Saturday Spins: Slobberbone

Slobberbone

It has certainly been a minute since I last spun some wax here on OT. I was protesting the terrible takes from Managing Editor, Andrew Donaldson, regarding the virtues of a good (or any) cup of coffee. Last time I covered what is certainly one of the better albums of 2021 by Aaron Lee Tasjan. Somewhere in there I ran a rudimentary poll on Twitter to choose the next spin. This “Best of” LP won in a landslide over Chris Bell’s I Am The Cosmos, but fear not power pop fans, I will get to Mr. Bell and perhaps some more Big Star in the not too distant future.

This week’s spin is a different little ol’ band from Texas; Denton, Texas to be more precise. If you’re into previous spins like The Drive-By Truckers (DBT), Son Volt, John Prine, or Sturgill Simpson, then Slobberbone is for you. I actually learned about them through my ardent DBT fandom.

Bees and Seas: The Best of Slobberbone

Slobberbone

2016

I know, I know, that name, right?! Just think of “the Beast” from The Sandlot where there is a bone and not a baseball signed by Babe freakin’ Ruth. Formed in 1992, Slobberbone joined the ranks of several southern rock/alt-country/country rock acts that were flooding the market at that time as Uncle Tupelo ascended to major label status. Think of these bands as fighting a valiant fight against grunge and later nu metal. Both of those genres did provide good and great contributions to music, but lacked the staying power of Americana-adjacent music that did and does grace the pages of No Depression to this very day.

Of course, all of this great music was clobbered by the rise of manufactured pop music with a sound that hasn’t changed in the last 20 years or so, but what has changed are the cookie-cutter artists that are spoon-fed to the more impressionable listeners. Like everything else these days, no one has the time or inclination to sit and listen to an entire album, and some artists aren’t even making albums worth listening to. It’s all 3-minute formulaic and over-produced ditties released via streaming services that are forgotten within 3-6 months. Someday, I will tell you all my further thoughts on why I think the album is not dead.

Anywho, Slobberbone is an excellent band, and your knowledge of them will instantly make you cooler than anyone else you know. I mean, you have a great icebreaker, “have you heard of Slobberbone, they were such a great band?” Notably, Stephen King is a big fan, and the band is a big fan right back. In what is to surely not please the rabid conservative weirdos that frequent this site, MSNBC talking head, Rachel Maddow is a big fan. She also cites the blistering anti-corporate jam “Placemat Blues” as her favorite track. Go figure. I’ll be discussing that song later on.

Bees and Seas is a collection of tracks from their four studio releases. I suppose you could call it a greatest hits album, but I prefer to think of it as a very large gateway drug sampler thing. The artwork is pretty cool, and according to New West Records, it is made up of fan-submitted memories. Another cool thing about this 2LP is that the vast majority of the songs on it were never before released on wax.

The liner notes were written by the inimitable Patterson Hood of DBT. He also has a guest vocal on one of the tracks. As I mentioned before, Slobberbone was introduced to me by way of DBT. The bands used to tour together a whole heck of a lot. In fact, the liner notes spin a tale about how he met the band while he was working at The High Hat Music Club in Athens, GA.

Track by Track

1. Whiskey Glass Eye

The opening track is one of the more fast-paced ones from their first record, Crow Pot Pie. It is a great song about the perils of various vices, mostly drinking. If there is one very underrated thing about lead singer and songwriter Brent Best it was/is his great songwriting and skilled use of a creative turn-0f-the-phrase. Hood describes it as literary, and I am inclined to agree. So, one of my favorite lyrics from this song is in the chorus:

I know what you feelin’
I know what you thinkin’
‘Cause you’re thinkin’ so loud it’s coming out your mouth

2. I Can Tell Your Love is Waning

Awhile back on this here website, I penned a “Songs Where Almost Everyone Dies”. I had intended to make a series out of it, but you know, life gets in the way. This song would be a great candidate for that. It starts out as a slow, plodding, country tune, but builds to a crescendo each time the chorus hits. The chorus features some of that great songwriting I referenced earlier, and for anyone that grew up in a rural area, you know exactly what it the second part means.

‘Cause I can tell your love is waning from the looks and smell of it
Like getting caught behind a cattle truck and all you smell is shit …

Anyway, each verse has the singer describing the trailer and his partner in the bathtub and what’s on the radio; “fucked up country song, ‘Mack the Knife’, and “so damn loud, I can’t hear myself think.” Eventually the partner goes from wet, to shampooed, to…covered in blood.

3. Little Sister

Thus far the themes of these songs are pretty heavy and pretty dark. This one is no exception. It is fascinating how Brent Best can dress these tragic situations up with melody. I cannot really quite put my finger on the meaning of this one, it seems to me to be a song about a mysterious disappearance or a terrible accident, or both. Either way it is a heavy heavy song.

