Drive-By Truckers are at a crossroads as they get set to release The Big To Do tomorrow. It’s been several years since the band released that trifecta of perfection in Southern Rock Opera, Decoration Day and The Dirty South. After Jason Isbell left the band, DBT released two solid, but unspectacular albums in A Blessing And A Curse and Brighter Than Creation’s Dark. There are some choice moments in both, but neither reached the epic heights of the aforementioned three LPs.

Having heard a couple of tunes on the web and live at shows, I had guarded optimism when I saw the tracklist. At best, I thought The Big To Do would be a slightly better, pared-down version of Brighter Then Creation’s Dark. What I got was the best Drive-By Truckers album since The Dirty South. This album lives up to Patterson Hood’s proclamation that The Big To Do is “very much a rock album, more so than anything we’ve done since Disc 2 of Southern Rock Opera.”

“The Fourth Night of My Drinking” follows a protagonist on a crazy binge as he is “headed for a fall” while John Neff plays a magical slide guitar. The song ends with Hood proclaiming “It will be through with me before I’m through with it.” I can already hear the crowds singing along with that line.

That track is immediately followed by vintage Cooley on the astounding track, “Birthday Boy.” From the first line out of Cooley’s mouth, “Which one’s the birthday boy she said ‘I ain’t got all night,’” you know you are in for a treat. Cooley and the band nail this tune as the song’s character visits a whore who pontificates on the realities of life.

The album moves along at a brisk pace with nary a missed effort and then you get “After The Scene Dies” which is an absolute gem in which Hood snarls his way through a true DBT rocker. The album then downshifts into a slow finish concluding with Hood’s “The Flying Wallendas” and Cooley’s acoustic masterpiece, “Eyes Like Glue.” When you see Cooley grab his acoustic on this tour, be prepared to have the venue come to a screeching halt.

The Big To Do lacks that ramshackle feel or SRO or Decoration Day, but its sound reflects the maturity of the musicians. The production is tighter, the bottle of Jack was left a little more full, and when it’s all said and done, it shows that Hood and Cooley can still spin a yarn as good as anybody out there today. This is a tremendous album that will please both the long-time fans of DBT and fans just stumbling across them for the first time.

Drive-By Truckers – This Fucking Job

Download: Drive-By Truckers – Birthday Boy

Video: Drive-By Truckers – Birthday Boy (w/ commentary)

I’ve had the pleasure of owning Titus Andronicus’ The Monitor for a month now and it is has slowly worked its way into my subconscious like a slow, smoldering fire building into an out of control blaze. The comparisons to Bruce are easy enough since both are both from Jersey, but I would throw equal bits of The Pogues, The Mats and any other band that throws caution to the wind and rocks your socks off.

The Monitor is an ambitious concept album on The Civil War. It attempts to revisit the issues that led our country to that war almost 250 years ago and where we’ve gone since. It’s somewhat bizarre in its approach, but it works. And when punk-inspired bands fire out seven minute+ tunes like a blackjack dealer dealing 15’s on the subject’s first night in Vegas, well, you know you are in for something unique.

The Monitor gets better with every spin. They pay a nice little vocal nod to their elder statesman on “A More Perfect Union” and it seems that they are willing to try just about anything thereafter. Their songs can make you feel like you’re riding a 50 foot wave one moment and crashing into the rocks the next. It’s both an exhilarating and exhausting album. Tunes like Richard II and Theme From “Cheers” connect so easily that you feel the instant need to sing along without knowing the words.

I can only assume that the Jersey quintet produce quite the racket in a live setting, whipping the crowd into a frenzy. I’ll find out at SXSW next week. The band will also be at the Pitchfork festival this summer.

Titus Andronicus – A More Perfect Union

Dr. Dog are releasing Shame, Shame on April 6th. With the exception of The Drive-By Truckers upcoming release, this is my most anticipated album of 2010. “Stranger” is available below for your downloading pleasure.

Dr. Dog – Stranger

Remember that line in As Good As It Gets when Nicholson’s character used one of the greatest panty-dropper lines of all time, “You make me want to be better man.” The Big Echo makes me want to become a better reviewer of music. The Morning Benders shine a bright light on my shortcomings as I struggle for words to describe the brilliance of Big Echo. I saw them perform for us in a HearYa Live Session. I watched them perform at our SxSW party in 2009. I listened (and loved) their previous album, Talking Through Tin Cans.  At no point could I have imagined that The Morning Benders were capable of an album of this magnitude. Big Echo is an ambitious album with flawless execution.

We posted the video for “Excuses” when it was released and I was slackjawed. Talk about trying to drive the green in one stroke.  Lead Singer, Chris Chu, pulled the big stick out of his bag and knocked that shit long, straight, and right on the green. The LP was produced with the help of Chris Taylor (Grizzly Bear) who apparently saw something special in the Bay Area quartet. I would have loved to hear Chu and Taylor’s conversations as they discussed the nuances and intricacies that made each song sound so sonically creative. At its core, Big Echo is a pop record. It’s also a statement album by a band that will be on everybody’s top of 2010 lists.

The standout tracks for me include the aforementioned Excuses, Cold War (Nice Clean Fight) and Stitches. The piano on Stitches dances right up my spine as the Grizzly Bear influenced harmonies lull me into a state of bliss before the piano gives way to shimmery guitars as the song fades out. It was just so fucking brilliant that there is no way my words can do it justice.

So in the end, I wish I could do a better job of explaining the overwhelming genius on this album. I promise to try to better in the future but for now please trust me when I tell you if you buy this album. You won’t regret it. On every listen, you will find something new to keep your head spinning in wonderment. And that is no easy feat.

