Drive By-Truckers decided not to keep quiet. the rebel rockers of the south dropped a political bomb with their election influenced new single on the heels of news of their upcoming album (and appropriately titled if we might add), “American Band,” scheduled for release via ATO Records September 30.
The socially aware track is a Mike Cooley led effort that is unlike anything composed by the veteran rockers. Look for DBT to perform twice in Colorado this August.
Patterson Hood stepped up to the plate in regards to these tumultuous times and chimed in about the current temperature of the nation:
We are beyond thrilled to announce the release date of our new album American Band. We are launching the pre-order and our friends at NPR are posting a first taste so you can get a little sample of what we’ve been up to.
“Surrender Under Protest” is a Mike Cooley composition that is unlike any DBT song we’ve ever recorded, yet somehow sounds unmistakably like us. In a way, that’s pretty indicative of the album as a whole.
These are crazy times and we have made a record steeped in this moment of history that we’re all trying to live through. We’ve always considered ourselves a political band, even when that aspect seemed to be concealed by some type of narrative device i.e. dealing with issues of race by telling a story set in the time of George Wallace or class struggles by setting “Putting People of the Moon” in the age of Reagan.
This time out, there are no such diversions as these songs are mostly set front and center in the current political arena with songs dealing with our racial and cultural divisions, gun violence, mass shootings and political assholery. Once again, there is a nearly even split between the songs of Cooley and myself, with both of us bringing in songs that seem to almost imply a conversation between us about our current place in time.
“American Band” is a rock and roll call to arms as well as a musical reset button for our band and the country we live in. Most of all, we look at it as the beginnings of some conversations that we, as a people very much need to begin having if we ever hope to break through the divisions that are threatening to tear us apart.
Drive-By Truckers are celebrating our twentieth anniversary as a band in an election year where some people are trying to define what it is to be American. Definitions based on some outdated ideology of prejudice and fear. We are loudly proclaiming that those people don’t speak for us. America is and always has been a land of immigrants and ideals. Ideals that we have often fallen short of achieving, but it’s the striving that has given us whatever claims to greatness we have had. That’s what America means to us and “We’re an American Band”.
American Band – the eleventh studio album by Drive-By Truckers. Coming September 30th, 2016 from ATO Records.
And don’t miss the Darkened Flags 2016 Tour, beginning in August.
See you at The Rock Show,
Patterson Hood
Drive-By Truckers
AMERICAN BAND TRACKLISTING:
1) Ramon Casiano
2) Darkened Flags on the Cusp of Dawn
3) Surrender Under Protest
4) Guns of Umpqua
5) Filthy and Fried
6) When the Sun Don’t Shine
7) Kinky Hypocrites
8) Ever South
9) What It Means
10)Once They Banned Imagine
11)Baggage
AMERICAN BAND TOUR – NORTH AMERICA 2016
JULY
13 New York, NY Lowdown Hudson Music Fest *
17 Alta, WY 12th Annual Targhee Fest *
AUGUST
19 Aspen, CO Belly Up
20 Morrison, CO Red Rocks Amphitheater #
27 Lexington, KY Moontower Music Festival *
SEPTEMBER
16 Toronto, ON Toronto Urban Roots Festival *
17 Fredericton, NB Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival *
23 Kansas City, MO Crossroads @
24 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue ##
##
25 Sioux Falls, SD The District ##
28 Missoula, MT The Wilma ##
29 Seattle, WA Showbox at The Market ##
30 Portland, OR Wonder Ballroom ##
OCTOBER
1 Portland, OR Wonder Ballroom ##
2 Vancouver, BC Rickshaw Theater ##
5 Sacramento, CA Ace of Spades ##
6 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore ##
7 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore ##
8 Lake Tahoe, CA Montbleau Resort Casino ##
11 Los Angeles, CA Teragram Ballroom ##
12 Los Angeles, CA Teragram Ballroom ##
13 Solana Beach, CA Belly Up Tavern ##
14 San Luis Obispo, CA Fremont Theater ##
15 Scottsdale, AZ Livewire ##
* Festival Appearance
# w/Yonder Mountain String Band and Special Guests Preservation Hall Jazz Band
@ w/Son Volt (Trio)
## w/Special Guest Lydia Loveless