The Bottle Rockets

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 >

Like Wilco, only not so generically or formalistically, this is a rock band. They love Lynyrd Skynyrd; they love the Ramones. Their country leanings merely ground their commitment to content--Brian Henneman's savory sense of character and place, the every-word-counts delivery that lends his singing its specific gravity. Going for simple, they pay a price in detail this time out. But the likes of "Smokin' 100's Alone" and "Perfect Far Away" would be pretty damn rough for Nashville. And "Indianapolis" is the sequel all us "1000 Dollar Car" fans were waiting for even if it was written first. (Grade - A-)