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So after getting some Ryan Bingham and some Hayes Carll from a friend here on last.fm I was almost - oh I hate to say this - burnout on country for the moment.

This brought me back to a conversation oh one of those stereotypical conversations about how rock is dead and how radio rock sucks and how the world of guitar-oriented rock is just a self-effacing Guitar Hero/Rock Band joke on itself.

So, I started hunting around for newer bands that rock on my hard drive and lists. I really started liking the mix and went on a hunt for bands maybe I have missed with my uber-focus on Country/Folk/Americana/Blues.

Now my first stop was the huge collection of free mp3s available on the Bloodshot Records site which led me to the honk tonk rocking stylings of Th' Legendary Shack Shakers and the rockabilly country sounds of the Riptones. This was perfect for the part of the mix with the Deadstring Brothers in it. I also found a band called Firewater which I did not include on the mix because frankly I have no idea what the fuck to make of the band or how to describe their sound but its interesting for sure.

I then turned my attention to the Fat Possum records site which also has a ton of free sounds to go over. I was looking for something blues and rocking like The Black Keys but I found the Heartless Bastards instead which is more of an indie pop kind of sound with a garage rock tinge but I really liked their song New Resolution as a transition tune in my mix. There a ton of hooks in their tunes. Good stuff.

Then I found the Neckbones which could be minimized as simply a garage rock band but man they hit that sound and that rock with a snarl that I just cannot put aside. They remind me of the The Black Keys not because they sound a like because they do not. The Keys got the blues thing and the Neckbones instead tear through what the Stripes and the Reigning Sound did with an energy that is great. Instead, I almost feel like with both bands I should be turning up my nose at them and calling them derivative but I cannot. They do what they do too well.

But I was still puzzled in finding a male vocal counterpart to the 60's garage sounds of the Gore Gore Girls and the Detroit Cobras until - bam ! - I find on the Fat Possum site a band called Thee Shams and I really dig this band. Just a perfect 60's kind of twist to their sound almost pop but not too rocking for that but irrestible with the hooks and the vocals.

Finally I found this band I was not sure wtf to do with but their song Stop, I'm Already Dead hooked me hard. The band is called DEADBOY & THE ELEPHANTMAN the last.fm band entry says:
"Their music is difficult to classify, though influences from alternative rock, goth rock, blues-rock, grunge, and post-punk are audible. "

Yeah and frickin then some. I only got two tracks from Fat Possum by this band but now I got to find more I think this is a band that will make its way on my have to buy an album from them list.

Its nice to kind of stretch again I think outside of my Americana womb I have been wrapped up in for so long.

the sadies
This is not the most adventurous Top Ten you'll read this year; it pretty much stays firmly in the Americana/Alt-Country camp.

1. III--Two Cow Garage
2. Silver Mountain--Deadstring Brothers
3. The Search--Son Volt
4. New Seasons--The Sadies
5. Hardwire Healing--The Dexateens
6. Raising Sand--Robert Plant and Allison Krauss
7. Sirens Of The Ditch--Jason Isbell
8. Long Road Out of Eden--The Eagles
9. Icky Thump--The White Stripes
10. Magic--Bruce Springsteen

Biggest disappointments:

West--Lucinda Williams
West of the West--Dave Alvin

I Gotta Get Drunk - The Little Willies
Hand It Over - Keb' Mo'
You Ain't Going Nowhere - The Byrds - Sweetheart of the Rodeo
Somehow, Someday - Ryan Adams - Gold
Get So Low - Chastity Brown - Do the Best You Can
Don’t Blame It On Me - Bruce Hornsby - Goin Home A Tribute to Fats Domino
How Many Times - Eliza Lynn - The Weary Wake Up
Cliqout - Beirut - The Flying Club Cup
I Love You So Much It Hurts - Ray Charles - Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music
Colorado Girl - Townes Van Zandt
Freedom - Richie Havens
Blue River - A Night in the Box - A Night in the Box
You Look Like the Devil - Deadstring Brothers - Silver Mountains
Long Way from Georgia - Ryan Bingham - Mescalito
Hard Sun - Eddie Vedder - Into the Wild
The Boy With the Thorn in His Side - The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
Southtown Girls - The Hold Steady - Boys & Girls in America
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over Sea
Ode to LRC - Band of Horses - Cease to Begin
I’m Looking For Someone to Find Me - Richard Hawley - Lady’s a Bridge
Summer Romance - The Redwalls - The Redwalls
Bet You Never Thought - Brighton MA
Waiting for the Man - Earlimart - Mentor Tormentor
Wait - The New Amsterdams - At the Foot of My Rival
President of What? - Death Cab for Cutie
Jigsaw Falling Into Place - Radiohead - In Rainbows
Sing Me Spanish Techno - The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
I Couldn't Live Without Your Love - Petula Clark

