If It's Too Loud...

Photo by Ken Sears Drive-By Truckers are probably my favorite active band, and I try to get out to see them as much as possible. Their not currently touring, but Patterson Hood is behind his excellent album Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams , released just last month. With Lydia Loveless as his opener, there was no way I could miss it. I wasn't originally sure if he would have a band or not on this tour, but earlier this week I saw it was going to be Patterson Hood and the Sensurrounders, so I was very curious who that would actually be. Lydia Loveless opened the show with a great solo electric set. She focused on newer songs like "Sex and Money" from 2023's Nothing's Gonna Stand in My Way Again  and the just released Bandcamp exclusive "Accolades," but did go back to 2014's Somewhere Else for "Verlaine Shot Rimbaud." The crowd was definitely a Patterson Hood/Drive-By Truckers crowd, but there were pockets of Loveless fans that were th...

Photo by Jason Thrasher Just when you think it's impossible to be more excited about a new solo song from Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers, turns out the song also features Waxahatchee. "The Forks of Cypress" is exactly what we want and expect to hear from a Patterson Hood solo song. It's much more quiet and folky than the vast majority of what Drive-By Truckers have released, but this is going to land right into what you love if you're already a fan. Of course, as with anything Hood does musically, "The Forks of Cypress" doesn't quite fit into any specific category. At first listen, it seems like a fairly standard and straightforward alt-country meets folk song, but the more you listen the more you start hearing. We can't wait to hear Patterson Hood's first solo album in twelve years, especially after hearing "The Forks of Cypress." Patterson Hood says of his latest single: “ The Forks of Cypress a real place, a few miles just n...

Photo by Danny Clinch I typically hate reissued albums. For the most part, they're just quick cash grabs with maybe a few songs that didn't make the album, and I've never been enough of an audiophile to hear the read difference. But now there's Drive-By Truckers' reissue of The Dirty South. The Complete Dirty South promises three bonus tracks, four remixed songs, and two with updated vocals. We can hear a song with updated vocals now, "Puttin' People on the Moon." This new version is much closer to the one we've come to love from DBT's live shows. Patterson Hood sounds completely different here, with more of a growl to his vocals than the previous version. There's more age to his voice now, but it fits the song much more. I've always loved "Puttin' People on the Moon," but I think I love this one even more. In a press release, Patterson Hood says of the new version of the song: “I wrote ‘Puttin’ People on the Moon’ in the ...

I had never heard of Jerry Joseph until yesterday, but any time Drive-By Truckers are go ing to be someone's backing band, you're going to get my attention. And if Patterson Hood says that a song "...  might be the most punk rock song I’ve heard in twenty years (or more)," I'm in. For some background, Jerry Joseph has been in various bands (Little Women, Jerry Joseph & The Jackmormons, Stockholm Syndrome) since the early 80's. His upcoming solo album was produced by Patterson Hood, and Drive-By Truckers are acting as his band. "Sugar Smacks," the most punk rock song Patterson Hood has heard this century, is indeed punk as hell... but not in the traditional sense. It's a seven minute rant set to music. Jerry Joseph lets loose with spoken word for nearly the entire length of the song, which doesn't sound like a Drive-By Truckers song in the least. Instead, it's a funky yet scary psychedelic jam, more along the lines of those weirdo ...