IN REVIEW: Drive-By Truckers - "Welcome to Club XIII"

Although politically motivated material has been a part of Drive-By Truckers' DNA since their inception over 25 years ago, they'd never been as explicitly political as they became in the time surrounding the Trump administration; a pair of albums, 2016's American Band and 2020's The Unraveling respectively, dove headfirst into the ugliness of Trump's America, resulting in sustained critical acclaim but harsh division among their fan base. Many of these fans had gravitated to DBT through their rough and ragged tales of life in the south (especially on their landmark 2001-04 run of Southern Rock Opera, Decoration Day and The Dirty South, the latter two showcasing the brilliant beginnings of Jason Isbell's craft), so it sort of makes sense that there were plenty of Trump supporters in the audience who didn't take too kindly to the increased criticism of so-called Republican Values.

For their fourteenth album (serendipity with the new album's title was thwarted by The New OK, which was culled from recent outtakes and a handful of new songs hastily released in response to the early stages of the pandemic), much of the inspiration is drawn from within, with the majority of the songs coming out more personal and/or autobiographic in nature. There are stories of the band's early days (the raucous title track, sprawling opener The Driver and epic closer Wilder Days), tales of heartbreaking loss (Shake and Pine, We Will Never Wake You in the Morning), and recollections of the past (Forged in Hell and Heaven Sent).

The most disappointing aspect of Welcome to Club XIII and, by extension, Drive-By Truckers during this era is the continued diminishment of Mike Cooley's role in terms of songwriting; once he and Patterson Hood became the last two remaining songwriters in the group (following departures of Jason Isbell and Shonna Tucker), they split creative output more or less evenly on 2014's English Oceans, with Cooley earning credit for 6 of 13 songs. He then got 5 of 11 on American Band but, on the three albums since, he's only written 5 songs that made it onto records as opposed to Hood's 21. For all I know, Cooley doesn't want to contribute more than he has, but the two songs he gets on Welcome to Club XIII are right up there with Hood's quality-wise; Maria's Awful Disclosures packs some much needed bite on a very mid-tempo album, while the gone-too-soon cautionary tale Every Single Storied Flameout, with its ragged guitars and unexpected horn section, is perhaps the finest song he's brought to the table since that aforementioned golden run of albums some twenty years ago.

Despite Drive-By Truckers increasingly becoming Patterson Hood's band, Welcome to Club XIII proves that their status among America's greatest storytelling bands is firmly intact; it's an exercise in hindsight that doesn't so much romanticize the past as it does regard it with reverence and, more importantly, acknowledge how lucky any of us are to have made it this far in such a fucked up world.

June 3, 2022 • ATO

Highlights The Driver • Shake and Pine • Every Single Storied Flameout

Year in Rock 2025

Alright, I've got some explaining to do. By now anyone who's visited this blog is well aware of how infrequently I've used this space in recent years; aside from the occasional fertile year of content, I really haven't posted all that often over the last five years or so. There are many reasons for this, which have already been outlined in previous apology posts; but, essentially, it boils down to my own laziness and the cold reality that blogs are, like Refused (again), fucking dead. So, I wouldn't hold my breath for a triumphant return to reviews, or even semi-regular posts, but: a) I feel like Year in Rock posts have always belonged here and, even though I've experimented with different methods of presentation recently and been satisfied, the "blink and you missed it" unveiling via Facebook stories this year was perhaps ultimately a disservice to the records I lauded. After all, cramming the list into short videos isn't too far off from ju...

Year in Rock 2011 Nominee: Sam Roberts Band

SAM ROBERTS BAND I Feel You From: Collider Released: May 10 Having already endured the breakout success ( Brother Down was Canada's it rock song of 2002), the tentative dabbling in the U.S. market, as is the rite of passage for all moderately successful Canuck artists (2003's debut We Were Born in a Flame was the best time to try; one of the best albums of the year, it made a small dent in the American mindset upon its release there a year later), the difficult, druggy third album (the aptly named 2005 disc Chemical City ), and the subdued creative step backward (2008's Love at the End of the World , aside from hit single Them Kids , was really kinda bland), it seems according to script that Sam Roberts would start settling in on his fourth album (and first with the band credited as equal contributors), Collider (you know, I think it was a bad idea to give me brackets). Well, as far as settling in goes, Roberts does and doesn't on Collider . W...

IN REVIEW: Rancid - "Trouble Maker"

As far as punk rock goes, it's hard to name a hotter hot streak than the trio of records Rancid cranked out between 1995 and 2000; the star making ...And Out Come the Wolves , the far-reaching Life Won't Wait and their balls-to-the-wall second self-titled album solidly positioned Rancid as leaders of the second generation of punk. It also preceded a period of slow progression, as Rancid would take eleven years to release their next three records. By the time ...Honor Is All We Know came in 2014, many fans (myself included) had to wonder whether or not this was the end of the road. Such concerns are handily dealt with on the closing track of the standard edition of their ninth record, the positively punishing This Is Not the End . Well, okay then, that's sorted. Now, what of this new record? What do we make of the use of their original logo on the cover, a logo that hasn't graced a Rancid record in 25 years? Is this a throwback to the band's heyday, a new begin...

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