The Big To-Do

[bsr8j]

Spinner.com is streaming the whole album starting today.

 

http://www.spinner.com/new-releases#/4

 

[Moss]

Truckers are playing Letterman on Friday March 12th.

[choo-choo-charlie]

I'm through the first five tracks. Here are my thoughts, upon first listen:

 

1. the sound, in some areas, is polished and sharpened, much more so than before

2. the organ & keyboard are up front in the mix, much more so than before

3. it is indeed much more of a rock record than Brighter Than Creation's Dark

4. to me, nothing has emerged as a standout track, but...

5. ...i haven't heard anything that i don't like yet either. it's solid.

 

i'm sure i'll have different thoughts after hearing the whole thing in one sitting. and after five listens, ten listens, etc...

[ih8music]

Just saw that DBTs are going to be on Letterman tonight... coool.

 

Hoping they play "4th night of my drinking" or "birthday boy"

[myboyblue]

Just saw that DBTs are going to be on Letterman tonight... coool.

 

Hoping they play "4th night of my drinking" or "birthday boy"

Really looking forward to this.

 

I'm liking the album. They generally have a song or two that REALLY stand out to me. Not the case necessarily this time but liking it collectively quite a bit. I'm actually liking a Shonna song a bit too..."you got another"?

[CortezTheKiller]

Just saw that DBTs are going to be on Letterman tonight... coool.

 

Hoping they play "4th night of my drinking" or "birthday boy"

Fingers crossed for either "After the Scene Dies" or "The Wig He Made Her Wear." I think the latter has no chance in hell, but I'm still hopeful.

[Moss]

Truckers music

 

NEW YORK (Billboard) – As Drive-By Truckers prepare for the release Tuesday (March 16) of their album "The Big To-Do," its follow-up is practically in the can.

 

"Go Go Boots" will feature songs recorded concurrently with "The Big To-Do" as part of a prolific explosion from the Southern rock group's three songwriters -- Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley and Shonna Tucker.

 

"This is the first time we've been in that position," Hood says. "There was just a lot of new material around, and we didn't want to do another sprawling, long record like (2008's) 'Brighter Than Creation's Dark.' So pretty early in the process we started dividing it into two (albums)."

 

Hood says "Go Go Boots" has "more of an R&B vibe to it than ("The Big To-Do"). I call it our 'rhythm and blues murder ballads record.' It's about as different as it could be and still be the same band."

 

DBT was finishing mixes on the final tracks before hitting the road for "The Big To-Do," and Hood says the door is open to add more songs if any come along. But mostly he's happy that the group doesn't have to worry about what comes next.

 

"This is really the way I've always wanted to do it," he says. "The whole two-year cycle between records has always bummed us out, so this enabled us to break that cycle. I would love by the time we put 'Go Go Boots' out to be working on the follow-up to it."

 

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

Truckers music

 

This really deserves its own thread. I started one, then deleted it because I didn't want to get chastised by the local Thread Nazis.

[brianjeremy]

This is $7.99 at Best Buy this week and free shipping if you order online.

[CortezTheKiller]

Pitchfork surprisingly gave TBTD a 7.4.

 

On their first two albums (1998's Gangstabilly and 1999's Pizza Deliverance), the Drive-By Truckers were supreme redneck jokesters, specializing in scabrous white-trash vignettes owing more to Southern Gothic fiction (Flannery O'Connor, Barry Hannah) than any sub-Mason-Dixon stand-up hacks. As the band matured and its de facto frontman Patterson Hood started writing songs that were weightier and more universal in sentiment, however, its more darkly off-kilter early work came to be generally viewed as juvenilia, the dicking around these guys did before they grew up into real artists. That would be a mistake, because songs like "18 Wheels of Love", "Bulldozers and Dirt", and "Zoloft" were wickedly clever and deeply revealing slices of Southern life that hold relatable truths for all listeners regardless of region. That said, it's a refreshing surprise that the group's latest album, The Big To-Do, finds Hood reconnecting with the macabre, with grim twists and booze-fueled mayhem, and with the dark corners of the American psyche.

 

The album begins morbidly with "Daddy Learned to Fly", its whining riff propelling the first-person reflections of a young boy whose father has died. It's a colorful kind of morbidity, however, as we learn the boy has been eased into an acceptance of loss by the creative lie that his father is perpetually flying the friendly skies. Weighing the most deadly serious facts of life against a highly skewed sense of irreverence has always been one of DBT's greatest feats, and it's a balancing act the group maintains throughout the album's raucous first half-- on the booze-fueled bottoming-out of "Fourth Night of My Drinking", the small-town sex scandal of the portentously delivered "The Wig He Made Her Wear", and the nasty little slice of backwater intrigue called "Drag the Lake Charlie".

