The Best of Mike Cooley

Patterson Hood may be the outspoken front man, Jason Isbell may be boy genius, Shonna Tucker might be Isbell's ex-wife and a hell of a whiskey slugger, and Spooner Oldham might be a living, breathing rock legend, but lately I've been appreciating Mike Cooley's work with The Drive-By Truckers. On each album over the course of their career, one of the Truckers seems to have the better batch of songs, and on the latest, I think it's Cooley. So ahead of tonight's official Rockist outing to catch DBT at the 9:30, here are the all-time best lyrics from Cooley tunes:

"I went stumbling through the fog trying to find a reason for the things I told her / She woke up sunny side down and I was still thinking I was too proud to flip her over / Between the champagne hand jobs and the kissing ass by everyone involved / Cocaine rich comes quick and that's why the small dicks have it all." - Gravity's Gone

"If the part about being who he was didn't help Tom get loose, what's a guy without a T. gonna get? / Totally screwed, while chicken wing puke eats the candy apple red off his Corvette." - Three Dimes Down

"Well, my daddy didn’t pull out, but he never apologized / Rock and Roll means well, but it can’t help tellin’ young boys lies." - Marry Me

"Mr. Phillips never blew enough hot air to need a little gold plated paperweight / He promised him a Cadillac and put the wind in Carl's face / He did just what he said he was gonna do and the money came in sacks / New contracts and Carl Perkins' Cadillac." - Carl Perkins' Cadillac

The Drive By Truckers - "Women Without Whiskey" (Live)

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*On a side note, check out Chris Klimek's interview with Patterson Hood on DCist ahead of the band's two shows at the 9:30 Club this weekend. A particular quote I like: "You can be in Seattle, which is a pretty cosmopolitan, liberal, blue-state American city, but get in your car and drive 25 minutes outside of town, and it could be Georgia with different trees."

Hypothetical Songs on a Hypothetical Guided by Voices Reunion Album

The Sneaker Kings of Ipswich
Nuclearize the Swollen Substitutes
Introducing the Nitrous-Faced Lizard Champion
Know the Fecund Specter
Hemeroid Terrarium
A Vectorless Mountain Climber
Mortuary in the Vaccuum
Thunderclouds are Essential
Never Foxes, Never Werewolves

feel free to add your own in the comments.


Guided by Voices - "Titus and Strident Wet Nurse"
Guided by Voices - "Buzzards and Dreadful Cows"

Bob Nastanovich, Rockist and Racing Legend

Tomorrow's the 134th running of the Kentucky Derby, which for a native Kentuckian is quite the deal. The other Rockists have professed their faith in the gospel of mint juleps, sun dresses, and betting on ponies, and we all try to go all out for the event.

But we're not the first Rockists to do so. Not hardly. In fact, each year when spring rolls around, and the rolling hills near my childhood home in Central Kentucky turn a deep kelly green, I'm reminded of a true Rockist and Horse Racing legend, Pavement's Bob Nastanovich. As many of you (hopefully) know, Bob was Pavement's "drummer" in their early stages, though his role may be best described alternately as "assistant time-keeper" and "resident court jester". I don't mean to make light of his musical contributions -- which included backup vox, auxillary percussion, and "effects-based keyboards" -- but I don't think I'm entirely inaccurate in saying that Pavement's music (though not its spirit) might not have been altered much in his absence.

Now all of us Rockists came into the game too late to ever see Pavement (a sad fact of history lamented to varying degrees by each of us), but concert footage and music videos seem to prove some initial hunches about Bob: he is freaking hilarious, and he takes his role as a sideman with the perfect mix of seriousness and irreverence. He'd woo-hoo like hell on stage and make the most out of banging the crap out of a tambourine -- think those guys in Arcade Fire without the pretense. And, if you're like me and I imagine many other not-so-musically inclined Rockists out there, this is the role you can see ourselves playing.

After Pavement broke up (someone give G.L. a tissue, or five), Bob tour managed Steve Malkmus and the Jicks for a while before settling on his other passion: horse racing. He became a jockey agent for the successful Greta Kuntzweiler, who unfortunately got convicted on meth charges last year and is on probation for a long time. He also started a website, Lonely on the Rail, as an avenue for his twin passions of racing and writing (the site's no longer up). He's done some breeding too from his home in Louisville, and right now he's working as a chart caller -- the guy in the press box who figures out the distance between horses during the race, for example -- for Equibase.

You all that have seen the Pavement doc Slow Century may recall the debaucherous Derby weekend the band spends at Nastanovich's place in Louisville, messing around with the fellow revelers and generally getting goofy in his house. It's the best of both worlds -- rockisting and horse racing. We Rockists will attempt similar and similarly-inspired feats tomorrow. Happy Derby Day, folks.

*To Mr. Nastanovich: if you would ever like to do an interview or -- even better -- come catch some races with us at Keeneland or Pimlico or wherever, please email us at therockistsociety@gmail.com.

This Week in Video: The First Saturday in May Edition

This week was a great one for late night talk shows. Let's go through the week.

Although I never watch it (I hate Scots), The Late Late Show has some pretty good acts (second video excluded). Go to RnR on 6/15.

Grand Archives - "Torn Blue Foam Couch"

Check out this nervous, back room lounge singer... I mean Morrissey. WTF is with the AI shirt? I can't imagine they are going to have a Morrissey week; especially not after Neal Diamond.

Morrissey - "Irish Blood, English Heart"

First R.E.M., then John Legend and now this? Lovely.

Feist - "I Feel It All"

This Week in Video: Arbor Day Edition

Time to resurrect an old favorite. (Let's not kid ourselves, this is a way for me to mail it in...)

