Showing posts with label Hellbound Glory. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hellbound Glory. Show all posts

Jan 22, 2013

Top 10 Dumbest Things You Can Do at a Country Concert


Rolling Stone published this list of the 10 most annoying concert behaviors recently. It's true and all, but maybe... they've never been to a country concert?

Soooo....

Top 10 Dumbest Things You Can Do at a Country Concert

10.  Get so drunk you trade glittery dragon jeans with some dude in the bathroom

9. Loudly complain "Who is this Hellbound Glory crap? We want Kid Rock!"

8. Bum beers off friends ...with a $36 Jake Owen concert shirt hanging over your shoulder

7. Break a restraining order because you just had to see how beautiful
your ex would look singing along to "Cruise"

6.  Play air guitar during a piano solo

5. Yell "Play 'Country Must Be Countrywide!'"

4. Smoke during "Smoke a Little Smoke," hold up boots during "These Boots,"
feel up underage girls during "Creepin'"

3. Call your lawyer about suing the arena after you slip in some urine (yours) by your seat

2. Sing along to the three hits, not recognize the album cuts and complain about what a dumb song the Waylon cover is

1. Realize you're at a Luke Bryan show


*Gif image you will never unsee blatantly stolen from http://-dixiefried.tumblr.com/

Dec 29, 2011

FTM 101 Best Albums of 2011: 1-50





My tastes were more oriented towards roots-music this year than any in recent memory and The Damn Quails put out a stunning debut that satisfied my yearnings like no other. The unique voices of Bryon and Gabriel combine for divine harmonies and their writing is the class of contemporary bands that fall into the "red dirt" scene, or nearly any scene for that matter. There isn't a weak song on the offering and what's more, nearly every tune spent time lodged in my brain on replay at one point or another. Brilliant work, epic even. Best songs: All of them, but if you must have 1 or 2 …"Fool's Gold" and "Mary" always slay me.



Wrapped around the undeniable song of the year, "Codeine," is an album that more than pulls its own weight. Isbell fans may have hoped for something louder, but what they got was an artist-defining gem of a southern rock and soul record. Strong lyrics, excellent musicianship and plenty of easy-to-love melodies make this an album most anyone can appreciate, and true music lovers will adore. Best tracks: Codeine, Alabama Pines.





The boys went and growed up on us. While Hellbound Glory is still infatuated with the darker subjects - addiction, dysfunctional families and death, in particular - their songwriting has improved a great deal since their last album. Not that it was ever bad. It's just that this time around the songs are better developed. The hooks are hookier and the subject matter comes across more naturally - it no longer feels like they're trying to shoehorn in every deviant behavior and curse word they can, just because they can. This is a band on the rise and with material this good, they may eventually break down the wall between alt and country. Best tracks: Better Hope You Die Young, Knocked Off the Horse.



What else is there to say about Hayes? Rapier wit. Songwriting that recalls the greats of country and folk music. Memorable, affable voice. Actually has something to say. Just enough weirdness to keep him a little mysterious. Check, to all of those. This guy's the real deal; one of the few artists I'll buy an album from without hearing a single note. He never disappoints, never rests on his accolades. Thanks for another winner, Hayes! Best tracks: Another Like You, Chances Are.




Jimbo calls this "catfish music," and I see no better way to describe it. Confederate Buddha is a melting pot for southern music - R&B, rock, folk, country and swamp soul, all mixed, matched and sifted out at different times on the record. Mathus' writing is in turns poetic, straight-forward or abstract, all expertly crafted and emotionally performed. Best tracks: Cling to the Roots, Aces and Eights.




Bonnie Raitt, Janis Joplin and Neko Case in a blender vocals. Transgendered Hayes Carll songwriting chops. That was weird. …this album is great. 
Best tracks: Are You Ready to Die, Hell's Bells






The in-demand producer of #6/former hair band member/former 90's alt-rock band, the jack - nay master - of all trades turns in this hook-driven smorgasbord of power pop, hard rock and jangly country-flavored rave-up goodness. This album alongside #8 would make a killer party soundtrack. Best tracks: Synthesizers, Suckerpunch





If this is a sellout, I wish every artist who's been accused of such had such a well-done betrayal of ideals. The Black Keys expand their blues rock sound to (bluesy) glam rock and power pop without missing a step or making it sound contrived. Sometimes you just need to turn off your inner-critic and enjoy. Fun, fun, fun! Best tracks: Gold on the Ceiling, Nova Baby




Adele somehow straddles the huge divide between modern pop and "old people" soul music with great success. Even the songs that lack lyrically are made great by Adele's huge (but never diva-esque) voice. There hasn't been an artist in some time that brought together so many people in mutual admiration. This is a chick album that dudes can be unashamed to love. It's an old-school album that kids can groove to. Excellence. Best tracks - Rolling in the Deep, Someone Like You.



Sounding like the Black Crowes by way of Muscle Shoals, Ponderosa is a super-talented band of southern rockers who mostly steer clear of the clichés of the genre. Kalen Bush's lead vocals are stirring and the harmonies take their sound over the top. Ponderosa isn't reinventing the wheel here, but what they do, they do very well. Best tracks: Old Gin Road, Devil on My Shoulder.





