Stephen King - Drive-by Truckers

Update: 3/1/06 - SK makes another DBT mention

Stephen King has made mention of Slobberbone in the past so I wasn't that surprised when I came across an Entertainment Weekly article written by Mr. King regarding Halloween. Mr. King mentions the Drive-by Truckers and a song from Southern Rock Opera that doesn't get mentioned that often and also throws a shout-out to B-ham, AL. I've transcribed the beggining of the article through the mention of DBT:

Gosh. Zowie. It's almost Halloween again. Somebody peel me off the ceiling.

If you sense a certain lack of enthusiasm, you get an A for perceptiveness and win this week's first prize, a free ticket to see Venom, (second prize: two ticket to see Venom). Halloween has been my least favorite holiday ever since the mid-80's, when trick-or-treaters started showing up at my house in battalions, many dressed as Pennywise the Clown. That was when I realized I'd been elected America's Guru of Grue without even running for the position. Ever since, my family and I have taken to spending the last day of October elsewhere. Far, far elsewhere. Birmingham, Ala., is good; Birmingham, England-where Halloween is little more that the name of a John Carpenter movie--is even better. Still, I have no objection to you having the scariest Halloween possible. To that end, I offer the following suggestions to put you in a morbid mood and a frightened frame of mind:

Putrid Pop: There's no shortage of grim pop music, but let us push aside such chestnuts as "(Don't Fear) the Reaper" and "Thriller" in favor of the real sicko stuff. There's "Hey, Man, Nice Shot" by Filter (inspired by a politician's tasteful decision to commit suicide on live television), "Days of Graduation" by Driby-by Truckers (a car-wreck tune that makes "Last Kiss" seem like Mother Goose), the Pine Valley Cosmonauts' version of "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" (a transplant operation goes horribly wrong), and my favorite (and a brief top 20 hit in the '70s), "Timothy," the Buoy's rock ode to cannibalism......

While I was working on this post I received an email from a friend with the following article on Southern Rock in Slate. Of couse they mention DBT.

Southern Rock - Even with an electric guitar, the past is never past. By Ethan Hauser

No band in this genre was so nakedly foisted upon us as throwback Southerners than Nashville's Kings of Leon, who have a marketer's dream of a bio (rural roots, sibling band members, an evangelist father). Too bad they're a very generic rock band, a Southern version of the Strokes: all hair, image, and carefully chosen vintage T-shirts. Their success has overshadowed a more talented old-fashioned Southern-rock band: the Drive-By Truckers. Hailing from Muscle Shoals, Ala., the Drive-By Truckers sing about officially sanctioned Southern themes like Wal-Mart and bar fights, complemented by accessible and unaffected guitar leads and basic rhythms. "We can't afford no insurance," frontman Patterson Hood complains in the song "Puttin People on the Moon," adding, "I been 10 years unemployed." Just in case you missed it from the album title (The Dirty South) or the "I been" locution, the way Hood drawls "insurance" ("inshur-nce") reveals his Southern pride. If this all sounds a little self-regarding, it is. But the band redeems their kitsch with solid musicianship. Hood has a muddy, emotive growl, an instrument so distinctive that it can overwhelm the guitar play underneath.