First, I will start by doing something I NEVER do, and admit that I am wrong. All you LooGAR H8tas need to remember it, write it down, take a picture, I don't give a mad fuck. My assessment of Son Volt's "Trace" was way off base, and it is a fucking awesome album, and strangely enough, the first cut is my favorite, and for some fucked up reason, I did not like this album when I bought 10 years ago. The line about "All night radio station in Louisiana, sounds like 1963, but for now it sounds like heaven" pretty much sums up everything I love about music.

Being There continues to slay me, but it also serves to illustrate my problems with latter era Wilco. There are many of the weird sounds and flourishes that mark YHF and the freak outs that mark AGIB, its just that they reversed the sound. What I mean is all the vaunted ambience of YHF is just what was there on Being There brought to the forefront, and smacks of one of my least favorite things: being weird for weirdness' sake.

Lucero's "That Much Further West" is another fine album in this vain, and since getting a new truck, with a six disc changer, I have had these 3 albums on constant rotation, driving all over Alabama and Georgia, drinking beer, and mourning my uncle. Great music to do all of those things to.

Music fucking rules.

Agreed. That song is so good that its really just not fair.

I've always found it odd that you didn't like Trace. But yeah, Trace and Being There have always been my favorites of that genre.

Sorry about your uncle. Drinking, driving, and listening to those albums is an excellent way to mourn.

correct on all fronts. being weird for the sake of being weird is one of the thing drives me crazy about a lot of bands these days.

Preferably not simultaneously, but hey.

Tis indeed a good song, and is in the "learn this" pile busty and I maintain.

I'd pay good American Money to hear Busty rap his vocal chords around that one. I'm starting to tear up just thinking about it.

MOST of the drinking was done while not driving...

Shit, that one has been there since we lived on Pluma Dr. in ATL; Back in the days when we had the drummerless band.

Busty's voals are the only hangup. For once, I know a song well and he doesn't - that's rare. Plus it's gotta get pretty tender treatment, so it requires more homework.

Then we'll unveil it to a crowd of 15 bored businessmen, who will at best look over their shoulders and pause mid-cellphone conversation.

At best.

But still. We'll be happy.

The first 4 or 5 songs on this are GOLD. I find the rest of it kind of repetitive and it all meshes together....

Need to dig this one out.

I saw Lucero play in Chicago on Friday. It was a great show. They played at a venue called the Bottom Lounge which I'd never been to before but it happens to be only about 2 blocks from my house. Awesome!

It was a standard bar setup....a rectangular room with the stage at one end. The show wasn't sold out but must have come close. I'd expect there were 150 - 200 people there.

It was the last night of their tour and all the bands were in good spirits. The sound was a lot better than last time I had seen them. You could hear all the distinct guitar parts this time instead of them all fading into mush.

They did a good mix of songs from their new album and their previous releases. Unfortunately, due to a longer than expected set, no food, and way too much partying early on in the night, I had to bail before they finished.

They're definitely worth checking out if they come near you though.

I also saw Social Distortion on Saturday, another great show. The only knock on seeing bands like Lucero and Social D. live is that they don't have much dynamic range between their songs, and that lack of range is even more pronounced when the songs are live because the quieter songs lose some sublety.

It's not really a problem if you're familiar with their recordings because you can understand where they're coming from...but I brought a newbie to Lucero and I think he started getting board after about an hour.

I noticed that in the weekend thread. Veddy Jealous. Social D is an old fave of mine, and Lucero a new one.

Welcome, friend. We;ve been waiting for you. I certainly hope you'll give Waits' Heart of Saturday Night a fair run, too. Try accompanying it with a nice bottle of 12-18-yr old Glenfiddich.

I'll prolly add this to my list..I am about to go on a massive CD buying jag.

it was mentioned on another post but i feel obliged to mention that if you haven't checked out holopaw's self-titled first album you should. i was listening to windfall the other day for the first time in a while and realized that it's great because it's not all roots-rock and shit like a lot of the alt.country thing and it's the same reason i think that holopaw record is great.

Lucero is one of my new favorite bands. They make real rock and roll, not that fucking pillowfight & doilies shit by two bit pissants like The Shins or The Decembrists.

Awesome.