Did you know Tane Mahuta loosly translated means retro furry porn? Me neither...

The Ruby Suns - "Tane Mahuta"

For you all who missed last night's SSLYBY show (and the fights outside caused by Tom Morello fans), here's a tasty morsel. F-ing girls, man.

Someone Still Love You Boris Yeltsin - "Think I Wanna Die"

Who walked away from Kyoto? I want to know his name, GD it! (See how I didn't curse there? Yeah, this is a family show.) Oh, and join the Rockists at the concert event of the year on May 11.

Radiohead - "House of Cards" on Conan

When I was in elementary school listening to R.E.M., I could never decipher the lyrics. (Turns out they were pretty much just gibberish anyway. "I wore my doormat face"? Wtf?) Now, this is no longer a problem.

R.E.M. - "Hollowman"

Rockist Revisits: Ugly Casanova

There was a time early in my college years where I listened almost exclusively to Modest Mouse and Built to Spill. That unfortunately coincided with a lull in each band's recorded work -- right after The Moon and Antarctica and Ancient Melodies of the Future, respectively -- so I exhausted their old stuff quickly and lit midnight vigils for new tour dates to magically appear in my area. Didn't happen, but somewhere in that period both Isaac Brock and Doug Martsch decided to put out solo/side project type stuff. I'll come back to Martsch's at a later date (it's pretty good), but the very great Captain's Dead blog just threw up an Ugly Casanova live show and, sampling a few tracks, I'm reminded how much I enjoyed their sole release, Sharpen Your Teeth.

It was really something of an indie rock dream team -- joining Brock were Tim Rutili (lead singer of Califone), Pall Jenkins (Black Heart Procession), John Orth from the underrated Holopaw, and Chicago producer Brian Deck. What they threw together was striking because it had a shambling, off-the-cuff feel that marks so many fun side projects, but it mixed this tossed-off vibe with some typically Brock-ish subject matter (see "Parasites": "God and Satan they gamble when you're dead / Beams of light, one Sprite, the other's bourbon instead"). It was none of the extended, desert freeway guitar anti-heroics of The Lonesome Crowded West; instead it was the frosted soundscapes of The Moon and Antarctica warmed by a folksy, campfire arrangements.

Most of all, there were spectacularly good songs, ones that wouldn't have worked on a pre-2004 Modest Mouse album. Brock shares songwriting credits on a few tunes, and, honestly, those are my favorites. Orth joins him on "Smoke Like Ribbons", a pretty country tune about God knows what, and on "Cat Faces" and fan favorite "Hotcha Girls". Jenkins actually teams up for the closer "So Long to the Holidays", a spacey dirge that, while kinda cool, is a little out of step with the rest of the album.

Anyway, they actually toured after Sharpen Your Teeth came out, and, from what I've read, it was a disaster (anybody actually see them?). Kind of a shame, but, in true Rockist fashion, I take comfort in appreciating this one-off for exactly what it was.

Ugly Casanova - "Barnacles"

Ugly Casanova - "Smoke Like Ribbons"

Ugly Casanova - "Diggin' Holes"

Ugly Casanova - "Baby's Clean Conscience"

Ooooh...A Rockist C-C-C-Catfight!

In the past couple weeks, Pitchfork has covered the recent releases of two alt. country chanteuses, American Tift Merritt and Canadian Kathleen Edwards. It's like a border catfight, and Joni Mitchell and Bonnie Raitt are the officials. And is it just me, or does Canada seem to win a disproportionate number of these hypothetical singer-songwriter comparisons?

I sometimes feel we don't cover enough female artists on here, so this past week, I took some time to listen to both Merritt's Another Country and Edwards's Asking for Flowers. I now feel sufficiently qualified to compare the two and then accordingly dole out qualified, mitigated praise in one direction and halfhearted criticism in the other, keeping with established Rockist traditions. Here goes:

Asking for Flowers is the better album. In fact, it is the much better album. Yes, it drags and was just last week considered by my girlfriend (for whom the disc was purchased) to be "too slow". Edwards's voice would win a catfight with Merritt's voice, but Merritt's would win in a beauty contest. But if Rockist standards amounted to a beauty contest, we'd be blogging about Josh Groban instead of Craig Finn. Further, Another Country sounds like 45 minutes of the Delta Airlines singer-songwriter radio station. In fact, I'm willing to bet she's on rotation on at least one major airline in-flight channel right now. It's so smooth and gentle, it could -- and likely will -- put you to sleep before you can order a Diet Coke and inquire about snacks.

Maybe Kathleen Edwards is cooing in the ears of Delta passengers, too. If so, props to Delta, and good luck sleeping through "The Cheapest Key". Her voice also does this weird wailing thing at the end -- can I say it sounds like one of the girls in The Corrs without losing my TRS membership? -- and the lyrics are just off-beat enough to make it a touch unsettling. "Buffalo" is soft, sad, and pretty, "Sure as Shit" is pretty good, but "I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory" -- whose lyrics had me racking my brain to remember who Marty McSorley is -- has just the right proportion of quirk and catch.

G.L. would want me to note that, from P.R. photos alone, Tift Merritt appears to be the cuter of the two. And, being fair, I'd want to note that Tift's two Lost Highway releases (Bramble Rose and Tambourine) were both very enjoyable listens. The better-publicized half of "alt. country" has taken some hits recently, and Merritt's not immune to those. Edwards isn't exactly dealing in the revolutionary here either, but "alt. country" has always been and will always be about the songs, and Edwards has a hell of a lot more good ones this time around.

Kathleen Edwards - "The Cheapest Key"

Tift Merritt - "Keep You Happy"