Brand New Year

AMAZON
The Bottle Rockets--arguably the biggest band to come from the middle of nowhere that is Festus, Missourri--have never been afraid to rock. While their alt. country contemporaries pursue a calmer path in the spirit of Gram Parsons-influenced Americana, Brian Henneman and his boys play the music of the Southern honky-tonks, steeped in sawdust and beer. On Brand New Year, the band have moved their straight-ahead rock & roll up a notch, tearing through 14 songs that wouldn't sound out of place performed behind a chicken wire barricade. That's not to say they've dumbed down; the Bottle Rockets continue their exploration of blue collar America with keen, average-Joe observations, although they do try a bit too hard on some tracks ("White Boy Blues", for example). Most of the songs, however, are fantastic, good-natured barroom rockers: the swinging "Nancy Sinatra" and "I've Been Dying", the thundering "Helpless" and the brilliantly titled "Love Like A Truck". Brand New Year is simply good old fist-waving, back-to-basics rock & roll. --Robert Burrow