Dave Matthews Band

Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King is Matthews' first studio album since 2005's Stand Up. Matthews not only sounds totally refreshed, he also exudes some quality sass. On "Grux," the opening track that is clearly geared towards modern rock radio (so is "Why I Am"), the dude actually gets all sexed up: "I like my coffee with toast and jelly/ But I'd rather be licking you from your back to your belly." Wow. All in all, Big Whiskey is DMB's most energetic, concise and pop-driven album in many a moon.

Saxophonist LeRoi Moore of the Dave Matthews Band was a famously taciturn man. Moore,
who died last August at 46 of complications from injuries suffered in an off-road-vehicle
accident on his farm in Virginia, never spoke onstage — not at any DMB show I saw, anyway
— and declined to be interviewed for stories about the group. When I wrote about the Dave
Matthews Band for a Rolling Stone cover story in 2002, Moore avoided even sayin... More >