New Old 97's

[Guest Hollinger.]

Anyone heard anything about an opener for this tour?

[uncool2pillow]

Anyone heard anything about an opener for this tour?

Charlie Louvin is opening some dates, but I don't think DM. In other 97's news they had a great appearance on World Cafe this week.

 

These guys are huge NPR darlings, that's how I discovered them 7 years ago and they've probably had 5 appearances on NPR since their latest album came out.

[uncool2pillow]

So I saw my 1st 97's show last night. A bigger crowd in Des Moines than I would've expected, and a pretty good crowd. Many do they rock! Phillip Peeples is a better drummer than I realized. So many great songs, so little time. The opener was great, a band called The Spring Standards. A trio w/ no drummer. The each play a different part of the drum set while playing their other instruments (guitar, bass, keys, etc). Great 3-part harmonies. Their new CD is co-produced by Rhett Miller.

 

The show was at a bar on the 3rd floor of a building. Afterwards, the band rode a freight elevator down to the bottom. I spoke briefly with Murry and Phillip while they were waiting for the elevator to go down and took what now looks like a pretty creepy picture of Murry with my cell phone. Anyway, glad I finally got to see this band I've loved for about 8 years now live.

[hardwood floor]

listening to Salome right now at Starbucks in Philly

 

what a great fucking song

 

ridiculously great record

[Moss]

Bahhh! No Colorado shows!

[Analogman]

Old97's News

 

Old 97’s make their triumphant return on October 12th with The Grand Theatre Volume One, their eighth studio album! The band recorded over two dozen brand new songs during the studio sessions and will be releasing a second volume in 2011. The 12-song album was once again produced by Salim Nourallah (the band’s previous release, Blame It On Gravity) and engineered by Jim Vollentine (Spoon). Old 97’s spent a week of pre-production recording the new songs completely live at the nearly 100-year-old (and reportedly haunted) Dallas venue Sons of Hermann Hall. The band set up on stage like they normally do during concerts, so it was instantly conducive to whether or not certain new songs would translate well in a live atmosphere. After deciding what new songs made the cut for proper studio recording, the band moved the production to Treefort Studios in Austin, TX to record the album. You can listen to tracks “Every Night Is Friday Night (Without You)” and “A State of Texas” on the band’s myspace and facebook.

 

The Grand Theatre Volume One Track Listing:

 

1. The Grand Theatre

2. Every Night Is Friday Night (Without You)

3. The Magician

4. You Were Born To Be In A Battle

5. The Dance Class

6. Let The Whiskey Take The Reins

7. Champaign, Illinois

8. A State Of Texas

9. You Smoke Too Much

10. Love Is What You Are

11. Please Hold On While The Train Is Moving

12. The Beauty Marks

[uncool2pillow]

Saw them earlier in the summer. Great, great show. A couple songs from the new LP were good. I think this is a band whose greatest days are behind them, but are still turning out darned good music. Just listened to Blame it on Gravity this week and I still enjoy it.

[DrNo]

Old97's News

 

It's better than the last one for sure, though it definitely sounds like they're just rehashing their glory days. Glad they finally got around to recording "Champaign, Illinois," which Rhett and Murray used to do back in the Ranchero Brothers days.

[Analogman]

A State of Texas sounds like something off of Too Far To Care.

[Analogman]

And speaking of Too Far To Care. . .

 

Too Far To CAre (15th Anniversary of Too Far To Care special editions)

 

It's hard to believe it's been that long.

 

What a fantastic album.

[SarahC]

And speaking of Too Far To Care. . .

 

Too Far To CAre (15th Anniversary of Too Far To Care special editions)

 

It's hard to believe it's been that long.

 

What a fantastic album.

So excited for the vinyl of this to come out. I pre-ordered the day it became available.

 

For those who care, New West recently put out vinyl editions of both Grand Theatre releases, and Drag It Up. All sound really good on the turntable.

 

Also, Rhett's got a new solo record out- "The Dreamer". It's more roots than his previous efforts, and features a hell of a duet with Roseanne Cash. I can't remember if there was a thread about that record or not... oh well. (also, Rhett's vocal efforts are currently running in an Olive Garden commercial... gotta get those kids college funds somehow I guess... )

[Analogman]

The cd I got back in the day is a promo copy. I'll take a photo of it one of these days.

