Heathens - The DBT Thread

I haven't seen Isbell yet. I have tickets for a show last year that got rescheduled to this July, but don't know yet whether that will happen (I'm skeptical) - but certainly hope to catch him when it becomes feasible again!
He was really good . Saw him a couple of years ago in a very small club in Berlin with about 50-100 people in attendance. He was still drinking a lot during that show but it did not affect the performance that night
 
Here are some Truckers opinions:

-The RSD “bootleg” from last year is the best live DBT release I’ve encountered, by a significant margin.
-I admit that I haven’t spent a lot of time with the pre-Southern Rock Opera records, but setting those aside: Dirty South is their best album. Unraveling is the worst. English Oceans is underrated.
-For my money, Cooley is one of the best songwriters out there and it’s a shame that he’s been largely absent from the last two records. I love pretty much every Cooley song from English Oceans through Unraveling; “Once They Banned Imagine” in particular is an all-time favorite of mine. He has a wonderful ability to write songs from the perspective of various kinds of racists, fascists, (kinky) hypocrites and other assorted scumbags that somehow approach them with empathy while also skewering them mercilessly. I don’t think I really understood him until “Surrender Under Protest”; that song sort of unlocked Cooley for me.
-It seems like this moment has been inspiring to Hood in a way that it hasn’t for Cooley; I don’t have a great theory on why that is at the moment. I can’t remember where or when, but I once read a review that said something like: Patterson Hood writes made-up stories about real people; Mike Cooley writes true stories about made-up people (which explains why “Sarah’s Flame” is the weakest late-period Cooley song). I personally don’t care for Hood’s very literal recent songs; while I share his politics to a very large degree, I think the songs themselves have come across as pretty ham-handed. Give me a “Sun Don’t Shine” or “Sea Island Lonely” over a “What It Means” or “Orange Clouds”.
 
Here are some Truckers opinions:

-The RSD “bootleg” from last year is the best live DBT release I’ve encountered, by a significant margin.
-I admit that I haven’t spent a lot of time with the pre-Southern Rock Opera records, but setting those aside: Dirty South is their best album. Unraveling is the worst. English Oceans is underrated.
-For my money, Cooley is one of the best songwriters out there and it’s a shame that he’s been largely absent from the last two records. I love pretty much every Cooley song from English Oceans through Unraveling; “Once They Banned Imagine” in particular is an all-time favorite of mine. He has a wonderful ability to write songs from the perspective of various kinds of racists, fascists, (kinky) hypocrites and other assorted scumbags that somehow approach them with empathy while also skewering them mercilessly. I don’t think I really understood him until “Surrender Under Protest”; that song sort of unlocked Cooley for me.
-It seems like this moment has been inspiring to Hood in a way that it hasn’t for Cooley; I don’t have a great theory on why that is at the moment. I can’t remember where or when, but I once read a review that said something like: Patterson Hood writes made-up stories about real people; Mike Cooley writes true stories about made-up people (which explains why “Sarah’s Flame” is the weakest late-period Cooley song). I personally don’t care for Hood’s very literal recent songs; while I share his politics to a very large degree, I think the songs themselves have come across as pretty ham-handed. Give me a “Sun Don’t Shine” or “Sea Island Lonely” over a “What It Means” or “Orange Clouds”.
That RSD "bootleg" is straight fire!!
 
A thread to discuss all things Drive-By Truckers and related.

First item up for discussion, @imtheocean has just pointed out that reissues of Gangstabilly and Pizza Deliverance are now available at the DBT web store. This is great news if you're looking!

[edit: typo]
Heeeeeeey thanks for this! Yoink.
 
I bought the original New West bundle of all the old albums circa 2008 (?) and they are still some of the best sounding records I own. Decoration Day in particular is just monstrous.
 
Decoration Day was my entry point into DBT when I was in college. Sink Hole was the first track I heard and the riff on that song, good lord 🥵.
Sink Hole is definitely my favorite song of theirs live.

for me, it was SRO back in college and my buddy had a radio show on the college station and he'd start every show with Let There Be Rock
 
I'm slowly digging my way through some of the older threads on this site still and came across the Rank The Albums! thread this morning. There were no DBT rankings yet, so I decided to fix it. Naturally, these are subject to change on a whim at a moment's notice - although the top 5 are pretty solidly in their own tier and likely to move around a lot less.

01. The Dirty South
02. Brighter Than Creation's Dark
03. Decoration Day
04. Pizza Deliverance
05. Southern Rock Opera
06. Gangstabilly
07. American Band
08. Go-Go Boots
09. The Unravelling
10. English Oceans
11. A Blessing And A Curse
12. The New OK
13. The Big To-Do
 
I'm slowly digging my way through some of the older threads on this site still and came across the Rank The Albums! thread this morning. There were no DBT rankings yet, so I decided to fix it. Naturally, these are subject to change on a whim at a moment's notice - although the top 5 are pretty solidly in their own tier and likely to move around a lot less.

01. The Dirty South
02. Brighter Than Creation's Dark
03. Decoration Day
04. Pizza Deliverance
05. Southern Rock Opera
06. Gangstabilly
07. American Band
08. Go-Go Boots
09. The Unravelling
10. English Oceans
11. A Blessing And A Curse
12. The New OK
13. The Big To-Do
Decoration Day
Southern Rock Opera
The Dirty South
Pizza Deliverance
Brighter Than Creations Dark
American Band
Gangstabilly
English Oceans
Go Go Boots
A Blessing & A Curse
The Unraveling
The Big To Do
The New OK
 
Oh I hope this means mine show up this week too! Today would be especially great, but I imagine the border will add a delay.

Looks like they showed up earlier today. Dunno if I'll get to spin them until tomorrow but I'm thrilled they are here and any border delay was rather minimal!
 
Looks like they showed up earlier today. Dunno if I'll get to spin them until tomorrow but I'm thrilled they are here and any border delay was rather minimal!
I haven't listened to Pizza Deliverance yet, but I've spun Gangstabilly a few times. Forgot how good some of the other songs were, the Tough Sell particularly.
 
I haven't listened to Pizza Deliverance yet, but I've spun Gangstabilly a few times. Forgot how good some of the other songs were, the Tough Sell particularly.

Pizza Deliverance is definitely first up for me when I get to it - Uncle Frank has risen up high on the all-time favourites list for me these past few months. It'll be nice not to have to be in the car to listen to this version anymore!
 
Does anyone know if they’re actually planning to go forward with the Isbell show at the Met Opera in Philly on 6/5?
 
"DBT was set to play San Diego California, in the summer of 2020, I had a ticket but it got canceled.
So, the show, it was not rescheduled for the "Unleashed Upon the World Tour".

I've been meaning to get to Pappy & Harriet's to see a show. This might just be the kick in the ass I need to get up there.
 
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