BEING A LOVESICK DRUNK DON’T MAKE YOU HANK:

Aug 252009

…Bill Wilson’s three eldest sons grew up listening to him fingerpick old country tunes around the house. They learned to sing harmony at family holidays and inherited old guitars with their hand-me-down jeans. The past two decades sent James, Sam and Abe in disparate musical directions: teenage heavy metal fests, old-time barn dances, college bars and New York City jazz clubs. But in 2005 the brothers all returned – one from a cattle ranch in Nevada, one from an apartment in Brooklyn, one from Grad school in Maryland – and for the first time in their lives they began to make music together. With the addition of long-time friends Seth Green and Brian Caputo, Bill’s sons became Sons of Bill.

I didn’t want to like this album. The back story of three brothers who grew up listening to their old man pick the guitar, grew up, moved apart, and one day got back together to make music was honestly cheesy no matter how honest the story is. It didn’t take long for The Sons of Bill to win me over. One Town Away won’t make my album of the year list but there are some gems that shouldn’t be passed up. Musically this is a pretty standard country and western album but then the lyrics come in and that’s where the strengths of this album really lay.

It took a couple of listens to really catch my attention, mostly because I am listening while I work, but the first track on the CD really sets the tone for the album. Titled Joey’s Arm punches right into the small town feeling that runs through the album with a modern day perspective: “The dirt underneath the methadone and concrete has got to be more than dust and bones, ‘Cause the south ain’t gonna rise again but we’re holdin’ out for Jesus or so they say on AM radio”. Skip ahead to the title cut One Town Away and you can really see the strength in the Wilson brothers’ writing. While James wrote most the songs on the album there are tracks from both Abe and Sam as well.

This album feels a little more like a first album than a sophomore effort but it’s worth picking up if you like clean country music with lyrics that are little outside Nashville’s idea of what sounds good. The band is on tour now and coming through Texas with some of my favorite artists and even have a show with 9b favorite Jason Isbell in VA. I have a feeling that they won’t disappoint live and plan to catch them when they come through here.

Joey’s Arm
Charleston
Broken Bottles

Sons of Bill’s Official Site, Son’s of Bill on myspace, Buy One Town Away

OH SHIT! GOODIE MOB REUNION IS A GO!

Aug 252009

Goodie Mob – Fly Away

If Sept. wasn’t already booked up there is no doubt I’d drive up to Atlanta for this.

[GUEST POST] ROCK REPORT: DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS @ THE HOUSE OF BLUES IN MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.

Aug 252009

Autopsy IV: This post comes from a long time ninebullets.net reader, Adam Fenwick. It’s nice to see a review of the Truckers. It’s been so long since they’ve come to the Tampa Bay area I’ve almost forgotten what THE ROCK SHOW is like. Hope y’all enjoy.


It had been more than a year since I last saw the best damn band on the planet, the Drive-By Truckers, live in concert, which is far too long. So, when my brothers girlfriend emailed me asking if I knew anyone interested in attending a DBT show at the House of Blues in Myrtle Beach, S.C., on Aug. 21, I immediately thought of myself.

So, I took a day off of work and made the four hour drive to Wilmington, N.C., to meet up with my brother and his girlfriend before driving the additional hour and a half to Myrtle Beach. The trip itself was nothing compared to the party that would ensue in the House of Blues.

We arrived just as Tift Merritt was starting up her set before the ROCK SHOW. I’ve heard some of her music before, but I can honestly say I was never very impressed with her, but she was certainly a good opening act that warmed up the crowd before the main event.

When the Truckers finally hit the stage after the half-hour lull between sets, the crowd was more then ready. They opened with The Great Car Dealer War and the ROCK SHOW was on.

One Of These Days? Check. Love Like This? Check. Lookout Mountain? Check.

At one point, Patterson calmly stopped the show and began to talk about the recently past Jim Dickinson, the father of Cody & Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars. He thanked Mr. Dickinson for all of his efforts through the years and dedicated “Let There Be Rock” to the legendary pianist.

In addition to all the regular DBT staples, like Road Cases (with extended intro), Heathens and Women Without Whiskey, a few new ones were pulled out. Shonna sang what had to be a new song since I’ve never heard it before and there was at least one other song, sung by Patterson or Cooley, that I wasn’t familiar with either. New material they are testing out perhaps?

As the show moved forward the band pulled out all the stops, including a booming cover of Neil Young‘s “Keep On Rockin’ In The Free World” that had the crowd in an absolute craze. In fact, the crowd may have been a bit too crazy, because for the second-straight time at a DBT show, a fight broke out right in front of me. One guy, who had been asked to chill by security once already, was being escorted out by being pulled over the front guardrail when all hell broke loose.

Two guys got to shoving and throwing punches and my brothers girlfriend was nearly thrown to the ground in the confusion (which didn’t sit well with him at all). But, just as he always does, Patterson took the incident in stride by saying as the hooligans were escorted out by security: “That’s what you get for trying to fuck up our rock show!”

Oh, and least I forget, one guy got on stage but was promptly ripped in half by two security guards. Ahh…what a fun night at the ROCK SHOW.

Anyway, the band closed with an amazing version of “Angels and Fuselage” which I’ve never heard live before. As the song wound down each member of the band, starting with Patterson, simply put their instrument down, waved to the crowd and exited the stage. It was a classy ending to a great ROCK SHOW.

Drive-By Truckers – Let There Be Rock
Drive-By Truckers – The Living Bubba
Drive-By Truckers – Perfect Timing

The songs are off the Truckers latest album, Live From Austin, Texas (9b write up) which can be purchased here.

