Crib Notes

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS SONGWRITER PATTERSON HOOD RELEASES LONG-AWAITED SOLO ALBUM.

Now that Drive-By Truckers songwriter Patterson Hood has settled back into Georgia after touring with Booker T. Jones and lecturing at Princeton, he’s ready to set the stage for the release of his long, long, long-awaited solo disc Murdering Oscar (and other love songs).

Available right this minute for pre-order at Hood’s personal site in digital, CD and vinyl incarnations, Murdering Oscar’s also available in a pricey deluxe package too: a limited edition featuring special artwork from longtime Trucker artist Wes Freed along with some other shiny bonuses. Tuesday, June 23 is the album’s official release date.

As for touring to support the release, Hood wrote this on his MySpace page:

Due to the logistics of touring with a band comprised of members of various other bands (plus David Barbe’s studio schedule) there will only be a limited number of shows initially, but we are hitting Chicago and both coasts this summer and hope to do some more dates later in the year.

Backing Hood on this current outing will be David Barbe (Sugar), Will Johnson and Scott Danbom (both of Centro-Matic) and regular Drive-By Truckers John Neff and Brad Morgan, playing collectively under the name The Screwtopians.

Tour dates and more Truckers news after the break:

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Stax legend, Booker T. Jones (of Booker T and the MGs fame) will be at Criminal Records for a meet and greet/signing from 6:45pm-7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 1 prior to his show at the Variety Playhouse, where he will be appearing with the Drive-by Truckers.

Booker T fans will be able to pre-order his new CD, Potato Hole, which features the Drive-by Truckers as his back-up band (as well as Neil Young on several tracks). Those who pre-order on Wednesday will receive a signed copy of the CD which is slated for release on May 19.

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By Michael Gerber

The Hold Steady and the Drive-By Truckers take different approaches to essentially producing the same experience. This, of course, makes the experiences completely different. The experience: Using classic rock radio anthems to whip the crowd into a frenzy. Success is reached when everybody’s pumping their fists along with loud, guitar-driven songs of defiant down-and-out optimism. Success was achieved quite a few times during the long evening that, despite the double billing, was The Hold Steady opening for the Drive-By Truckers.

The evening began as Bulldog fans were coming to terms with the Saturday afternoon embarrassment against the now hated even more (who knew it was possible) Florida Gators. And it’s safe to say most of the DBT fans were watching college football all afternoon. Like football, DBT give you a smash-mouth experience of collision and repercussions. HS fans, on the other hand, are more like baseball spectators and prefer a well-told story drawn-out at a more intellectual pace. Like the famous George Carlin routine, football fans are out for blood and guts, while the objective of baseball is to be safe at home. HS tell their stories of debauchery from the safe perspective of looking back after sobering up.

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Athens’ resident avant-guardian of psychedelic banjo and kling-klang country clatter and minimalism, Don Chambers is heading out on tour this month in support of his latest release, Zebulon (WARM). The album was produced by Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers), Andy Baker (The Glands) and Brian Causey (Man…or Astroman?), and
features performances from Hood, Baker, Causey, Liz Durrett, Kevin Lane and Jay Gonzales (The Possibilities), and of course Don’s backing band, GOAT.

A recent e-mail from Team Clermont publicity quoted Chambers discussing the new record…

“I take a lot of notes when traveling, town names, street names, business names, signs and wonders all along the way. All this goes into a book to be visited later when I have forgotten the details and the directions. While touring south Georgia with the band I saw a sign for the town of Zebulon, in Pike’s County. Songwriting is like the guy giving you directions with way too many details, ‘now once you pass the sign with the bullet holes turn left at the Doolie Hill Trailer Park, you know they say ole Doolie he had a predilection for vegetables, well then hang a louie till you get bored and then look for the twisted oak tree with a pair of rotting converse sneakers hanging in em and then…”. You have no idea where he’s telling you to go. Hell, you forgot where you where going, but you’re fascinated with the rhythm of speech and details, your eyes are glazed over and you lose track of time. (more…)

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Overheard at Bonnaroo: “Next time I see Ben, I’m going to punch him in the face.” — A disgruntled camper whose tent mate had apparently committed a punch-worthy offense.

Friday at Bonnaroo was glorious! I saw the best set I’ve seen so far! But then it started raining and poop mud emerged from every portable toilet. I saw several bands yesterday — and there were so many I wanted to see that I didn’t catch many full sets — so here are some wee tiny reviews:

Drive-By Truckers: Patterson Hood and Co. started Friday off right — their sound was strong, the crowd was really into it, and the band’s fierceness totally filled the enormous stage they played on.

Jose Gonzalez: His set was super-chill — he sat in a chair onstage, and many in the audience took a similar laid-back, lay-back-on-a-blanket mentality. And luckily for me, he closed with his cover of Massive Attack’s “Teardrop.”

Tegan and Sara: Although their set was plagued by technical issues — like several bands on Friday, actually — the banter between twins Tegan and Sara Quin won the audience over.

The Fiery Furnaces: Part of the beauty of Bonnaroo is that there is a diversity of venues. Huge acts like Pearl Jam and Willie Nelson obviously play huge stages, but several smaller stages offer a more intimate experience. The Fiery Furnaces played one of these smaller stages (after playing a much larger tent earlier in the day), and I thought their sound made an interesting transition in live performance. Live songs sounded rawer than the album versions, but still had a distinct proggy, experimental sound. Here’s the music video for their song “Tropical Iceland.”
Eleaor of the Fiery Furnaces

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It’s been awhile since Atlanta was consumed with lust for all things Drive-By Truckers, the kind of frenzy former CL editor Tony Ware alluded to in a Nov. 30, 2005, edition of his late, lamented RedEye column. “The Drive-By Truckers look at something internal and eternal in the South and Southern rock; the songs explore how good men can do bad things but bad things don’t have to overtake good men,” he wrote.

Too bad the Truckers’ last album, 2006’s A Blessing and a Curse, didn’t generate the same kind of passion from its fans. I thought the album was fine material, but it drew some criticism for being too mainstream Americana and not containing enough awe-inspiring Dirty South-sized visions.

Hell, I almost completely forgot that the band released a covers album with the great Bettye LaVette, The Scene of the Crime, earlier this fall. Judging from the dearth of local press, I’m not the only one, either. The Recording Academy did not, however, since it earned a 2008 Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Blues Album.

So let the band’s upcoming opus, Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, be a reminder of the great Truckers’ considerable powers. It comes out via New West Records Jan. 22, just like the new albums from the Selmanaires, Anna Kramer and the Lost Cause, and the Whigs. Read the track listing below.

Perhaps mindful of the aforementioned criticism, the Athens band has excluded Atlanta from the first round of dates for its tour next year. You’ll have to drive an hour-and-a-half to Athens to see them on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 11-12, at the 40 Watt. Boo-hoo!
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