DBT Week in Review - 8/11/06

Wilson Dam

They done gone and fucked up Wilson Dam.

As you all know Wilson Dam plays a prominent role in the lyrics of several DBT songs; Never Gonna Change, Uncle Frank, Thank God for the TVA, etc. The locks of the dam are where when Jason was 15 his girlfriend let him put his "hand up under her shirt" (TG for the TVA).

Recently, a barge made a major fuck up in one of the locks and damn near contaminated (even more) a good stretch of the Tennessee River. Here's the story: Barge strikes lock; river traffic halted.

I received a forwarded email soon after from my good friend Billy Ray Casteel (need lumber? Call Billy Ray) with some attached pictures of the debacle. I'm posting them here with the commentary from the email. Text and pictures come from an Alan August:

"This happened early morning, August 3, 2006. Now all barge traffic is stopped on the Tennessee River. Traffic is stopped from crossing the Wilson Dam due to the threat of explosion of toluene in the barges.

Evidently the tug operator nor the lock operator were paying attention and did not see the end of one of the barges get under the upper lock gate as the water level in the lock was being raised.

When the water level got high enough the barge lifted the upper gate out of its track. Now the gate want go back down.

This is the gate which goes down about 30 feet and the barges float over it to get out of the lock.

These barges are filled with toluene and are double hulled so nothing has spilled even though one hull has been breeched."

See more on Wilson Damn and the locks at the "River Lore" post.

Nuci's Space

Nuci's Space website has an archived audio version of Ronnie & Neil performed by the Truckers at Nuci's. Give it a listen. Patterson talks about piss:

Nuci's Space - Resource Center and Climate Controlled Practice Spaces for Musicians:

Ed Burn's Goddamn Lonely Love

Ed Burns is apparently a fan of DBT and will be using GDLL in one of his upcoming movies. Chris Cline clues us in on the Yahoo Group:

Ed Burns Has Taste...:

On 8/5/06, Chris Cline wrote:
...but he's also fricking clueless. Or at least very confused.

He has a celebrity playlist on iTunes, and he wisely chose Goddamn
Lonely Love as one of his songs. But here's what he wrote:

'This song will blow you away. Just used it in an upcoming movie,
Purple Violets. And get their new record Decoration Day.'

Yikes.

Cline

Jayne digs a little deeper:

Looks like we may hear the song in this movie then?

NPR and DBT

NPR has been showing much love for the Truckers:

NPR : Drive-By Truckers: Rock Southern Style:

"Mike Cooley, Patterson Hood, Jason Isbell, Brad Morgan, John Neff and Shonna Tucker are the Drive-By Truckers.

They visited NPR's Studio 4A to play some tunes and talk about their latest album, and what it's like to be pegged as the heirs to Lynyrd Skynyrd -- the next great southern rock band. They also talk about the recurring theme in their music of self destruction, and their Southern roots."

"Can't we all just get along" and play some music

TimesDaily recently had a good article on the recording studios in the Shoals and how they created a place of racial harmony. See, there ARE a lot of good folks down there, Neil Young just wasn't around.

Panel: Studios were a source of harmony in tense times:

"Hood said he was a 'city slicker,' who grew up in Sheffield and worked in his father's tire store.

Hood said all his favorite music growing up was performed by black artists and his goal was to one day work with them.

'There was no color coming from the radio,' Hood said. 'To me, it was just good music"

Slobberboning over YouTube

Kyle from the DBT Yahoo Group has been posting some most excellent Slobberbone videos over on YouTube. Here's a link to one, but you should definitely check them all out:

YouTube - Slobberbone No Man Among Men

"I Knew a Girl Named Nikki..."

Oh, boy, the morality police are at it again: Sexual Lyrics Prompt Teens to Have Sex

Here's a good response to such silliness:

Devil's Music Made Me Have Sex! / This just in: Raunchy lyrics make teens all hot 'n' bothered. Led Zeppelin sighs:

"See, there is this new study. Yet another one that claims that teens who listen to lots of sexually explicit music full of 'degrading' lyrics are much more likely to have sex sooner then those who listen to, say, church hymns and banjo music and Carrie Underwood preening her way through 'Jesus Take the Wheel.' I know, it's shocking."

Lynam

Finally, today, I want to introduce you to a dirty little secret of mine. The band is called Lynam and they hail from Birmingham, Alabama. I was turned onto them by my good friend Mary Mac who is a good friend of the drummer.

I'd have to define their music as Slutty Rock. They pay homage to the sounds of their youth and the sounds that influenced their style. From the band's MySpace page:

Influences: Arena Rock, Bluegrass, Steely Dan, Mutt Lange, Mike Shipley

Sounds Like: If Def leppard, Weezer and Guns N Roses started a band together.

They've recently jumped to a major label and released one seriously fun Rock album called Slave to the Machine.

On the track, Giving up on Rock n Roll, they pay lyrical homage to Van Halen, White Snake, GnR, Def Lep., Skid Row, Motley Crue, Poison, AND MTV's musical hook.

In this album Lynam borrows several riffs and sounds from that era of Rock, but they aren't doing it maliciously or are attempting to fool you into thinking that they created this sound. Lynam is simply reintroducing a sound that has great influence on them and has, in some quarters, been unfairly demonized by the Rock Gestapo. They are tackling this issue in the same manner that SRO tackled the "Southern Rock" misconception. They ain't as deep or serious but just as much fun.

Here are some web links to get acquianted with this power trio:

www.myspace.com/lynam
LYNAM : SLAVE TO THE MACHINE
Amazon.com: Slave to the Machine: Music: Lynam
Lisa's Lynam Page-Come on, you knew it was coming!

Go buy this disk, throw it in the car stereo, crank it up as far as possible and take a road trip somewhere. I promise you'll be head banging and fist pumping in no time.



Let me know what you think in the comments.

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