The Big To-Do and 40 Watt Pictures

The Big To-Do is Here!

Today is the official release of Drive-By Truckers' The Big To-Do.

If you haven't already, go grab a copy of this awesome rock record.

All I can say is.... Whew.

Also, check out the new DBT Main Website. Nice work Jenn et. al!

In celebration of this fine day, I've posted pics and vids from the 40 Watt shows that I was too lazy to fuck with several weeks ago.

No blogurockumentary as those may be a thing of this blog's past.

Thanks to all in Athens who made it a kickass time (Jenn.. always Jenn! Shayne and TMcB... much love, y'all. Mattador and Kelly. Damon.... for working all night then jaw jacking with me about the night's doings @ 4 a.m. Sunday morning. Justin.... for being a genius and creating the 'Friends and Family' cooler back stage. All at the 40 Watt. Athens in general. Nuci's for a kick ass benefit. Hoods and Cooleys and Tuckers and Neffs and Gonzalezezezez. Weaver D's for that Automatic Sweet Tea that damn near saved my life (I stumbled into Weaver's Saturday afternoon bleary as could be... ordered my food, then asked for some sweet tea. Weaver pointed to the cup already in front of me and said "Automatic, baby. Automatic for the people". I thought, my that's odd. Then I turned around to see the wall plastered with REM memorabilia. Then I received my music lesson for the day).

To all the folks I'm sure I forgot in my little thank you jag.

But, the biggest thanks goes out to Ava Hood, the only person willing to play dinosaur tag with me. I'd been asking people all day before Ava stepped up. You Rock, Ava!

OK, here are the pics and one thought that has endured from Athens:

Redneck sexy: Somebody else's baby dangling from one arm while holding a PBR in the other hand.

Riding in the back of Damon's van listening to the new Bettye LaVette (yes, it is very bad ass)

Yeah, She will.



40 Watt - Blessing of the Venue









Camp Amped All Stars



































Guess why this picture made the cut:



Yes.



Hoods









I call this one 'Mattador'



















3:00 a.m. Sunday Morning backstage.... gettin' arty



40 Watt presents an award to DBT







Here's Bloodkin, though the sound is squeaky



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Here's to 2010 being the Biggest Damn To-Do we've all experienced.

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DBT Week in Review - 1/29/10

DBT!

Booker T. Jones Potato Hole is up for two Grammies!

Remember, you can tune in online for the awards not shown on TV.

Go Booker and DBT!

I almost feel this one in my bones. The stars are really aligned at the moment. (Roll Tide, anyone?)

Nominees | GRAMMY.com

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Check out the new bio if you haven't already.

Drive-By Truckers- Bio

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Peter Grumbine reviews This Fucking Job

NEW DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS SONG, TOUR DATES, ALBUM ART, DOCUMENTARY | The People's Music:

"When most bands make an announcement, they simply do that: they make AN announcement, but not the Drive-by Truckers. No, when you get some DBT news, you get all kinds of cool shit in your inbox.

Today the Truckers released “This Fucking Job” the first song off their upcoming album “The Big To-Do,” they unveiled the cover art by the always brilliant Wes Freed, they announced tour dates, and released more screening dates for the documentary on the band “The Secret to a Happy Ending.” That’s more than most indie shitheads do in a career, and it was just another Tuesday for the Truckers."

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Check out Nuci's Thank you for the fans and links reviewing the benefit.

Nu�i's Space - DBT Review

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Camp Amped Band:

Here they are covering Centro-Matic's Breathe Deep Not Loud:

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I'll have a full picture post from the 3 night run hopefully up Monday.

Here are a couple more.

Look at these NBers:

I do know one of them battled an won this bad boy at the auction:

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Check out the Dead Drunk and Naked cover by The BluesBerries from....

Steyr, Oberösterreich Austria

The BluesBerries on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads:

"and the occasional modern song (Dead Drunk & Naked by The Drive-By Truckers and Prison Grove by Warren Zevon)."

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Don't worry, great music is on the way - ESPN:

"A week later, on March 16, new work from the Drive-By Truckers. Meaning that on March 17, you'll be able to find me hunkered in my bedroom with a bottle of whiskey to drink, a mixed-breed dog to pet, and the Truckers on my stereo. I'll be as happy as a man can be.

(Note: I do not own a dog, mixed-breed or otherwise. But I might buy one on March 15, to get ready.)"

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Best Sing-A-Long ever:

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Keep on Smiling, y'all:

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Muscle Shoals Sound

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Stumbled upon these on YouTube:

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Music I Like

If you haven't gotten Hubbards latest one you are missing out.

Sessions: Ray Wylie Hubbard | American Songwriter

Ray Wylie Hubbard, the bard behind Jerry Jeff Walker’s classic ‘73 cut “Up Against The Wall, Redneck Mother,” was visiting Nashville, up from his home outside of Austin, Texas, when he stopped in to discuss his new album A. Enlightenment B. Endarkenment (Hint: There is No C). The album features the title cut (inspired by his favorite Poe poem) as well as the co-write with Hayes Carll, “Drunken Poet’s Dream,” also the first cut on Hayes’ 2007 album Trouble In Mind. Hubbard discussed life in Texas as an elder statesman of songwriting, what it’s like taking guys like Hayes under his wing and new tools like e-mail (!) and Masterwriter that keep his songwriting fresh. Take a listen to three live tracks that Hubbard recorded in our office and, below the interview, check out the video of Hubbard playing the album’s title track.

