DBT Week in Review - 1/2/09

DBT!

I did some work on the blog yesterday. Here's a page that lists all of the DBT WIRs. Enjoy:

Alabama Ass Whuppin': DBT Week in Review Archive

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The best music of 2008. (3) - By Robert Christgau, Ann Powers, and Jody Rosen - Slate Magazine

I have plenty to say about Girl Talk, Auto-Tune, Lil Wayne, all that. Please give me the chance to take up those discussions. But I promised myself that in my first post I'd put in a good word for the most underrated album of the year. I've been playing the Drive-By Truckers' Brighter Than Creation's Dark for more than a year—it was one of my last reviews before Rolling Stone offed me. It never quits. Anyone who knows the band knows what songwriters Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley can be. Here they're never anything else—they have three songs in the top 25, Lil Wayne only one. Hood's best work is about what Obama calls the middle class—small-time entrepreneurs, the local gay guy, a couple of GIs. Cooley's focus is more countercultural—the rocker's life. The compassion in these songs is never-ending, and the melodies range from better-than-average to unforgettable. Stylistically, however, they're kind of retro boogie, Skynyrd sans soloists, and Hood's rough voice wouldn't pull you in if the words didn't. Maybe that's why they've been shut out in the year-end lists of Blender, Spin, or Stone. It's an outrage nevertheless.

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Patterson’s Rounding Out The Year (2008) - Drive-By Truckers MySpace Blog

Patterson’s Perspective (2008) - Drive-By Truckers MySpace Blog

Drive-By Truckers: Brighter Than Creation's Dark (2008): Reviews

List of Year End List - 2008 - Drive-By Truckers MySpace Blog

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Beyonce and DBT in the same paragraph. Nice.

Bloomberg.com: Arts and Culture:

"Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Beyonce Knowles, having got tired of being sexy, decided to imagine she was a guy. The Drive-By Truckers used blistering rock to document the lives of people who were already hurting well before the recession struck.

They were among those in 2008 to make American records that have great merit. Any of them would make surprising gifts."

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Bettye Lavette

ANTI- BETTYE LAVETTE STEALS THE SHOW AT THE KENNEDY CENTER HONORS:

"BETTYE WOWS FELLOW ARTISTS INCLUDING DAVE GROHL AND HONOREE PETE TOWNSHEND; BETTYE NOMINATED FOR BLUES MUSIC AWARD FOR ‘CONTEMPORARY BLUES FEMALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR'

BETTYE LAVETTE wasn't the biggest name on stage at the recent Kennedy Center Honors, but her typically gut-wrenching performance of The Who's 'Love Reign O'er Me' provided one of the evening's most spectacular moments."

Bettye's performance starts around the 2:30 minute mark.

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Dexateens

The Best Americana Music of 2008 - PopMatters Picks: The Best Music of 2008 | PopMatters:

"The Dexateens offer Lost and Found for free on their website, but it’s hardly a throwaway album. Loud and brash, the disc features snaky, intertwined guitars that recall the Stones at their meanest and most vintage, and the Drive-by Truckers at their loudest. Bathing their songs in an Alabama drawl, the Dexateens make a racket that serves notice: They might just be one of the next great American rock bands."

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Music I Like

The Steepwater Band - Chicago, Illinois - Rock / Americana / Blues

They have shared the stage with acts as diverse as Buddy Guy, Wilco, Gov't Mule, Cheap Trick, The Redwalls, Taj Mahal, Bon Jovi, Rose Hill Drive, Bad Company, King’s X, Drive-By Truckers, and Heart. In 2005, the band made its European debut, performing at the Azkena Rock Festival in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, and returned the following two years for club-and-festival tours to heavily attended shows.

It was a serendipitous meeting at a Black Crowes concert that brought friends Winters and Bowers together with Massey. A decade later in May ‘08, the three found themselves in California recording Grace and Melody, their fourth full-length studio album, with Grammy winner Marc Ford as producer-the musician widely regarded as The Black Crowes' finest guitarist and integral to their prime years. The Steepwater Band met Ford while sharing a bill at a festival in Spain in the summer of '07. They invited Ford to sit in on Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer," a song banned in Spain for years. A friendship was forged and Ford expressed interest in collaborating with the band shortly after producing the critically acclaimed debut album from Ryan Bingham, Mescalito (Lost Highway 2007).

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Rise Up Howling Werewolf - MUSCLE SHOALS, Alabama - Garage / Psychobilly / Rockabilly

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Music

Metacritic: Best Albums of 2008

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Sweet dreams are made of this. Who am I to disagree.

Eurythmics' Dave Stewart Designs, Launches $1400 Vibrator

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'Cause Microsoft sucks.

'Zune 30 Midnight Meltdown' Angers Music Lovers (NewsFactor) by NewsFactor: Yahoo! Tech:

"While the rumor mill is focused on Apple developing a larger-screen iPod touch, the blogosphere is churning with angry reports about frozen 30GB Microsoft Zunes."

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2008: Album Sales Plunged, Downloads Up:

"Ironically, as digital downloads grew, vinyl album sales also climbed. In 2008, more vinyl albums were purchased (1.88 million) than any other year since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991."

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Jeff Price: The Democratization of the Music Industry

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Rock songwriter Delaney Bramlett dies in LA at 69:

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Music - The New Pop Music Revolution - Pitching Products - NYTimes.com

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Web site lets fans sing with the King:

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AC/DC News on Yahoo! Music:

"Medical experts in Australia have warned that headbanging is likely to be behind a silent epidemic of head- and neck-related injuries.

Dr. Andrew McIntosh, biomedical and injury expert at the University Of New South Wales, carried out research into headbanging, and published his findings in the British Medical Journal.

McIntosh issued a stark warning to music fans who headbang.

'We identified a definite risk of mild traumatic brain injury from headbanging,' he said. 'We would suggest a proper public health warning, as for smoking.'

The report calls for fans to wear neck braces when headbanging in order to protect themselves from injury. McIntosh also recommended listening to less intense music, reports The Herald.

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