 

It's a damn good thing Hood drops some of his gravitas, too, because his partner in crime, Mike Cooley (aka the Trucker you've always been able to rely on for witty shit-kickers) inexplicably contributes only three songs out of The Big To-Do's 13. Two of the three are great, as "Birthday Boy" offers up the musings of a savvy stripper while "Get Downtown" provides a shaggy snapshot of no-account losers outfitted to a shucking Chuck Berry groove. Still, that leaves quite a heavy burden on Hood's shoulders, even after you account for a couple of very nice turns from bassist Shonna Tucker, who was a bit of a weak link on Creation's Dark but who chills the blood here on the heartrending, hymnlike "You Got Another", then sets it racing again on the full-throated "(It's Gonna Be) I Told You So".

 

To his credit, Hood's restored mischievousness manages to carry the album for quite some time, but he starts to falter along the record's back stretch. "This Fucking Job" and "After the Scene Dies" are sonically torqued-up and admirably pissed-off, but their respective gripes against occupational drudgery and the death of the rock'n'roll dream represent well-trodden ground for this songwriter. The Big To-Do then proceeds to bow out rather unceremoniously with the relative whimpers of "Santa Fe", "The Flying Wallendas", and Cooley's sweet but tepid "Eyes Like Glue". The Truckers demonstrated with 2008's Brighter Than Creation's Dark that they don't need non-stop yuks and grotesqueries to reach greatness, but the best moments of The Big To-Do nonetheless offer tantalizing proof that these guys still possess fascinatingly warped minds when they feel like showing 'em off.

[bleedorange]

Why is that surprising? Pitchfork has given good reviews to every single one of their albums.

[CortezTheKiller]

The score seems a bit high. It's a decent record. I thought it would be in the 5/6 category. Good to see the band get props though.

[choo-choo-charlie]

After my first half-dozen or so listens, I refrained from spinning this for several days - but then I caught myself humming several of the tunes, and dove right back in. So my first impression was a tad off - there are some tracks that sink into your brain. I haven't decided if I like it more than BTCD, but I certainly like it more than the first few times I listened to it...looking forward to Go-Go Boots.

[tinnitus photography]

The score seems a bit high. It's a decent record. I thought it would be in the 5/6 category. Good to see the band get props though.

 

7.4 is dead-smack on their median score

 

http://www.kpao.org/blog/2009/02/the-pitchfork-ratings-distribu.html

[bleedorange]

Bought it and listened to it today, finally. First impressions...I love it! Their best for me since The Dirty South. Not a bad song in the bunch and a lot of early standouts. Not sure why people are down on The Flying Wallendas. The Shonna songs are great this time around, too

[radiatortunes]

Can't buy the CD up here until the 30th. So I caved and bot it from iTunes because I have to have it - at least on my iPod - today!

[bsr8j]

UPS still has my physical copy in Ohio, but hopefully it will be here in my physical hands in Virginia tomorrow! Luckily I can still listen to the stream. I liked it initially and it continues to grow on me. I second (or third or fourth...) the comments about the Shonna songs. "(It's Gonna Be) I Told You So" is particularly awesome. If she can bang out two songs of this quality for future albums we're all in luck. Of the Patterson and Cooley stuff, the stand out songs for me so far are "Birthday Boy," and "The Fourth Night of My Drinking." I've always liked "After the Scene Dies" and it sounds great (to me) on this album.

 

We are so lucky to have this band!

[CortezTheKiller]

7.4 is dead-smack on their median score

 

http://www.kpao.org/blog/2009/02/the-pitchfork-ratings-distribu.html

I guess I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about. Nothing new there.

[Love Boat Captain]

Great interview with Cooley. Good to hear from someone else than Patterson (no offense intended)...

 

http://www.prefixmag.com/features/drive-by-truckers/interview/38328/

[CortezTheKiller]

Good to hear from someone else than Patterson

[Moss]

"Girls who smoke" from the vinyl only release (I think). DBT on Fallon tomorrow night! (3/31):

 

I can tell by her lips she's got fucked up teeth

She's got a banged up grill like she just hit a deer

In a while she'll go down in a tent with a bloke

You know what they say about girls who smoke

 

It's festival season and all around the UK

They're herding the fans like cattle

All the blogs are alive and the kids are all stoked

You know what they say about girls who smoke

 

We're parked at the venue the driver will skin you

If you paper or do number two in the loo

It smells so bad as it is you could croak

Outside there's mud and rain and girls who smoke

Girls who smoke - Girls who smoke

 

It's August and freezing, the headliner's cheesy

The Port-O-Potty's are shaking and wheezing

The catering sucks and vendors blow

It's the middle of the afternoon

Drink like its midnight - Time for the show

 

But the kids keep coming and Thank God for them

Lasses with passes and dudes round the corner

It's storming in Stafford and everyone's soaked

You know what they say about girls who smoke

[Love Boat Captain]

Record Store Day performance

[LouisvilleGreg]

Thanks for the link. Carl Perkins Cadillac kills me everytime, it's about as perfect a pop song as I can think of, just devastating.

[suites]

Thanks for the link. Carl Perkins Cadillac kills me everytime, it's about as perfect a pop song as I can think of, just devastating.

 

 

Yep

[Love Boat Captain]

For those who follow DBT like Wilco, The Nine Bullets board is no more.

 

Three Dimes Down is up and running. Check it out at the link below.

http://www.threedimesdown.com