13. Stoney Larue - Velvet
15. Ryan Adams - Ashes and Fire
16. Pistol Annies - Hell on Heels
17. Wilco - The Whole Love
18. Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears - Scandalous
19. Mastodon - The Hunter
20. Will Hoge - Number Seven
22. Miranda Lambert - Four the Record
23. Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
24. Justin Haigh - People Like Me
25. Frank Ocean - Nostalgia, Ultra
26. Frank Turner - England Keep My Bones
28. Bon Iver - s/t
29. Sunny Sweeney - Concrete
31. Bad Meets Evil - Hell (The Sequel)
32. Left Lane Cruiser - Junkyard Speed Ball
34. Big KRIT - Return of 4Eva
35. The Decemberists - The King is Dead
36. F*cked Up - David Comes to Life
37. Merle Haggard - Working in Tennessee
38. Eli Young Band - Life at Best
39. Adam Hood - The Shape of Things
41. Glossary - Long Live All of Us
43. Blitzen Trapper - American Goldwing
44. Dawes - Nothing is Wrong
45. Cody Canada and The Departed - This is Indian Land
46. The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow
47. George Strait - Here for a Good Time
48. Robyn Ludwick - Out of These Blues
50. Jason Boland and the Stragglers - Rancho Alto


Nov 23, 2011

Top 10 (Country Music-related) Things to be Thankful for this Thanksgiving

10. That there aren't two Jason Aldeans. Oh wait…. That there aren't three Jason Aldeans.

09. Jamey Johnson

08. That Colt Ford isn't getting much airplay (yet)

07. Elizabeth Cook

06. iPods/satellite radio so we don't have to hear this if we don't want to

05. Ray Wylie Hubbard

04. That radio will have to stop playing "If I Die Young" eventually

03. That Willie, Merle, Ray Price and Loretta are still with us
(this is #1 in spirit if not digit)

02. Hellbound Glory

Nov 15, 2011

Hellbound Glory - Damaged Goods

Hellbound Glory's new album, Damaged Goods, is out today and you better buy it (here!). The boys have retained all the swagger and grit of their previous release, Old Highs and New Lows, but shock of shocks.... they've matured.

Oh, they haven't wiped their repertoire of drug references, attitude and guilty pleasure hooks, but they've grown as a band. Their already solid songwriting has gotten tighter. Their musical chops have gotten stronger... and their passion for the music only seems to be burning hotter.

Thankfully, the band has also held onto their dark (but somehow not particularly depressing) worldview. Junkies chase their habit into the sunset because that's what they're hellbent on doing. Women leave because that's what they do. We're just left to drink about it, and though there may be some self-pity mixed in, it's always a fully enjoyed self-pity.

The highlights of the album for me are lead single "Better Hope You Die Young," a warning that hard living isn't conducive to long life, and "Gonna Be a Goner," a catchy woe-is-me toe tapper with an earworm chorus.

"Knocked Off the Horse" is the track that sticks with you, though. It presents the case in matter-of-fact storytelling, that some drug addicts are just destined to let their dependence kill them and there's nothing you can do about it. It's an uncomfortably edgy take on the subject that paints the druggie as almost a heroic figure. It's a breath-taking tune.

Grab this album now if you like stone country with a modern bent and an unfiltered look at the seedier side of life. <---cliche but true

Damaged Goods is a gem.

Apr 7, 2010

Regular Guy Reviews: Hellbound Glory - Old Highs and New Lows

Hellbound Glory - Old Highs and New Lows

If Jason Aldean is your idea of outlaw country, you might wanna steer away from HBG. Can you imagine Aldean uttering the words "why take the pain when I can take pain pills?" or "...have a good hate f**k?" I thought not.

Lyrics aren't the only thing that make Hellbound Glory outlaws. Their sound is also a far cry from anything you'll hear on sanitized country radio. This is stone hard country - steel guitar, heavy twang, banjo and fiddle included - rocked up just a little, a la Waylon and the boys.

With subject matter like heroin, codependent relationships, fighting and drinking oneself to death, Old Highs and New Lows doesn't actually hit a lot of emotional highs. Instead, it drags you right through the gutter the characters indwell. As depressing as that sounds, most of the songs bounce right along at mid to up-tempo, Hellbound Glory sounding absolutely vibrant and invigorating while relating their gritty tales, keeping OH&NL from ever bringing you down to the lows of the losers inhabiting their debauched landscape.

You'll be cheerfully stomping your feet right along to such non-cheerful statements as "I'm too broke to overdose." Hellbound Glory has quite a way with sharply pointed hooks like that, also giving us gems like "another bender might break me" and "we saw the one way track marks on his arm."

There's not a bad song on the album, but my favorites would have to be bourbon drenched "Be My Crutch" and "Another Bender Might Break Me." There's also a jacked-up (in a good way) cover of ol' Hank's "I'm a Long Gone Daddy," retitled "I'm Leavin' Now," not to be confused with Merle's song by the same name.

If you're a fan of Waylon, Johnny Paycheck, Old Crow Medicine Show or any of the Hanks (particularly III), you'll probably enjoy this, unless you have a problem with the "f" word, because they certainly don't.

Hellbound is right.

Listen here.

Buy here.

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