Zip City]

2 1/2 weeks later, and no Pitchfork review. Seems that ship has sailed

[beantownbubba]

2 1/2 weeks later, and no Pitchfork review. Seems that ship has sailed

And while metacritic is holding steady at "90, universal acclaim," they haven't picked up some of the most enthusiastic reviews, including Christgau's.

[drommel56]

The album is #5 on the Amazon music chart. Van Morrison & John Prine are ## 1 & 2. What day is the weekly billboard chart published (or do they even do that anymore)?

I wish metacritic would pick up some of these stellar reviews like slate & christgau.

Van Morrison, John Prine, and those youngsters...

[ndavis86]

Glide - interview with Cooley and review
http://www.glidemagazine.com/171536/dri ... interview/

"no question, the best DBT record to date."

Nice press, but there was probably a cringeworthy line per paragraph. The writing was really not my cup of tea. To say nothing of whatever the fuck "socialwebs" means.

c'mon man, he tells you right away!

The thing with the socialwebs (Facebook, Twitter, etc..)

Yes, let me rephrase: calling social media "socialwebs" is cutesy, obnoxious writing.