As promised, I tallied the results from the comments section of the Top 3: DBT songs thread and here are the Top 5 DBT tracks as chosen be the 9B readership.
5) Decoration Day (6 votes)
4) Sink Hole (7 votes)
3) Goddamn Lonely Love (7 votes)
2) Zip City (11 votes)
1) Outfit (12 votes)
Any surprises?
I’ll admit it. I like doing the Top 5 posts we were doing back in the day. Unfortunately, the interest seemed to die out over time and ever since I’ve been trying to think of another reoccurring theme post I could do on Wednesdays. This idea hit me a couple of weeks ago and I thought I’d give it a try and see if it caught on at all. Please, lemme know if you think it’s total cheese and should be dropped immediately.
Anyhow, the idea is to pick your top 3 songs from a band and post them in the comments. Then, we’ll make a compilation of the Top 5 picks and post that on Monday.
This week’s band is the only one it could be, the one that gave this site it’s name….The Drive-By Truckers.
Here are my choices (in order):
Drive-By Truckers – Zip City
Drive-By Truckers – Never Gonna Change
Drive-By Truckers – Women Without Whiskey
Living in Florida there are somethings you come to accept. It is the heat and the humidity, some wise ass is gonna ask if it’s “hot enough for you”, hurricanes will form and weathermen will almost rub one out on screen warning you of them impending doom while never a stiff breeze even comes and odds are, some of the bands you love will never tour your state. Over the years I’ve logged I dunno how many thousands of miles in travel just to see rock and rolls with bands I know will never make it to Florida which brings me to today’s Top 5 3….truth be told, this was gonna be a top 5 but there were only 3 bands I could think of that I’d travel just to see them (not in a festival environment). So if you have 5, by all means list them. Here’s my list:
Slim Cessna’s Auto Club:
This is one of those bands that a lot of people don’t get. Well, I do and truth be told, I can’t get enough of them. I’ve seen them 3 times in my life resulting in approximately 3800 miles worth of traveling and it was worth every one of them. They’ve told me they won’t tour Florida so if I wanna see them again, I’ll have to travel again. Hopefully, I’ll be able to catch these guys in Denver sometime.
Slim Cessna’s Auto Club – This Land Is You Land (redux)
Possessed By Paul James:
Hopefully, PPJ is gonna make it to Florida this year but I wouldn’t think twice about loading up and going to see him again. PPJ shows leave me remembering why I love watching musicians make music live and the 2700 miles I logged managing to see him live were totally worth it.
Possessed By Paul James – Shoulda’ Known Better
The Murder City Devils:
I’ve never seen them live and they’d already broken up before I even knew who they were. Now, they do little tours that rarely reach the east coast and never make it to the southeast. I’m really just waiting for a show to get booked in Atlanta but I know I’m eventually gonna have to make a weekend trip to New York to see them. Important thing is, I am gonna see them.
The Murder City Devils – 18 Wheels
Honorable Mentions:
The Suburban Home Anniversary Party & The Muddy Roots Festival: I’ve not attended the Muddy Roots festival (yet) but like the SH Party it’s like they make entire festival lineups entirely for me. Great weekends with great bands and great friends….there are no corners of this country I wouldn’t fly to for that.
The Pro Football Hall Of Fame to see Derrick Brooks get inducted: I’ve always said I’ll go to Canton, OH. the year Derrick goes into the Hall of Fame. Being a Seminoles and a Buccaneers fan I had the pleasure of watching (and rooting for) Derrick Brooks for his entire NCAA/NFL career. He was a key cog in turning the Buccaneers into a respectable franchise and (eventually) a Super Bowl Champion. Hopefully, in 2015, I’ll be there to see him get enshrined.
When it came time to decide what this week’s Top 5 topic was gonna be I didn’t have to look any further than the front page of my favorite news sites.
The topic picked itself. Protest songs.
It’s pretty self-explanatory. Go!
Iris Dement – Wasteland of The Free: From Iris’s 1996 album, The Way I Should.
Otis Gibbs – The People’s Day: I see hope for our country in what’s happening in others lately. One day our whispers will be louder than their screams. The people’s day will come.
Old Crow Medicine Show – Union Maid: Originally written by Woody Guthrie in response to a request for a union song from a female point of view.
Circle Jerks – Fortunate Son: This is (obviously) actually a Creedence Clearwater Revival song but I think the Circle Jerks’ version does a better job of conveying the anger in the song. The song was inspired by David Eisenhower, the grandson of President Dwight David Eisenhower who married Julie Nixon, the daughter of President Richard Nixon in 1968. John Fogerty told Rolling Stone: “Julie Nixon was hanging around with David Eisenhower, and you just had the feeling that none of these people were going to be involved with the war…”
Public Enemy – Fight The Power: Fight The Power has largely served as the political statement of purpose for Public Enemy, and serves as their biggest single.
I wanted to include one more. I wanted to include it in my 5 but could not decide if it was a song or a spoken word piece put to music. Which ever you wanna call it, it’s one of the best protest pieces ever done:
My Twitter and Facebook feeds were all a flutter Monday morning about The Grammys. The Black Keys won 3 Grammys and Mumford & Sons and The Avett Brothers performed on the show! Not to mention Mumford & Sons being up for Best New Artist. For a day at least, everyone was openly wondering who the next band from whatever our little niche of music is was gonna be.
So that’s this week’s Top 5. Give me your opinion on the 5 artists or bands that have the best shot at moving from this little scene we live and play in up to the bright lights of the Grammys.
Here are mine:
Gaslight Anthem: They’re one of those “love em or hate em” bands but the simple fact is that they have the polish, the hooks and the looks.
The Gaslight Anthem – The 59 Sound
Lucero: They’re almost the anti-Gaslight but what they lack in polish they make up for in substance. These guys have the songs, have put in the work and if the ever growing crowds have proven anything, they have mass appeal too.
Lucero – What Are You Willing To Lose
Glossary: These guys are almost an amalgam of Lucero and Gaslight. Every time I play their new album for someone, I end up burning a copy for them (sorry Glossies, but it’s the truth). If the country still had any real DJ’s outside of community radio these guys would be getting tons of airplay right now.
Glossary – Save Your Money For The Weekend
Whitey Morgan and The 78′s: If country music radio had any balls or if country music radio listeners actually cared about music these dudes would be huge already. The nashville country music scene and fan is dying for something worthwhile and these guys supply it without asking those pop country ears to try to hard.
Whitey Morgan and the 78′s – Bad News
Old Crow Medicine Show: Watching Mumford & Sons and The Avett Brothers actually perform on the Grammy stage while Bob Dylan tried to sing through some snot goober he had lodged mid-throat makes Old Crow the most obvious in this list.
Old Crow Medicine Show – My Good Gal
So. There you go. What are your 5?
Also, anyone else notice how much the singer of Mumford & Sons looked like Tim Tebow in the Grammy performance?
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