DBT: America's best Southern rock bar band?

[vvv]

Aiight, Black Crows are pretty damn good, too, and I'm not discounting the Allmans, etc., although they have gone well beyond "bar band" ...

But DBT are such great writers, if a little rough in the performance, like a bar band should be.

Brighter than Creation ..., while a touch over-long (they list 4 "sides"!), is really growing on me. And I might only cut two or three songs, anyway.

It's funny, every time I get a new DBT record, I think, this isn't as good as the last ...

And then I hear it a few times, and think it may be better.

And even though they lost Isbell, his ex stands up as just a cool singer-writer in her own right ("Houston" is a subtle standout.) I mean, I'd buy a solo album if she had one!

And for all the well-deserved praise P. Hood gets for his humanist literacy ("That Man I Shot", "The Righteous Path"), Cooley fookin' rawx nasty (ex., "3 Dimes Down".)

In the Bettye LaVette thread some took issue with the DBT record sounding too Stonesy, and Spooner Oldham is on here, also, and I love that vibe.

Check out the kinda psycha-techno "You and Your Crystal Meth".

Finally, while I mention this CD in another thread as having some vocal clicks, and pops, it is recorded (per the liner notes) to "glorious 2" analog tape" by David Barbe, who totally rocked in Sugar, and has become a fave producer of mine just for his DBT records; I think he's done the last 5 or so, and this one really does sound good.

[vvv]

So am I the only one who has an opinion here?

Whassamatta, yooze?

[comfortstarr]

They're my fave these days. I have Dirty South and the two that preceded it on constantly. I don't have the new one yet. I love the song on Dirty South about tornadoes hitting the town, just a gorgeous tune.

[jckinnick]

Aiight, Black Crows are pretty damn good, too, and I'm not discounting the Allmans, etc., although they have gone well beyond "bar band" ...

But DBT are such great writers, if a little rough in the performance, like a bar band should be.

Brighter than Creation ..., while a touch over-long (they list 4 "sides"!), is really growing on me. And I might only cut two or three songs, anyway.

It's funny, every time I get a new DBT record, I think, this isn't as good as the last ...

And then I hear it a few times, and think it may be better.

And even though they lost Isbell, his ex stands up as just a cool singer-writer in her own right ("Houston" is a subtle standout.) I mean, I'd buy a solo album if she had one!

And for all the well-deserved praise P. Hood gets for his humanist literacy ("That Man I Shot", "The Righteous Path"), Cooley fookin' rawx nasty (ex., "3 Dimes Down".)

In the Bettye LaVette thread some took issue with the DBT record sounding too Stonesy, and Spooner Oldham is on here, also, and I love that vibe.

Check out the kinda psycha-techno "You and Your Crystal Meth".

Finally, while I mention this CD in another thread as having some vocal clicks, and pops, it is recorded (per the liner notes) to "glorious 2" analog tape" by David Barbe, who totally rocked in Sugar, and has become a fave producer of mine just for his DBT records; I think he's done the last 5 or so, and this one really does sound good.

I think in the Betty Lavette thread they said it sounded like a bad version of the Stones.

[johnny7]

I can't for the life of me understand why there is so much hype about this band. I even would like to like them! So far it sounds like the Strokes of Southern Rock.
Perhaps i need to see them live....

[johnny7]

Oh, and they are way better than the Crowes, who are a complete waste of skin. Isn't Rod Stewart rolling over in his grave?

[vvv]

Another good band in this vein is My Mourning Jacket.

Yes, the Crows sometimes sound like Stewart, and on the LaVette record I can see the comparison to later Stones ( "bad" was only implied ).

That Strokes comment was uncalled for, and hilarious!

[johnny7]

That Strokes comment was uncalled for, and hilarious!

Yeah, I played it for laughs. I actually like "Is This It?" It's a great record no matter how much people grouse...

[Artifex]

My Morning Jacket, or Kings of Leon.

[vvv]

Damn! How could I forget K.O.L.?

There are some awesome videos on youtube of those guys.

The DBT DVD, by the way, is terrific.


Them ain't yer daddy's Lynyrd Skynyrd, boy ...

[;ivlunsdystf]

It's partly nostalgia (been seeing them intermittently for almost 20 years) but I gotta give some props to the Radiators. It's less rawk and more allmans/longhair stuff, and a bit cheezy at times, but those shows are a pretty good party and it's been interesting to watch them age somewhat gracefully. By the time I showed up to the party they were already 15 years or so into it ... gotta respect that ...

[vvv]

I saw the Radiators a couple years ago in one of those psuedo-"roadhouse" bars; they were good but would have been better without the aging frat boy audience.

The couple of albums I've heard were listenable.

[sad iron]

Played with the DBTs many times over the years. They are all great guys. Patterson's dad used to work at Muscle Shoals and he grew up around some great music.

I don't think it's fair to call them a bar band. They have that quality, but they've taken it beyond being that simple. I think the songs are terrific, evocative, and more than just hard rockin', hard drinkin' fare. Kinda like Springsteen has his roots firmly in the same tradition, but no one calls the E Street Band a bar band. Not that the DBTs have reach Bruuuce status, but the comparison is apt.

I always admired how they went about their business. They went on the road early on, stayed on the road, built a following and kept going and going. I remember talking to Patterson at a gig and he was talking about what they would do after the current tour. He was just like, "We'll go make another record and then tour. That's what we do." He was real calm about it. They were starting to blow up then and you would never know it by the demeanor of the band. That's how it's supposed to be done.

[vvv]

Thanks for that!

Yeah, Dave Hood is definitely a piece of (ongoing and current) history.

I just read that he's touring with ...? Maybe Frank Black?

And "bar band" is meant to be complimentary, in the sense that the music is perfect for a bar, which means it's relatively straightforward, and evocative of the things one does/talks about/thinks about/drinks about in a bar ...

Cool also that Patterson has a new CD coming out.

Listening here, as i type.