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Dead Drunk and Naked

The Stupidest Pop Lyrics Of All Time

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Like 54k isn't just as 'monstrous'.

Judge slashes ‘monstrous’ fine in music piracy case | Raw Story:

"WASHINGTON — Condemning a two-million-dollar fine meted out to a Minnesota woman for illegally downloading music over the Internet as 'monstrous and shocking,' a judge has slashed the penalty to 54,000 dollars.

US District Court Michael Davis said the fine imposed by a jury on Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a single mother of four from the town of Brainerd, veered into the 'realm of gross injustice.'"

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Just another day in the Tennessee Valley

Couple in court; body still missing | TimesDaily.com | The Times Daily | Florence, AL:

"Her car was discovered burned beyond recognition Friday on an isolated logging road in McNairy County. Authorities said a GPS unit in the car indicated it left the Beersdorf residence Thursday and was driven to McNairy County."

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Salinger was still alive?!? We'll RIP, then, J.D.

J.D. Salinger Dead: 'Catcher in the Rye' Author Dies At 91:

"NEW YORK — J.D. Salinger, the legendary author, youth hero and fugitive from fame whose 'The Catcher in the Rye' shocked and inspired a world he increasingly shunned, has died. He was 91."

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Coal Mine Canaries

What Kos says... Always.

Daily Kos: Canaries in the coal mine

As you can see, our base is demoralized and tuned out, and plan on sitting out the 2010 elections at rates that will absolutely fuck us if they don't improve by November.

But again, African Americans, Latinos, and young voters aren't tuning out because we failed to build bipartisan concensus with Olympia Snowe. Making such claims is patently absurd. They're tuning out because we wasted 2009 "negotiating" with bad faith actors like Snowe and Mike Enzi. The tools were available to quickly pass a health care bill, yet Democrats were too incompetent to do so. And on issue after issue, they've proven completely ineffective.

THAT's why the base is sitting things out. They don't need blogs or MSNBC to tell them that Democrats can't govern. They already knew that Republicans don't want to govern, but the Democrats were supposed to be different. And they are, they want to govern, but they can't. And the voters that worked their asses off to give Democrats the White House and super majorities in Congress are now realizing that it was all for nothing. That all that talk about hope and change was cynical bullshit designed to motivate them. It worked once, but that crowd is learning the art of political cynicism, and it ain't pretty.

Cole may want to lash out at prominent progressives who have tried to prod our Democratic majorities in the right direction, and they certainly offer a tempting and easy target. But the reality is that voters demanded accomplishments, and on the big items, the Democrats have mostly failed. They weren't hired to tinker around the edges. They were hired to enact transformative "change". And while Cole and others like him might wish that progressives banded together to cheer along bullshit negotiations with Snowe and Enzi and repeated capitulations to an irrelevant minority and its corporatist allies in the Democratic Party, fact is, voters aren't that stupid. All the neocon cheerleading in the world didn't prevent Americans from realizing that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had been completely botched. Canned cheering for this health care bill wouldn't have saved it from similar sentiment.

Those prominent progressives have, in effect, been canaries in the coal mine -- warning of the disengagement and alienation among base voters we now see so clearly in the polling.

It would be absurd to blame those canaries for any deadly gas leaking into mine shafts.

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Why would any progressive with half a twig rattling around upstairs believe this for a second.

It would be the first 'Fight Back' we've seen.

Think Progress � White House Signals That It Will Fight Back Against GOP Abuse Of Filibuster

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Brutal. From the man who should, but won't replace Bernanke.

He Wasn’t The One We’ve Been Waiting For - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com:

"But I have to say, I’m pretty close to giving up on Mr. Obama, who seems determined to confirm every doubt I and others ever had about whether he was ready to fight for what his supporters believed in."

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We're in this shithole because of the likes of Ben Nelson. Just go switch parties already. Asshole.

Nobody should listen to him. Everybody will. It will be all the rage on the horseshit Sunday beltway villager circle jerk. Want to be misinformed? Watch Sunday 'news' programs.

Another Dem backs down: ‘Scale back’ our agenda | Raw Story:

"WASHINGTON -- Succumbing to the insecurities weighing on Democrats after losing Ted Kennedy's seat in Massachusetts, another key Democratic senator says it's time to take a step back and embark on a less ambitious agenda.

'I think the President Is going to have to scale back his agenda after we pass health care reform,' said Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) in an interview with ABC News."

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Later, loser. One way to get rid of an ineffective majority leader. I won't shed a tear over this lost seat.

Daily Kos: NV-Sen: Reid is toast, Goodman would be competitive:

"Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 9/18-20. Likely voters. MoE 4% (8/31-9/2 results)

Harry Reid (D) 41 (40)
Danny Tarkanian (R) 52 (45)

Reid (D) 42 (41)
Sue Lowden (R) 51 (44)"

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We hate this guy more than the last guy and we recalled the last guy.

Field Poll: Governor's approval rating 27%:

"A majority of voters - 59 percent - also said that Schwarzenegger, who will be termed out at the end of this year, will leave the state in worse shape than when he won office in 2003, after Gov. Gray Davis was recalled."

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But they are fighting tooth and nail against the health reform. Bullshit.

No one could've ever predicted. Except we did.

Largest US health insurer’s profits rise 30 percent | Raw Story

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Some feel good. Camp Amped Band doing a Centro-Matic cover at the DBT/Nuci's benefit:

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