Y’all,
First off, I’m thrilled to see that folks seem to be excited about our new album.
As we prepare to enter our 23rd year as DBT and will cross the threshold of 34(!!!) years of partnership between Cooley and myself, believe me, I feel like its a milestone onto itself for people to be excited about anything from a group with this many miles. The benefit, I guess of being a late bloomer.

All that said, I’m as excited about the upcoming album as anything I’ve ever been a part of, and more tellingly, Cooley, who is far less excitable than me about such things shares this feeling, as does the rest of my merry band.

While we haven’t set an exact official release date yet, It’s looking like early fall, hopefully the beginning of September, or thereabouts. We aren’t the ones to set the actual date, as that is in the end up the the record company, ATO, but they have always bent over backwards to do it as close to our wishes as possible. (Greatly appreciated).

Why, you ask, would an album, recorded in September of 2018 not come out until Sept of 2019?
Great question.
Complicated answer, but in short, we were booked throughout the rest of fall, leaving limited time to complete the album, then it was holidays, solo touring (already planned months in advance), upcoming winter tour and cruise and HeAthen’s Homecoming, etc. There’s also Dimmer Twins touring and a prior commitment on my end to Produce an artist that I have been wanting to work with for nearly two decades. It adds up. We will have toured behind American Band for nearly 3 years by this point, plus we all have family considerations and needs.

Plus we still have to Mix it, Master it, and created the album package. (All of which are hands on deck jobs for the band).

The original plan was to release it in late spring of this new year, but having spent most of last summer on tour, we made a rare but important decision to take most of this summer off before starting the whole process of putting out and touring behind an album that we are so excited about.

As to the original question, involving the vinyl release, and timing issues associated with such, things have changed somewhat since the last release. Many new pressing plants have been built and turnaround times are way more reasonable now than they were last time. That said, the vinyl release is of the utmost importance to us in ways that transcend mere financial / business considerations. We are one of the best selling vinyl selling artists in the world (I’d say for good reasons). I don’t know the exact percentage of our sales in vinyl but I know it’s far above the industry norm. We put monumental effort into making our packaging and pressings of the utmost top quality and tend to sell to a more distinguished and audiophile oriented fanbase than most other bands. A point of pride for us, especially since our music is still rooted in Punk Rock and we don’t exactly sound like Steely Dan or Peter Gabriel (both of whom I greatly admire, but seldom emulate). The new album promises to be a sonic leap for us and I truly hope that everyone at least gets to hear it presented the way we most intend, on vinyl, through killer loud system, even if you follow it up with streaming through a tin cup (which hopefully will still sound OK). (Perhaps we should book vinyl listening parties at Dr. John's and Jeff Schneider’s listening rooms

Also, it should be mentioned that said streaming isn’t really much of a source of revenue for bands like us. We don’t exactly pull Drake numbers in that department, but we do actually get paid (eventually) for vinyl sales and of course all of it helps to enable the continuation of the almighty Rock Show. We certainly make more money from our vinyl sales than every there format combined so it is actually good business to accommodate that end to the best of our abilities.

All of this was mainly just an excuse to each out to you. I’m still taken aback by the beautiful coffee table book that Y’all put together with so much love and hard labor and I’m more excited than ever for the upcoming shows with Lucinda Williams, the Outlaw Country Cruise and of course HeAthen’s Homecoming. Hope everyone has had a wonderful holidays and looking forward to making 2019 a Much Better Today than the ones we had yesterday.

Much love, keep resisting and more than ever, See you at The Rock Show!

Sincerely,
Patterson Hood
DBT's

LBRod wrote:Name the date, Dr John.

phungi wrote:If jonicont's stereo is anything like headhunter's you two guys can crank it up and we can have a listening party in the DC metro area...

Tequila Cowboy wrote:

phungi wrote:If jonicont's stereo is anything like headhunter's you two guys can crank it up and we can have a listening party in the DC metro area...

I've seen both vinyl rooms. Each is impressive, slight edge to Jonicont for having a bathroom attached just to wash records...

a prior commitment on my end to Produce an artist that I have been wanting to work with for nearly two decades

Flea wrote:

a prior commitment on my end to Produce an artist that I have been wanting to work with for nearly two decades

Color me intrigued. Who might this be?

uncle rickey wrote:

Flea wrote:

a prior commitment on my end to Produce an artist that I have been wanting to work with for nearly two decades

Color me intrigued. Who might this be?

I was wondering about this too. Educated guess: Claire Campbell? I talked to her at the 40 Watt last year the day after she performed at that Caledonia benefit with Patterson, and she mentioned that he'd be/been working with her on her next album.

uncle rickey wrote:

Flea wrote:

a prior commitment on my end to Produce an artist that I have been wanting to work with for nearly two decades

Color me intrigued. Who might this be?

I was wondering about this too. Educated guess: Claire Campbell? I talked to her at the 40 Watt last year the day after she performed at that Caledonia benefit with Patterson, and she mentioned that he'd be/been working with her on her next album.

uncle rickey wrote:

Flea wrote:

a prior commitment on my end to Produce an artist that I have been wanting to work with for nearly two decades

Color me intrigued. Who might this be?

RolanK wrote: I read once a quote from PH saying he was dreaming of producing Springsteen whom he believed still had one great album left in him (or something to that effect). They where just pictured together after one of the Broadway shows, so...