I went out to see a band for the first time in like 10 years. Of course I had never been to the place before I just knew that the band I was going to see seemed like they would be perfect for seeing at a bar.

A friend of mine at work who fronts a little blues/country outfit as a singer was going to go with me. We had it all planned out and such. The deal was that would hit the cafe at 6:30pm and eat some food and chill and see the band at 8:30pm when the opening act started up. Just a nice night out and all that. One problem.

Dude never showed.

Now there are levels of feeling dorky we have all experienced in life. At least people can kind of feel sorry for you if a chick stands you up and won't even bother to pick up their cell. But a guy? A friend?

Lame.

So around 7:30pm after a bourbon on the rocks and standing outside of a club waiting I went in and got something feeling like a complete dumbass. Now the cafe part is a quarter of the club a narrow corridor of tables on one side and the bar on the other. At least the Carolina Country Fried Chicken was a good a bit under-seasoned but overall very nice.

Getting there early and feeling like a dipshit did have its advantages I got to meet a bunch of the band members. The front man Kurt Marschke was really nice and must have a good memory for names cause he we talked like once out in front of the club and said hi to me later by name which caught my attention. The bassist and the guitarist and another member of the band I think the organ player were all from England oddly enough but that has its place in my thoughts later on.

The Deadstring Brothers are an interesting mix of influences like Honky Tonk Woman era Rolling Stones occasionally at times channeling a bit of The Band and even at other times a tad of Gram Parsons so it was like country rock with slide guitar here and steel guitar there and a big ass organ with old ass tubes glowing bright. At the same time there weren't any hints of the Southern Rock ala say Allman Brothers in there.

They left that to their opening act Leaving, TX which tried a little country-fried hard rock but honestly it sounded like one of those bad 80's Hank Williams Jr songs. A little too much of that bad bubba anthems vibe too it. But when they settled into some straight ahead country-inflected rock or over to the twang? They were really good. They are often compared to the Drive-By Truckers but I only see it jumps and starts.

The sound seems more straight ahead and stripped low for that. If they put down the Molly Hatchet and broadened over the country to the rock then I think they could really have something.

Now the stage/club area of the place was pretty small but then again on a Sunday night even in Arlington so were the crowds.

The stage was tight like so tight I thought the lead guitarist and bassist were going to definitely collide at various points in the show. The Deadstring Brothers still managed to eat the space up and throw a very energectic show. There are a number of things that take the band above and beyond a Stones knock-off band and one of those things has to be Masha Marjieh’s vocals and how her voice compliment Marshke’s perfectly. Also, a lot of the bar band country-inflicted rock bands tend to be one dimensional in their sound and they reach stars above most of them. There is something about mixing almost soul-tinged sounds in their songs or how they shift between the organ driven 60's rock sounds to the steel guitar on a tear type songs.

And this band is wholly and completely at their best in a bar. It just feels like their element and even to a sparse crowd on a Sunday they really tore it up.

I am very glad I went.

If you get a chance to see this band live in a tight bar choose your friends to invite wisely and don't miss the opportunity regardless.

So your sitting in a cement shack with no windows.

And your surrounded by folks who only remember enough to know they came here to forget. Through all the pain of a life with nothing much it's hard as they say to tell if life is a burden or a gift.

Some drunk trucker waiting for his tires to get retread just swung at a guy and hit you instead and your hoping beyond hope that the blood in the shot glass swirling about is your own. And the Jack in your glass burns son it burns all the fuck way down.

The band is playing songs like bluegrass on speed and the little lady up front singing has her Willie song turned up son and she just don't give a fuck.

The stool your sitting on is starting to shift and the blood just moves on and on in little arcing circles round and round. The sound of the billiard balls play drums of crashing stones in your head and the barkeep just looks bored.