[SarahC]

The cd I got back in the day is a promo copy. I'll take a photo of it one of these days.

 

Do! I would be interested to see it.

 

When they toured back in 2010 I was able to snag a promo of "Timebomb"/"Just Like California" that had been on Rhett's practice amp for years. It's got Jameson stains on it.

[Analogman]

I still owe you that photo.

 

 

Old 97's Album Will Be 'Barnstorming, Revved-Up Honky-Tonk'

By John Clarke

October 31, 2013 9:00 AM ET

 

For the past 20 years, the Old 97's have romanticized whiskey-wrecked nihilism and slow-burn heartbreak. Goofy, unhinged and a little bit dangerous, the band has swaggered between raw country rock to cowpunk, with a homegrown Dallas delivery. While plenty of alt-country outfits blew up and blew out, the Old 97's pushed along with an unrelenting tour schedule, steady studio output and a dedicated grassroots fan base. Rolling Stone caught up with frontman Rhett Miller to talk about the band's work on a new album and why he still can't believe he gets paid to play music.

 

The Old 97's are working on a new album. What's the new material like?
Well, I write a ton of songs and the band tells me which ones they like. I give them which ones they like and the rest I keep for my solo record. In this case, I probably went in with about 25 songs. It was funny, because there were two distinct sets of songs. One was sort of adult-themed. You know, a lot of cursing, a lot of drinking and lots of sex. There was that, and then there was a pile of prettier songs. I was really interested to see which ones they would go with. After some hand-wringing and worrying about what the soccer moms in minivans that make up some of our audience might say, we decided to go with the adult-themed portion of the new-song stack.

 

What songs make you worry about soccer moms in minivans?
There's one song I cowrote with a songwriter in Nashville that's called "Nashville." I don't want give too much away, but it's like a Pogues singalong. It's a little bit shocking. It was a ton of fun to write. Just a lot of cursing, just wheels-off insanity.

 

It sounds like the Old 97's are going for a thrashy sound.

The last two or three records had us moving to a good garage band kind of sound. That will continue, but I think at the same time there will be a movement towards that barnstorming, revved-up honky-tonk. It's going to be a very fun record, I think. We're going to do it pretty quickly and pretty much live. We realized that our sound over the years, that our live sound is barnstorming, kind of bluegrass turned on its head, punk rock stylings. For a while we started to get away from that a little bit and started to get peaceful. Then we kind of said, "What are we doing? Let's do what we're good at. Let's go out there and turn up the amps and have fun."

 

So you haven't mellowed after 20 years?

There's that thing that happens, especially in the Americana world, where as you age you get quieter and more contemplative. That is not happening with us. We are not going gentle into that good night.

 

What's your approach to recording in the studio?
We do it different ways. The last couple of albums we just whipped in without a lot of preproduction. On this record, we've done a good solid two weeks of preproduction over the last couple of months. We've worked up the way we want to play them, made choices about arrangements and, like I said, made our choices about the songs. It's a really tight A-list. It's not exactly a concept record, but the songs are much of a piece, as it were. A sample song title, one of my favorites, is going to be called "Let's Get Drunk and Get It On."

 

And you changed labels for this album, correct?
We're just finalizing our deal with ATO Records. Our contract with New West just ran out and it seemed like the right time to change things up a little bit. We have new management with Red Light and there's a connection to ATO there. And I just really like (ATO marketing director) Jon Salter. I really like their roster – they have great, hip young artists. It's kind of nice for us to be surrounded by that. It makes us feel like we're not old farts.

 

What other surprises do you have?
Our friend Tommy Stinson of the Replacements came into one of the preproduction sessions one night and played guitar with us. We had so much fun playing that we decided to fly him down to Austin to be part of the sessions. So at some point Tommy will join us and play some guitar and God knows what – do some singing or some yelling. I imagine there might be some drinking.

 

What about those other songs that won't make it onto the Old 97's album?
That's the other thing I was going to tell you. The 12 songs the band turned down is great for me because it's a great stack of really beautiful songs. I'll go in and make a solo record in January with Chris Funk of the Decemberists and use the alter ego band they have going called Black Prairie as my band. We did gigs together last year and they got up and joined me on six or seven songs at the end of each night, and I couldn't believe how quickly we gelled musically and how just incredible they are on their instruments. It occurred to me to have a band that's already a band go into the studio with me and do a record would be just a great thing. Especially these guys. We're talking about a dobro, fiddle, accordion and a really great acoustic guitar player and a standup bass. It's gonna be a lot of fun, a real organic-sounding record.

