Bottle Rockets’
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They resurfaced last year on the Austin-based, Mercury-distributed Doolittle label, which in November released the accurately titled Leftovers, a collection of dull tracks rightly edited off 24 Hours a Day. But their first new album for Doolittle, Brand New Year–for which bassist Robert Kearns replaces Chicagoan Tom Ray, who’s busy with Devil in a Woodpile–bears little resemblance to the tried-and-true rollicking roots rock of their previous releases. The Bottle Rockets have always borrowed from ZZ Top and Neil Young, but now I hear Bad Company too, and the only twang left in the act is in Brian Henneman’s accent.
For the most part, Henneman’s lucid, unadorned lyrics save the record from sheer 70s stupidity. In fact, he’s written some of the band’s best songs ever, supplementing the hedonistic appeal of hard rock with intelligence and humor. “Helpless” is about embracing Ludditism, “Gotta Get Up” mimics the workingman’s grind by cycling through the same lyric five times in a row, and “White Boy Blues” is a pointed send-up of weekend blues-rock warriors: “Have you heard the news he got the white boy blues / Bought himself a guitar that paid its dues.” Duds like Kearns’s “The Bar’s on Fire” (“Oh my God, the bar’s on fire / Somebody save the beer”) and guitarist Tom Parr’s workmanlike “Let Me Know” nevertheless make the album the Bottle Rockets’ least consistent since their 1993 debut–but live, they’re still one of the most entertaining bands around.
Due to a “miscommunication about permissible sponsorship” between club owner Bruce Finkelman and the Cook County Forest Preserve, the Empty Bottle’s first annual Charity Golf Outing–scheduled for Saturday at Edgebrook Golf Course–has been canceled. The post-golf concert, with sets by Those Bastard Souls (see Spot Check), the Vandermark 5, and a reunited Red Red Meat, is still on; admission is $10 and proceeds go to the UIC Liver Center.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Glen Rose.