ASSJACK – ASSJACK

Aug 242009

Holy Fuck.

There. Review done.

What? Five words is too short for you? You need more? Okay, but be warned, I feel as though everything from here to the end is, in my opinion, unnecessary.

Assjack is the metal alter-ego of Shelton Hank Williams, or perhaps Hank III is the country alter-ego of Shelton. Really, as any Hank Williams III concert vet can attest, Hank does both with such fluidity it’s hard to tell where his heart really lies. To quote the Drive-By Truckers, “such is the duality of the Southern man.”

Regardless of who is the alter of whom, we’re here to talk about Assjack today, so let’s get to it.

As I said before, Assjack is the metal side of Shelton, and Curb Records has finally seen fit to let him release Assjack upon the unsuspecting masses. I’d downloaded and heard all of the Assjack bootlegs over the years but I really was not expecting what I heard the first time I played this album. I guess seeing “Tennessee Driver” as the first track I was expecting to hear something slightly heavier than the hellbilly material on the bootlegs.

Wrong.

Sonically, it feels like the metal/thrash of my youth, which makes sense since Hank and I are the same age. Vocally, it’s all snarls, screams and expletives. Perfect for a case of road rage or coke-fueled acid trips. My only real complaint about the cd is that by the end of its 10 tracks I am thoroughly burned out on the vocal effects employed.

While the cd will not be in heavy rotation around the 18th Ave. Compound it definitely has a place in my cd collection. Check it out:

Assjack – Tennessee Driver
Assjack – Gravel Pit

Hank III’s Official Site, Assjack on myspace, Buy Assjack

GETTING TO KNOW DRAG THE RIVER:

Aug 212009

I have to admit that this intro was a little harder than I expected to put together. I am a big fan of Drag The River or I wouldn’t be slapping these tunes up here for people to get to know the band but wow the history here is daunting by itself. Couple that with the amount of work produced by the band and its members and I had a pretty huge project staring me in the face. Of course I didn’t let that stop me from putting together a set of tapes that will hopefully show the band’s growth as well as their history. I should make it clear that I didn’t even try to find music from everyone who has been in this band and simply pulled from own collection. That may be a little lazy but if I had tried to track down a little from every single member this intro wouldn’t have come out until next month. So we all just have to make do with I had laying around and hopefully three tapes will be enough to make anyone go out and track down the full DTR catalog as well as the works of all the members current and present.

This first tape is all Drag the River all the time. The first three tracks are off of Hobo’s Demo’s (2000) which was recorded in ’96 and ’97 at the Blasting Room in Ft Collins, CO. Chad Price and Jon Snodgrass played and/or sang on all the tracks and a slew of other musicians in and out of the studio such as Chad Rex, Paul Rucker, and Zach Boddicker. This session also produced Chicken Demo’s (2004) which tracks 7 thru 9 hail from but which was released after Closed. (2002) which is where tracks 4 thru 6 can be found. I decided on release order for this one and freely admit it was an arbitrary decision. The next three tracks, if you managed to keep up through the above mess of a description, come from It’s Crazy (2006) and track 10 is the first DTR track I ever heard and the one that caused me to fall in love with this band. Tracks thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen all make an appearance on You Can’t Live This Way (2008) and the last three tracks can be found on Bad at Breaking Up (2009). This does not represent the full catalog of releases as there have been EPs and other appearances along the way but I feel it covers the major releases for DTR and gives a good solid overview of the band as a whole.


Tape 1 – Track Archive

The next tape, much to my dismay, only has one track from the whole band live. I was shocked to discover I hadn’t collected much live DTR and will have to remedy that in the near future. This tape is mostly Jon Snodgrass live and couple off his Visitor’s Band solo release. That covers the last track and the all the middle tracks but the first two tracks are Chad Price live and are well worth listening to. Chad’s has his first solo effort in the breech and ready to fire over at Suburban Home (there’s even a single track sneak peak) and I really wish I had more of him to put on this tape but woe and alas it is what it is.


Tape 2 – Track Archive

I almost didn’t make this last tape, and then after making it almost didn’t post it but decided it was a neat look at the forces that created DTR and the history of, admittedly only a small few, the band members. These are all tracks from the bands that the members of DTR played in prior to forming DTR with the exception of tracks seven, eight, and nine which are from Chad Rex and the Victorstands gravity works fire burns. The first three tracks are from Armchair Martian which was a Jon Snodgrass punk band. The next three are from the Karl Alverez days with All, yet another punk band, which was the kicking, screaming, live-birth of the Descendants when Milo Went To College. These three tracks are off of Allroy’s Revenge. The last three tracks are also from All but feature Chad Price and are from Mass Nerder. While not even close to a complete rundown of all the bands that the members of DTR have played in this tape should serve as a decent overview of the history and the roots of Drag The River. Since it is, according to Jon, “Chad’s and my band” I think I captured the history of the driving forces behind the alt-country powerhouse that is DTR.


Tape 3 – Track Archive

With such an amazingly dynamic lineup over the years I can’t do justice without listing the members, past and present, and tossing some links out to any current projects they may be working on and any projects that may have passed away but still have some internet presence left hanging around. So without further ado, and according to wikipedia (which may be wrong) I present Drag The River’s members:

And of course the standard linkage:

Suburban Home Records
Drag The River Homepage
Drag The River Myspace
Drag The River on PunkNews
Prior Drag The River Coverage on 9b
Drag The River on Wikipedia

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