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The Drive-By Truckers

Axolotl

18:04 / 26.03.06

Inspired by the release of their new album "A Blessing and a Curse" I thought I'd see if anyone else on the board is a fan.
For the un-initiated the Drive-by Truckers started out as an band rooted in the country tradition, but for their album "Southern Rock Opera", a concept album based on Lynyrd Skynyrd and musings on the southern experience, drafted another guitarist up front and started to really rock.
In my opinion their album "Decoration Day" has been their best so far, striking a perfect balance between balls out riffage and more considered tunes.
Their new album is good, though I haven't fully digested it yet.

dub

09:37 / 27.03.06

I'm a big fan. Though personally I feel that 2004's The Dirty South was the best mix between their ballads/rockers. Decoration Day seemed to be the more downbeat album. It's probably my favourite though. Rock Opera has some really great songs on it, but like all double albums, takes a while to digest.

I haven't got around to checking out the two earlier albums yet, but I'm familiar with a lot of the songs from the huge number of bootlegs floating around the net. I've got this really fun acoustic set recorded at the guitarist Cooley's house last year. The blog LargeHeartedBoy often links to plenty of torrented bootlegs.

I was under the impression the album is getting released on the 18th of April? It's leaked onto the file-sharing networks and this Times article seems to imply its out now... in the UK?

Axolotl

16:49 / 27.03.06

The new album came out on the 20th March in the UK in time for their UK tour, which I'm going to and am really fucking looking forward to.
You're right "The Dirty South" is an excellent album, I particularly like their take on the John Henry tale.
I also picked up "Pizza Deliverance" in the recent re-issue. It's good, acoustic mainly, but you can see their songwriting has developed since then.

Axolotl

17:28 / 05.04.06

I saw them play last night and they were fucking amazing, with the 3 guitarists up front (as well as a bassist and drummer) they made this almighty raucous wall of sound where the guitar licks ceased to be mere sound and almost became a presence, like you could reach up and feel them. They played all the songs I wanted to hear, with a nice mix of old and new stuff. The crowd could have been a bit more up for it, but that's my only complaint. If you can see them live I'd recommend it.

dub

14:04 / 06.04.06

I've got to see them live some time... argh! The frustration of living on a distant pacific island.

Does anyone else think the guitar on 'Where the Devil Don't Stay' is very reminiscent of Bon Jovi's 'Blaze of Glory' ?
Great song though.

The new album is getting better with each spin (if you can use that term for mp3s...), you can definitely hear the band is a lot happier these days. I'm going to try and pick up the limited edition with a bonus disc. It's got their cover of 'Like a Rolling Stone' they did for Uncut Magazine, an album outtake and two live tracks.

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