Old 97's

Like most members of the alternative-country club, the Bottle Rockets (St. Louis chapter)
and Old 97's (Dallas chapter) have learned their music history backward. Starting with punk
rock's door-opening conceit that anyone might play music, they have worked through
Skynyrd to Waylon and Willie, then to Haggard and Hank. Nashville will hardly recognize
the result, replete with volume, speed and blunt frustration, but both bands – o... More >

They get depressed a lot, actually, so what say we lump them in with the new literalism, more Ass Ponys than Uncle Tupelo. Even if Rhett Miller really thinks love always turns out as bad as it does here--hell, even if he thinks third-rate romance is just a metaphor for the musician's lot--I still give him credit for keeping his eyes open. Convincer: "Barrier Reef," which renders the high hopes and depressing mechanics of a critical one-night stand in equally quick and devastating strokes. (Grade: B+)