Track Archive
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The Fox Hunt – Better Than This (Lucero Cover) “The boys recorded this for the long overdue Lucero tribute album..I heard them play this version when they were here playing Surf Bar on Folly Beach…took some cajoling but I got MK to send me the mp3…here it is.” – JacksonDavis

Lucero – Live 1/4/2002 – American Girl “Sticking with the 4th of July theme. Just for fun.” – Boston Twang

Deer Tick – Born on Flag Day – Houston, TX “The first song that jumped out at me on the new record. Haven’t decided what I think of the new record yet but I like this song.” – Plank10

Cory Branan – Ardent Studios recording – Karen’s Song “I had never heard this prior to hearing it on the streaming file released by Rachel and The City when he was in studio earlier this year…cannot wait for his new album…he and Snodgrass kicked major ass in ATL and Savannah.” – JacksonDavis…thanks to Down South for the editing Wink

Ha Ha Tonka – Novel Sounds of The Nouveau South – Close Every Valve to Your Bleeding Heart “Roaring out of the Ozarks with a bottle in one hand and a bible in the other” – ColoradoAlan

William Elliott Whitmore – Animals In The Dark – Old Devils “My current favourite tune from my favourite album of the year to date.” – JacksonDavis

Hoots & Hellmouth – The Holy Open Secret – What Good Are Plowshares If We Use Them Like Swords “There is something about this band I find deeply interesting. I can’t quite put my finger on it but whatever it is this song has it.” – Autopsy IV

The Only Sons – Steel Hearts – Lay Back Down “This song is eerily relevant for a friends situation right now..” – ColoradoAlan

The Evening Rig – Is Doin’ Stuff – Goddamn, I Could Use A Drink “If you haven’t listened to these guys yet, you probably should.” – algwalcz

Jon Snodgrass w/ Cory Branan – Alone and Distanced “Too bad this isn’t being released on CD or digital download…but…I was able to pry this from someone who had been way late in getting Season 5 of The Wire back to me Cool” – JacksonDavis”

Two Cow Garage – Humble Narrator – Speaking in Cursive “I’ve had this CD for a while but just REALLY started to listen to it, and this song was the first one I kept repeating. ” The sun has a way of making us pay for our revelry filled nights” Amen Brother.” – Hecticeyes

Chad Rex & The Victorstands – Songs to Fix Angels – Build a Rocket “I only recently realized how good Chad Rex is. Besides, it’s the time of year for rockets.” – Boston Twang

Flogging Molly – Swagger – Salty Dog “Irish punk rock is great and good for hanging out in the summer listening to full blast.” – Lennon Medvick

Michael Dean Damron – Father’s Day – Angels Fly Up “It seems like I am always pimping this guy’s music and my work isn’t done until he’s got a platinum award on his wall…or something like that. Father’s Day is a strong contender for the Best of ’09 as far as I’m concerned. I can’t really pinpoint why this song means so much to me, but it affects me somewhere in the guts.” – Bone Machine

Austin Lucas – The Common Cold – Kith and Kin “If you’ve only heard Austin’s new album, definitely check out The Common Cold. Yay for the upcoming tour with Two Cow!” – TheOtherBrit

The Lemonheads – Varshons – Waitin Around to Die “Evan Dando revisits a Townes Van Zandt classic” – ColoradoAlan

Cheap Trick – The Latest – Sick Man Of Europe “Of all the music from my childhood, Cheap Trick are the band that I still enjoy with the intensity of my youth. It’s good to know that they’re still out there plugging away and have a catalog much richer than the classic rock staples (I Want You To Want Me, Surrender, The Flame…). This tune is from their new one, lovingly entitled The Latest, and is further proof that Robin Zander has one of the finer voices in rock some 35 years into his career.” – Bone Machine

The Dexateens – Singlewide – Can You Whoop It “If you like the Dexateens, keep an eye out for Arkadelphia, Lee Bains III’s new band. They’ve even more amazing!” – TheOtherBrit

Trampled by Turtles – Duluth – Empire “These guys are one of my favorite bands that I’ve discovered because they were a Lucero opener. Go see them live if you get the chance.” Boston Twang