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The Morning Benders – Excuses

Video: The Morning Benders – Excuses

Video: Port O’Brien – Leap Year

Tracks from our live session with Port O’Brien:

Port O’Brien Intro Song

Exclusive: Port O’Brien – Sour Milk/ Salt Water (Video)

Exclusive: Port O’Brien – My Will Is Good (Video)

Exclusive: Port O’Brien – Oslo Campfire

Exclusive: Port O’Brien – In The Meantime

Download the Port O’Brien live session as a zip.

Sam Quinn – Suite Motown

From the HearYa Live Session with The Everybodyfields:

Sam Quinn – Mardi Gras

Sam Quinn – Gun

Dinosaur Feathers – Vendela Vida

Dinosaur Feathers – Teenage Whore

Hacienda – I Keep Waiting

Here are the tracks and a video from our live session with Hacienda:

Exclusive: Hacienda – Sun

Exclusive: Hacienda – Shake Ya

Exclusive: Hacienda – Officer

Exclusive: Hacienda – Little Girl

Exclusive: Hacienda – Hear Me Crying

Download: The Hacienda Live Session as a zip file.

San Antonio band and HearYa Live Session alumni, Hacienda, are set to release their sophomore album entitled Big Red and Barbacoa via Alive Records. The album was produced by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach and is scheduled for an April 6th release date. You can hear their first single “I Keep Waiting” here, now. If you like sunny harmonies (like The Beach Boys), this should suit you just fine.

Hacienda – I Keep Waiting

Here are the tracks and a video from our live session with Hacienda:

Exclusive: Hacienda – Sun

Exclusive: Hacienda – Shake Ya

Exclusive: Hacienda – Officer

Exclusive: Hacienda – Little Girl

Exclusive: Hacienda – Hear Me Crying

Download: The Hacienda Live Session as a zip file.

Video: Hacienda – Little Girl

Hacienda – Little Girl – HearYa Live Session from HearYa.com on Vimeo.

Much like the heralded debut from Girls, Dinosaur Feathers’ Fantasy Memorial has influences rooted in 50’s and 60’s pop music. What makes the music pop are the unique rhythms and percussion that propels the music forward with vigor. Lead singer Greg Sullo spent some time in Mali and those ethnic elements seep in throughout their debut. In fact, on the first song, you are greeted with the sounds of birds from Mali’s desert.

In my email correspondence with Greg, he mentioned that the songs on the album are about falling in and out of love, why it happens, and what it means for different people. The two tunes that left a mark with me are “Teenage Whore” and “History Lessons.” The latter begins like an Everly Brothers tune you’d hear on your mom and dad’s oldies station. Greg had this to say about the song: “Just because you’ve learned the lessons of history, does not mean you’ve learned your lesson.”

The recording is rough around the edges, but it only adds to the charm of the debut album from this Brooklyn band. Much like The Love Language’s lo-fi debut, which also had a few bumps in production, the talent of Dinosaur Feathers is undeniable. You can catch them around town at SXSW in Austin.

Dinosaur Feathers – Vendela Vida

Dinosaur Feathers – Teenage Whore

Sam Quinn is set to release his first solo album, The Fake That Sank 1,000 Ships, on May 11th via Ramseur Records (a HearYa label fav). We are digesting a promo copy of the album as we speak and it’s a devastatingly beautiful batch of sad songs. Quinn Put it best: “Pop songs are chemically engineered to make you feel great.  These ones take a slightly different approach.”

Woody and I exchanged IM’s about the album and it went something like this:

Woody: Did you listen to Sam Quinn yet?
Oz: Not yet. Is it sad?
Woody: It’s not happy, that’s for damn sure. The pedal steel sweeping through each tune is enough to bring you to tears.
Woody: I want to get lost in his beard.
Oz: No shit. That thing is amazing. He looks like the lion from The Wizard of Oz. He makes Dan Auerbach look like Pee Wee Herman.
Oz: I think there’s a family of sparrows nesting in there somewhere.

The beard talk continued from there, but we should be ready to discuss the music on the album very soon. Before The Everybodyfields broke up we got a taste of Sam’s solo work in “Mardi Gras” and “Gun” in our HearYa Live Session with The Everybodyfields. Sam and Ramseur Records were also gracious enough to offer “Suite Motown” from the album to y’all.

Sam Quinn – Suite Motown

From the HearYa Live Session with The Everybodyfields:

Sam Quinn – Mardi Gras

Sam Quinn – Gun

First from our live session with Dawn Landes:

Exclusive: Dawn Landes – Intro Song

Exclusive: Dawn Landes – Young Girl

Exclusive: Dawn Landes – Bodyguard

Exclusive: Dawn Landes – Money In The Bank

Download the Dawn Landes HearYa Live Session as a zip file.

And the rest:

Phosphorescent – It’s Hard To Be Humble (When You’re From Alabama)

Phosphorescent – Reasons To Quit

Phosphorescent – A Picture of Torn Up Praise

Sleepy Sun – New Age

Freelance Whales – Generator Second Floor

April Smith and The Great Picture Show – Colors

April Smith and The Great Picture Show – Movie Loves A Screen

The Pack A.D. – Crazy

The Pack A.D. – Making Gestures

Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore – Something, Somewhere, Sometime

Daniel Martin Moore – Stray Age

Ben Sollee – A Change Gonna Come (Sam Cooke Cover)

Ben Sollee – A Few Honest Words

From the HearYa Live Session with Ben Sollee:

Exclusive: Ben Sollee – Try

Exclusive: Ben Sollee – How To See The Sunrise

Exclusive: Ben Sollee – Mule With A Bullhorn

Exclusive: Ben Sollee – Prettiest Tree On The Mountain

Exclusive: Ben Sollee – Extraordinary Machine

Exclusive: Ben Sollee – Only A Song

Download the entire session as a zip file.