But there is a kid with a new tattoo and a cowboy hat grooving on the dancefloor with a plain little girl in her daisy dukes and the old man beside you in overalls is talking over John Deere tractors with the guy beside him and for some reason you can't seem to move.

Your the skeleton man you waited for that dark sun to fall across the land so you could see the night and sneak over to this place after your shift and you can't even remember where you worked it.

Everyone you ever knew lives right here and this place on that barstool is where you belong cause they always told you so and you could have left but deep down you agreed with them so you don't despair anymore.

You just put that whiskey down and grab that girl Flo and you dance bloodied but unbowed.

[url=http://www.[spam nofollow=yes] in the Shot Glass - download

Bastard Child Moonshine Willy
Over the Cliff Old 97's
PB24SS Split Lip Rayfield
Sacred Heart Deadstring Brothers
Dirty-Mouthed Flo Robbie Fulks
Dark Sun Sally Timms
I Don't Believe In You Kelly Hogan & The Pine Valley Cosmonauts
Amy Ryan Adams
Things I Didn't Say Bobby Bare Jr.
La Piedra Cordero
Mendocino The Bottle Rockets
Velvet Guitar Alejandro Escovedo
Tightly Neko Case
Hope Is A Thing With Feathers Trailer Bride
Hanged Man The Meat Purveyors
Dragging My Own Tombstone Waco Brothers
Drinkin' & Flailin' Scroat Belly
Miller, Jack and Mad Dog (live at Antone's) Wayne Hancock
Whiskey Scott H. Biram
River Of No Return (vocals by Neko Case) Jon Rauhouse

Since I accidently waxed the original song I was working on off my Sendspace page and I am going to see a Bloodshot Records artist this weekend at IOTA in Arlington I thought it was a good time to post this mix.

Well the other day I ended up snagging Old Crow Medicine Show's O.C. M.S. CD which was disappointing only in the sense that my favorite tracks are the ones I already had before I bought the CD. Its not the other tracks are filler or anything. But right now I still like "Wagon Wheel" and "Tell It To Me" the best though their version "CC Rider" is really very cool. They are not really a bluegrass band since officially they have no mandonlin player which is some wanker string band bluegrass rule or whatever. That is ok. I like the way they blend country and even blues sounds. Overall I am very impressed even the band is not revolutionary or deep or whatever they are tons of fun and a joy to listen to.

Now I also started to put together my Christmas CD wishlist.

I figure I will get a couple of these before Christmas and have to adjust my list.

Wreck Your Life - old 97s
Heartbreaker - Ryan Adams
Hollywood Town Hall - Jayhawks
Too Bad Jim - R.L. Burnside
You Better Run: The Essential Junior Kimbrough - Junior Kimbrough
Car Wheels on a Gravel Road - Lucinda Williams
Hey! Bo Diddley/Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley
Time (the Revelator) - Gillian Welch
Freight Train And Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes - Elizabeth Cotten
21 #1 Hits: The Ultimate Collection - Buck Owens

Oh yeah here is a surprise I am starting to warm up to Whiskeytown after being initially not that impressed. However, I will follow the Son Volt approach and go straight for their best LP first because the songs I really really like from the band are from Faithless Street.

I do have two newer I guess you would say indie choices as well.

You Forgot It in People - Broken Social Scene
Do I want it because I want to listen to the CD or just because I have said I should get this CD so much that I feel like I should just get it and get that whole thing out of the way?

Same really for:

I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One - Yo La Tengo
Its like I feel like I am missing something by NOT having at least one of their CDs but is it really time I mean I have not listened to this band for a while but I really enjoy them and have some of their mp3s and all that.

Then again I should just go with my gut but my gut does not really know shit and if I don't think about what I want to buy I just ending up buying crap I never listen to as much as I should to warrant the purchase of a CD.

Oh yeah and to think this all leads to me babbling and drinking cheap bourbon while babbling which is really bad.

Oh well.

Btw, on top of all that there is a show I want to go to. I haven't been to see a band in like 10 frickin' years so this is something of an event even in the sense of me actually wanting to see the band. The Deadstring Brothers are playing a club in Arlington called the IOTA and I really actually swear to god want to go. Now I just have to see if my bud at work who likes this sort of music wants to go. Not sure if I feel like doing this trip solo.