Matthew Dean Herman – Blackbird – Blackbird “Fantastic debut album produced by Evan Phillips of The Whipsaws. RIYL: Drive-By Truckers” – Autopsy IV

Lyle Lovette – I Love Everybody – Fat Babies “I’ve been on a Lyle Lovette kick lately. “I don’t like hippies and I don’t like cornbread.” I’m confused that he doesn’t like cornbread.” – Plank10

Ray LaMontagne – Gossip in the Grain – Let it Be Me Submitted by corduroy

Uncle Tupelo – March 16-20 1994 – Moonshiner Submitted by corduroy

Kingston Trio – We’ll Sing in The Sunshine “A fun summertime sing-a-long…” – Nicole

Against Me! – As The Eternal Cowboy – You Look Like I Need Drink “Against Me! has been my sound track all summer, and this is one of my favorites.” – Lennon Medvick

I have to admit that this intro was a little harder than I expected to put together. I am a big fan of Drag The River or I wouldn’t be slapping these tunes up here for people to get to know the band but wow the history here is daunting by itself. Couple that with the amount of work produced by the band and its members and I had a pretty huge project staring me in the face. Of course I didn’t let that stop me from putting together a set of tapes that will hopefully show the band’s growth as well as their history. I should make it clear that I didn’t even try to find music from everyone who has been in this band and simply pulled from own collection. That may be a little lazy but if I had tried to track down a little from every single member this intro wouldn’t have come out until next month. So we all just have to make do with I had laying around and hopefully three tapes will be enough to make anyone go out and track down the full DTR catalog as well as the works of all the members current and present.

This first tape is all Drag the River all the time. The first three tracks are off of Hobo’s Demo’s (2000) which was recorded in ’96 and ’97 at the Blasting Room in Ft Collins, CO. Chad Price and Jon Snodgrass played and/or sang on all the tracks and a slew of other musicians in and out of the studio such as Chad Rex, Paul Rucker, and Zach Boddicker. This session also produced Chicken Demo’s (2004) which tracks 7 thru 9 hail from but which was released after Closed. (2002) which is where tracks 4 thru 6 can be found. I decided on release order for this one and freely admit it was an arbitrary decision. The next three tracks, if you managed to keep up through the above mess of a description, come from It’s Crazy (2006) and track 10 is the first DTR track I ever heard and the one that caused me to fall in love with this band. Tracks thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen all make an appearance on You Can’t Live This Way (2008) and the last three tracks can be found on Bad at Breaking Up (2009). This does not represent the full catalog of releases as there have been EPs and other appearances along the way but I feel it covers the major releases for DTR and gives a good solid overview of the band as a whole.

The next tape, much to my dismay, only has one track from the whole band live. I was shocked to discover I hadn’t collected much live DTR and will have to remedy that in the near future. This tape is mostly Jon Snodgrass live and couple off his Visitor’s Band solo release. That covers the last track and the all the middle tracks but the first two tracks are Chad Price live and are well worth listening to. Chad’s has his first solo effort in the breech and ready to fire over at Suburban Home (there’s even a single track sneak peak) and I really wish I had more of him to put on this tape but woe and alas it is what it is.

I almost didn’t make this last tape, and then after making it almost didn’t post it but decided it was a neat look at the forces that created DTR and the history of, admittedly only a small few, the band members. These are all tracks from the bands that the members of DTR played in prior to forming DTR with the exception of tracks seven, eight, and nine which are from Chad Rex and the Victorstands gravity works fire burns. The first three tracks are from Armchair Martian which was a Jon Snodgrass punk band. The next three are from the Karl Alverez days with All, yet another punk band, which was the kicking, screaming, live-birth of the Descendants when Milo Went To College. These three tracks are off of Allroy’s Revenge. The last three tracks are also from All but feature Chad Price and are from Mass Nerder. While not even close to a complete rundown of all the bands that the members of DTR have played in this tape should serve as a decent overview of the history and the roots of Drag The River. Since it is, according to Jon, “Chad’s and my band” I think I captured the history of the driving forces behind the alt-country powerhouse that is DTR.

