Showing posts with label Alt-country. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alt-country. Show all posts
Jun 23, 2020
Sep 19, 2018
7 New Alt-Country Parody Album Covers
Foul language below!
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| Pretty sure I might have already done this one before. So sue me. |
Oct 8, 2015
Album Review: The Bottle Rockets - South Broadway Athletic Club
By Kevin Broughton
In the beginning, there was Uncle Tupelo. And the Bottle
Rockets.
Technically, there was Gram Parsons, then Steve Earle. But
if there’s a Ground-and-Year Zero for the alt.country
revival/renaissance (whatever that was), it’s the early 1990s and a stretch
of the Mississippi River Valley near St. Louis.
A public divorce – really more of a crib death – did Uncle
Tupelo in. And almost a quarter-century later, the Bottle Rockets are still getting
it done. Few acts in the genre before or since have captured the blue-collar,
everyman ethos the way front man/lyricist Brian Henneman has, and on South Broadway Athletic Club, he’s eased
into middle age comfortably and without losing a step.
Recorded in his native St. Louis – and for the first time,
at a slow enough place to ensure quality control, by Henneman’s telling – South
Broadway is the band’s 11th studio album and first with Bloodshot
Records. A note about the label: No indie outfit has done more, as their
Twitter bio (@BSHQ) points out to “champion the music that lurks between the
labels since 1994.” Just check the talent-rich roster…and
support an artist or two by making a purchase.
“Monday (Everytime I Turn Around)” opens the album in
Henneman’s trademark wry style with a dash of Roger Miller-esque word play. “There’s
just no controllin’ this rollin’ with the flow, when it’s almost have past now
a while ago.” An aging cow-punk rocker meets the digital age, more exasperated
than pissed.
Henneman’s characters have historically ranged somewhere on
the worn-down/desperate/cynical continuum. This time around some of them
actually enjoy a bit of whimsy.
“XOYOU” is a river rat’s tribute to Tom Jones. If the Welsh
crooner/sex symbol had grown up in Festus, Mo., he’d have had just such a raw
sensibility. With a twang.
“Smile” is a simple, happy love song. Two and a half minutes
of pop sensibility that you can’t not like; it’s as efficient and optimistic as
early Heartbreakers.
But the best two-minute toe-tapper of the bunch is “Dog:” Sometimes life is really just this simple. I
love my dog.
God, ain’t it the truth? The Bottle rockets have arrived at a spot, looked around, and said, This ain’t all bad. It’s a little different, but all good.
God, ain’t it the truth? The Bottle rockets have arrived at a spot, looked around, and said, This ain’t all bad. It’s a little different, but all good.
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Feb 21, 2014
Americana Band Name Generator
(don't click on this image - the link is below!)
If you've run out of creative spark after writing umpteen songs about drunken sorrow, the working man, and bucolic strife but need the perfect name for your new roots rock or alt-country band, you're in luck! Just click below to visit my new "Genericana Band Name Generator!" My apologies to the three or four existing bands whose names are possible on this generator.
Aug 20, 2013
Top Ten Less Successful Americana Bands
10. The Sex Offenders String Band
09. The Ghosts of Fartknocker Mountain
08. Beards in the Silo
07. Uncle Yoakam and Those Dapper Fellows
06. The Tattooed Rockabilly Roller-Derby Crack Whores
05. Big Barry and His Lumbago
04. Offal
03. Joe Biden and the Shotgun Boys
02. Mumford's Third Cousins, Twice Removed
01. Pantaloons Medicine Tent Revival
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