Zip City wrote:I'm probably overthinking this, but I'm a little worried about this record. I haven't loved the (sonic) direction the band has gone recently, and they've played "The Perilous Night" quite a bit on SiriusXM and it is doing NOTHING for me. I'll go into this album with an open mind and hope for the best.

FWIW, I've heard almost none of the new material

beantownbubba wrote:

Zip City wrote:I'm probably overthinking this, but I'm a little worried about this record. I haven't loved the (sonic) direction the band has gone recently, and they've played "The Perilous Night" quite a bit on SiriusXM and it is doing NOTHING for me. I'll go into this album with an open mind and hope for the best.

FWIW, I've heard almost none of the new material

Always listen to the record.

Zip City wrote:I'm probably overthinking this, but I'm a little worried about this record. I haven't loved the (sonic) direction the band has gone recently, and they've played "The Perilous Night" quite a bit on SiriusXM and it is doing NOTHING for me. I'll go into this album with an open mind and hope for the best.

FWIW, I've heard almost none of the new material

Iowan wrote:

Zip City wrote:I'm probably overthinking this, but I'm a little worried about this record. I haven't loved the (sonic) direction the band has gone recently, and they've played "The Perilous Night" quite a bit on SiriusXM and it is doing NOTHING for me. I'll go into this album with an open mind and hope for the best.

FWIW, I've heard almost none of the new material

I'm on the same page. I was listening to the new Todd Snider record driving over to the farm and I thought to myself how funny, brilliant, heartfelt, and catchy his political takes were. Then I thought of how much I don't like "Perilous Night" because it seems clunky, forced, and just more angry than anything. It just didn't have the heart of a "Guns of Umpqua" or "What It Means", I guess.

I'm worried that this next record is going to be their "Monsanto Years", I guess. Good stand up comedians have a maxim about political humor - it's all on the table until it crosses the line of no longer being funny. You could take a similar view to politics and music.

That said, I had the same fear about "American Band" and that one pretty much hit the nail on the head.

Iowan wrote:

Zip City wrote:I'm probably overthinking this, but I'm a little worried about this record. I haven't loved the (sonic) direction the band has gone recently, and they've played "The Perilous Night" quite a bit on SiriusXM and it is doing NOTHING for me. I'll go into this album with an open mind and hope for the best.

FWIW, I've heard almost none of the new material

I'm on the same page. I was listening to the new Todd Snider record driving over to the farm and I thought to myself how funny, brilliant, heartfelt, and catchy his political takes were. Then I thought of how much I don't like "Perilous Night" because it seems clunky, forced, and just more angry than anything. It just didn't have the heart of a "Guns of Umpqua" or "What It Means", I guess.

I'm worried that this next record is going to be their "Monsanto Years", I guess. Good stand up comedians have a maxim about political humor - it's all on the table until it crosses the line of no longer being funny. You could take a similar view to politics and music.

That said, I had the same fear about "American Band" and that one pretty much hit the nail on the head.

whatwouldcooleydo? wrote:

Iowan wrote:

Zip City wrote:I'm probably overthinking this, but I'm a little worried about this record. I haven't loved the (sonic) direction the band has gone recently, and they've played "The Perilous Night" quite a bit on SiriusXM and it is doing NOTHING for me. I'll go into this album with an open mind and hope for the best.

FWIW, I've heard almost none of the new material

I'm on the same page. I was listening to the new Todd Snider record driving over to the farm and I thought to myself how funny, brilliant, heartfelt, and catchy his political takes were. Then I thought of how much I don't like "Perilous Night" because it seems clunky, forced, and just more angry than anything. It just didn't have the heart of a "Guns of Umpqua" or "What It Means", I guess.

I'm worried that this next record is going to be their "Monsanto Years", I guess. Good stand up comedians have a maxim about political humor - it's all on the table until it crosses the line of no longer being funny. You could take a similar view to politics and music.

That said, I had the same fear about "American Band" and that one pretty much hit the nail on the head.

Holy shit, that’s harsh. Monsanto Years is absolute garbage, pure dreck. I know I likely stand alone on this, but I believe it to be Neil’s worst work, period. Embarrassingly wretched

Zip City wrote:I'm probably overthinking this, but I'm a little worried about this record. I haven't loved the (sonic) direction the band has gone recently, and they've played "The Perilous Night" quite a bit on SiriusXM and it is doing NOTHING for me. I'll go into this album with an open mind and hope for the best.

FWIW, I've heard almost none of the new material

Iowan wrote:

whatwouldcooleydo? wrote:Holy shit, that’s harsh. Monsanto Years is absolute garbage, pure dreck. I know I likely stand alone on this, but I believe it to be Neil’s worst work, period. Embarrassingly wretched

It’s just my example of an album where making a point was more important than making art. The angrier an artist gets the more likely they reach that point.

whatwouldcooleydo? wrote:

Iowan wrote:

whatwouldcooleydo? wrote:Holy shit, that’s harsh. Monsanto Years is absolute garbage, pure dreck. I know I likely stand alone on this, but I believe it to be Neil’s worst work, period. Embarrassingly wretched

It’s just my example of an album where making a point was more important than making art. The angrier an artist gets the more likely they reach that point.

Ah, great point, much more nuanced than my kneejerk take where I thought you were just talking about the quality of the music. I think your point applies perfectly as well to Living with War, which I like less than most peeps do. Said it before, I agree with the political points on LWW, just think they were weak songs (with the exception of Looking for a Leader)