With such an amazingly dynamic lineup over the years I can’t do justice without listing the members, past and present, and tossing some links out to any current projects they may be working on and any projects that may have passed away but still have some internet presence left hanging around. So without further ado, and according to wikipedia (which may be wrong) I present Drag The River’s members:

• Chad Price (Current): All, Drag The River, Solo
• Jon Snodgrass (Current): Armchair Martian, Drag The River, Solo
• J.J. Nobody (Current): The Nobodys, Drag The River, JJ Nobody and the Regulars
• Zach Boddicker (Current):Drag The River
• Chris Pierce (Current): Drag The River
• Dave Barker (2005-2007): Pinhead Circus
• Casey Prestwood (2005-2006): Hot Rod Circuit
• Paul Rucker (1996-2005): Armchair Martian
• Karl Alvarez (1997-2002): All, Drag The River
• Chad Rex: Solo

And of course the standard linkage:

Suburban Home Records
Drag The River Homepage
Drag The River Myspace
Drag The River on PunkNews
Prior Drag The River Coverage on 9b
Drag The River on Wikipedia

This one is brand new and is a tribute to my best friend. I ain’t always been there for her like I shoulda been but we’ve made it through the rough patches and come out the other side. There are some who might say a guy can’t have a chick for a best friend and not want to sleep with her and for some guys that might be true but I’ll tell you honest that those bastards are missing out. Enough of an introduction. Click play already…

You see I met An-g quite by accident. She didn’t hang out with my crowd, didn’t go to the same shows, and didn’t really know the same people. She was still in high and I was a drop out who was almost old enough to drink. I had this friend, who shall remain nameless, whose boss wanted him to take her daughter out. My boy was a little bit nervous about this whole boss’s daughter thing so he set it up as a double date with me as the second guy and an ex of his that I thought was cute as my date. I talked him into going to this little joint where a friend’s band was playing for the date since he had told me a little bit about the girl he was picking up. Understand this was not an acoustic singer/songwriter show this was Bleachbath and Excess Lettuce playing a dive where anyone could drink as long as you acted cool. This was not a yuppie show by any stretch. So we pick up my date who comes out in what appears to be a prom dress. I look down at my jeans with holes in them, my white t-shirt, and doc martens and decide this likely won’t go all that well…Next we pick his date, the boss’s daughter, a waif of a thing comes bounding out the front door in a white shirt, jeans, combat boot, and a green mohawk. I think my boy and I were convinced we had the wrong dates at this point but we stood where we stood. An-g jumps in the car, explains the faded green mohawk was due to Manic Panic sweating out at the Bouffant Jellyfish show the night before and it had looked better. While I didn’t see it I am willing to bet my boy rolled his eyes right about there.

Well we get to Pik ‘n’ Pak early enough to chat with Vince (singer for Bleachbath) and the owner Ralph, eat a couple empenadas, and grab some beer. The show was bad ass to say the least, and IIRC it was Bleachbath’s last show as Bleachbath, and my boy got along quite well with my date which didn’t bother me at all as I hit it off with An-g. I guess I was attracted to her that night and maybe over the next couple of years but it wasn’t long before she was one of the guys. She could drink with the best of us and would throw down at the drop of a hat. Not a single dude we ever hung out would have wanted to lay hands on her!

There’s a lot of history between An-g and me, maybe enough for a book, but I think that’s enough of the story to explain why my Monday compilation is a tribute to my best friend. She’s pretty bad ass and it’s a damn shame most of you will never get a chance to meet her.

]]> http://romeosidvicious.com/2009/08/17/an-g-one-for-my-best-friend/feed/ 0 http://romeosidvicious.com/2009/08/13/a-hallmark-frickin-moment/ http://romeosidvicious.com/2009/08/13/a-hallmark-frickin-moment/#comments Fri, 14 Aug 2009 02:00:27 +0000 Romeo Sid Vicious http://romeosidvicious.com/?p=675

This one was put together on St. Valentine’s Day while I was laid off with no sign of work in sight. It has that feeling to it while being mostly love songs of a kind. Probably not the most romantic V-Day mix ever but it ain’t too shabby even looking back.

That’s the last of the opentape mixes…