Bottle Rockets

I just watched a piece on this bands site , an interview they did with CNN . Enjoyable enough but the sight of the band playing in relatively small venues got me wondering ...why didn't this band make it as big as their peers , like the Jayhawks or Wilco say , or very similar acts that came along just behind , ie Drive By Truckers ?

I used to love em back in the day , the first 2/3 albums rocked but then...they just sort of drifted away ....

Any thoughts ?

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Permalink Reply by chris sweeney on January 21, 2011 at 6:13pm

I saw them open for Lucinda Williams several years ago and I figured they wouldn't be openers for very long.

I guess it's a long way from Festus, MO to the big time.

Their song "Lucky Break" makes me smile every time it comes up on the shuffle.

Permalink Reply by Greg Reilly on January 23, 2011 at 11:04pm
Yeah, I agree. Love to see them Down Under. A cracker pub/bar band with sound blue-collar politics. Maybe that's their problem?
Permalink Reply by Brendan Cooke on January 25, 2011 at 3:55pm
You're dead right Steve...and another band I'd mention in the same way is Blue Mountain-both should have been Wilco-esque in terms of popularity!
Permalink Reply by Kyla Fairchild on January 25, 2011 at 5:24pm

There's a long road littered with bands that should have been huge and weren't.   This thread reminds me of Grant's post "Jesse Dayton And The Vicissitudes of Stardom."  Hopefully some rabid Bottle Rockets fan won't come here and bite your head off! 

 

And I agree, the Bottle Rockets should be huge. I saw them at the AMA conference a couple years ago and they blew me away same as they had when I first saw them back in the mid 90's.

Permalink Reply by steviedal on January 26, 2011 at 10:16am

Exactly Kyla , i posted this last week when i'd had a few drinks and i was listening to "Brooklyn Side" , next morning i remembered the rabid Dayton furore  but thought , what the heck , i'll leave it up there !

I like to live on the edge occasionally.........

Permalink Reply by Jack Williams on January 26, 2011 at 12:36pm

Here's a link to the CNN video:

 

http://www.cnn.com/2011/SHOWBIZ/Music/01/18/bottle.rocket.soundchec...

 

Yeah, I'd say The Brooklyn Side and 24 Hours A Day were great rock and roll albums, with maybe 10 GREAT songs between the two of then.  Last two one are quite good as well, but the song quality isn't quite as strong.  And I love me some Nancy Sinatra.

Permalink Reply by steviedal on January 26, 2011 at 4:11pm
When i posed the question "why didn't this band make it as big as their peers ?" i had my answer in mind  Jack and i think you are right , they just don't have strong enough material , like i say . Great band  but their songs.....there's bands near me with ones just as good. Well , compare their songs to Son Volts or Ryan Adams...enough said.
Permalink Reply by Rick Sanders on January 27, 2011 at 10:21am

I thought "Brooklyn Side" was top-notch and "24 Hours" overlooked, maybe due to lack of label support. Programmers don't quite know whether this fits into Country or Rock, although XM's old X-Country, now Sirius/XM Outlaw Country play them often. But I was hooked the first time I saw them live in a bar here in Madison. Then last June I got a special treat.  They played in Kiki's basement (Kiki Schueler operates "Kiki's House of Righteous Music" here), and I was lucky enough to get in with about 40 others----stood 5 feet from Brian for a good part of a two hour set.  But don't just take my word for it that they are one of the best bar bands around. Lucinda says they're one of her favorites too. 

Permalink Reply by Jack Williams on January 27, 2011 at 11:22am

Well, Stevie, I thought Brooklyn Side and 24 Hours a Day had some absolutely stellar songs (e.g., Welfare Music, Radar Gun, Sunday Sports, Idiot's Revenge, Take Me to the Bank, Kit Kat Clock, 24 Hours a Day, Indianopolis, Slo Tom's,  Smoking 100's, etc).  Their latest stuff (Zoysia and Lean Forward) is fairly strong, but no song jumps out at me like the best songs on those two earlier efforts.

24 Hours a Day is a song that sends me to the moon.  Love Brian's "Hep!" right before tearing into the guitar solo.  Also, right as the song ends, you can here someone say "Shit yeah!".   Perfect reaction.

Permalink Reply by Jack on January 28, 2011 at 11:36am

The Bottle Rockets live are a bundle of fun.  The Bottle Rockets on record never did much for me.  Finally concluded that - for me - they're a great live band that plays the hell out of uneven material, and that that is not as appealing as playing the hell out of strong material.

 

Steviedal - bought tickets to the March 5 Dave Alvin solo acoustic show here in Chicago, planning to take my 7 year old.  Then the current Blasters are here at the end of the month for a two night stand.  There's a group that plays the hell out of great material.

Permalink Reply by Rick Sanders on January 28, 2011 at 1:11pm

Jack---I'm guessing the Blasters will be at Fitzgeralds? One of my favorite venues I have yet to see

duplicated up here.  I sure miss the American Music Festivals there, must get down there more often.

Right you are.

Permalink Reply by Jack on January 28, 2011 at 1:35pm
Rick - yes, at Fitzgerald's.  The current Blaster's plus Dave Alvin as a featured guest were there this past July for two nights during the American Music Festival, which is always a summer highlight.  You may not have a similar venue, but you live in a great part of the country, not a bad trade off!

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Created by No Depression Feb 17, 2009 at 9:06pm. Last updated by No Depression Apr 9.