 

How'd you hook up with the Decemberists?
We've done some festivals together where I ended up talking to Funk and realized we got along really well. He's a big fan of the Old 97's and I really like his stuff. Then we did a little Northeast run together, just a handful of dates. And when they would get up onstage with me every night it was just so natural. We'd stay up late after the shows having fun and laughing like crazy, and thought it's way too good not to capture on tape.

 

A lot of critics and fans feel that it's a crime you aren't bigger. Does that bother you?
I look at all the other bands that were on Elektra with us, and the bands that didn't break through, like They Might Be Giants, are still playing and packing houses. The bands that did break through, like Third Eye Blind, are still playing, but I don't know. I wouldn't trade places with those guys. I think if we were to have a huge hit song or broken through in a bigger way at any point, it wouldn't be like this. The fact that we sort of slide through under the radar makes it so that our fans still own us 20 years later. And that's pretty cool. This record, our 10th album, will come out pretty much exactly 20 years after our first album. The song that will be the opening track on the album is "Longer Than You've Been Alive," with the opening line: "We've been doing this longer than you've been alive." That's sort of the theme we're working with right now. We can't believe we still get paid to do this, that we get to feed our family by getting up onstage and making a racket and shaking our asses.

[SarahC]

One of the lines in the Nashville song he talked about in the interview is "who do I gotta blow to get in this fucking show".

[smells like flowers]

Also, Rhett's got a new solo record out- "The Dreamer". It's more roots than his previous efforts, and features a hell of a duet with Roseanne Cash.

 

Those are some great songs!  The backup female vocals are terrific. They pop up on the college station once in a while and I think it's the best solo stuff he's done.

[Analogman]

Another new album:

 

Most Messed Up

 

April 29th 2014

[SarahC]

First song is up on Entertainment Weekly. 

 

http://music-mix.ew.com/2014/02/04/old-97s-new-single-album-tommy-stinson/

[Analogman]

In case you have not seen it:

 

Joshua Kirk's Album of the Day (Ep. 22): Old 97's - Wreck Your Life

 

I think it is great that someone his age is into alt-country.

 

Bel Air is still one of my favorite Old 97s songs.

[SarahC]

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2014/03/listen-to-nashville-by-the-old-97s.html

 

New song from "Most Messed Up" up at the new yorker if anybody is interested. This is the one I was tell you guys about.

 

A-man, that kid is awesome! 

[saluqi]

Now streaming

 

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/04/old-97s/360999/

[smells like flowers]

A fun record and classic Old 97s sound! The theme (drinking and screwing) gets a little tired, though. Reminds me just a bit too much of the Jimmy Buffet song. These songs would be tons of fun live, but nothing near me in the tour plans.

[SarahC]

They really do amp it up with the new tunes live. I got to go to a private party of sorts at the Jack Daniel's Distillery last weekend and the 97's were the band playing. It was quite fun to hear the new tunes in that setting. 

 

Interestingly enough, the last couple records have been recorded mostly live with very little overdubbing at all. Especially compared to "Drag It Up" and Rhett's first 2 solo records.

[LouieB]

A fun record and classic Old 97s sound! The theme (drinking and screwing) gets a little tired, though. Reminds me just a bit too much of the Jimmy Buffet song. These songs would be tons of fun live, but nothing near me in the tour plans.

I have only listened to this LP once so far and I just don't quite get it. Aren't these guys middle aged family guys? Nothing wrong with getting drunk and screwing I guess, but I just don't believe it. I am having trouble suspending my disbelief. I am sure the new material is fun live since the band is always fun live.

 

LouieB

[uncool2pillow]

I'm pretty sure Rhett was out to prove they can still rock as they settle into middle age.  I've taken my kids to a '97s show.  I think he wanted to somehow show they're still "dangerous" or something.  It's a decent album, but it's a small upward blip on a downward slide they've been on since Drag It Up.  They still put on a great show, but I don't expect much great new material from them anymore.