Sometimes, greatness lies at your feet, waiting to be
\ndiscovered. In the case of the fledgling rock group Attic Of Love
\n(whom I reviewed two months ago), it was a matter of about one day
\nfrom the time I received their disc to the time I slapped it into
\nthe CD player.<\/p>\n
Other times, it takes many months before I finally get around to
\nlistening to it; there are records in the Pierce Memorial Archives
\n(moving day nine days away) that have been there for over three
\nyears that I
\nstill<\/i> haven’t had the time to listen to. For the
\ncountry-rock group The Bottle Rockets, I think it took me eight
\nmonths to just rip the shrinkwrap off their major label debut
\nThe Brooklyn Side<\/i>, and another month before I listened to
\nit.<\/p>\n
Once I finished the disc, I turned off the stereo, bent over,
\nand gave myself a hard kick in the ass. Not only had I criminally
\nignored what could have been the best disc of 1995 (originally
\nrecorded the year before), but I had totally underestimated the
\npotential of this band.<\/p>\n
Led by the vocals of Brian Henneman, the Bottle Rockets are a
\nslightly more raucous and less free-form Allman Brothers. The
\nacoustic opener “Welfare Music” lets you know this band has not
\nforgotten its roots: the subtle country of the working class man
\nand woman. It’s actually quite touching.<\/p>\n
But just when you think this is going to be a dobro-based album,
\nthe gloves come off, and the amplifiers are turned on. “Gravity
\nFails” is a solid rocker that displays a whole new side to this
\nband… and I like it,
\n
\nI like it!<\/i>
\n<\/b> The single “Radar Gun” shows the humor of this band, though I
\ndoubt you’ve heard it – like me for the first eight months, most
\nradio stations have ignored this disc for the likes of Pearl Jam.
\n(I do hear it occasionally in WIIL-FM out of Kenosha, Wisconsin –
\nit almost restores my faith in rock radio.)<\/p>\n
The combination of humor and attention to the working man is
\nfurther reflected in songs like “Sunday Sports” and “1000 Dollar
\nCar” (great tag line: “A thousand dollar car, it ain’t worth
\nnothin’ \/ A thousand dollar car, it ain’t worth shit”). Even the
\nall-out country-blooze of “Idiot’s Revenge” shows the funny side of
\nthis band.<\/p>\n
But don’t think that The Bottle Rockets are Monty Python from
\ndown South – far from it. (Truth be told, the band is from
\nMissouri.) Henneman and his fellow bandmates (guitarist Tom Parr,
\nbassist Tom Ray and drummer Mark Ortmann) show they are a band who
\nwant to be taken seriously. On cuts like “Gravity Fails” and “I’ll
\nBe Comin’ Around” they hit the target damned near the bull’s-eye,
\nwhile on others like “I Wanna Come Home” and “Young Lovers In Town”
\nthey stray from the target.<\/p>\n
The production of Eric Ambel – who also joins in on several of
\nthe songs – is perfectly suited to this band’s style. Tight
\nmusically, free emotionally – kind of a refreshing change of pace,
\ndon’t you think?<\/p>\n
\nThe Brooklyn Side<\/i> is an album that did not deserved to be
\nignored – not by myself, not by radio, not by the record-buying
\npublic. Fortunately, it’s not too late. Grab this one with both
\nhands out of the bins at Target and let this one melt your mind. I
\nknow I’ll be keeping an eye out for The Bottle Rockets the nezt
\ntime they come through the Chicago area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5765],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-35651","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-bottle-rockets","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35651"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35651"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}