4. Tilt-A-Whirl

In an earlier spin, I mentioned this song being one of my favorites about the eponymous carnival ride. While it seems like a fun story about a carnival, of course, shockingly, someone dies!

‘Cause looks can be deceiving if you know what I mean
A shiny patch of happiness may not be what it seems
I learned that lesson long ago, much to my chagrin
But not before the whole damn thing came crashin’ to an end

It looked so cool … looked so fun, I thought
The picture-perfect perch from which to get me some — the top
But the wheel, it was junk and that carny, he was drunk
And they sent my baby flyin’ across the parking lot.

5. Barrel Chested

This song resonates with me because it was how I felt a lot in high school. I was overly emotional about random things. At its core, it is a love song with a crunchy riff that will stick with you for hours after listening. It is really unfortunate that Slobberbone never achieved the kind of attention they deserved, because most of their songs are well-written and catchy as hell.

6. Engine Joe

I absolutely love this song. It’s one of those songs that seems like it is telling a complex tale, but it is really just a fun little story with a pulp fiction-like narrative, non-linear, but with short and interrelated little stories.

7. Front Porch

This song is pretty similar to “Barrel Chested” in that is has a crunchy riff and bemoans an emotional state. Although, the emotions are a bit vague in “Barrel Chested,” this track is more straightforward and quite obviously about struggles with drinking.

Empty cans of frustration and cans of regret
Line the living room floor that you’ve often swept
Pop another one open and wretch at the stench
It’s a hard drink to swallow for a thirst you can’t quench

8. Little Drunk Fists

A bit more a mournful take on drinking, but the message is essentially the same as the previous track. It is a common theme throughout these songs, and I don’t know if Brent Best had a drinking problem or if someone close to him did, but he writes some heavy and visceral songs about boozing.

9. Your Excuse

A quintessential break up song. It is definitely one that I could hear being sung along to in an arena had things gone differently for the band. There is a touch of that 90s grunge sound in this one with only a sprinkling of country twang.

10. Haze of Drink

A fast-paced punk track, or cow-punk if you prefer, about a guy who just didn’t leave his hometown after high school. He spends all of his days in the “Haze of Drink” where he is quite obviously lonely since all of his friends have left town and moved on with their lives. The up tempo nature of this track conceals the pain of the narrator.

It used to be something that we did for fun,
But now it seems all of my friends have moved on
And left me here all alone
I’ll probably wake up in the morning in a pool of sick
But if you see me on the sidewalk, you can give me a kick
I’ll say thanks and get back up and get back down…
And get lost in the haze of drink
I get lost in the haze of drink
And I don’t give a damn what your friends might say
I don’t care what they think
When I’m lost in the haze of drink

11. Placemat Blues

I mentioned this song before as being the favorite of MSNBC pundit, Rachel Maddow. The song is a broadside against the corporate side of the music industry. It is even applicable to the advent of streaming services bilking artists out of money. Give it a listen. It was the first Slobberbone song I ever heard, and had me instantly hooked.

I know what you say, you say you serve the youth
You serve them Bizkits and Korn with a spoon
But I think you just serve you
Where’s the place at the table for folks like us
When there’s no one that we can trust?
Where’s the place for us?

12. Trust Jesus

A bluegrass style song with a bit of a rocking edge about a travelling bible salesman. It operates somewhat as a gospel or praise track, and is definitely not as dark or heavy as many of the other songs Best wrote. There is some good banjo and harmonica on it.

13. Gimme Back My Dog

You know when you play a song, and it is so catchy that you can’t get it out of your head for days? That is this track through and through. I remembered I played it when my 4.5 year old daughter was around, and she kept singing it all day long. Let me tell you, there is no better feeling or sound than your own tiny human singing along to great music. Author Stephen King proclaims this song as one of three songs tied for greatest rock and roll song of all time.

14. Lazy Guy

Before Drive By Truckers were a thing, Patterson Hood had a band called Adam’s House Cat. This song sounds somewhat adjacent to that early sound. “Lazy Guy” features Patterson on background vocals, he harmonizes the chorus and sings a verse. It is ultimately a very country song and an anthem for all the dudes like me.

Yeah I’m amazed at the way the days just keep on slipping by
And I got plans and dreams and hopeful schemes, enough to make you cry
I’m just waiting for that single perfect point in time to give ’em all a try
And I’m a lazy guy

15. Lumberlung

If I were asked to give an example of great songwriting by Brent Best, I would have a hard time picking from virtually any of the Slobberbone tracks, but “Lumberlung” has to be in the top 5, perhaps even top 3 songs by Brent Best. It is the kind of song that tells a story that you would hear while sitting on your porch during a summer rain.

16. Pinball Song

“Pinball Song” was the second Slobberbone song I ever heard. It is another narrative-driven song that tells a story about a dude looking for his friend after coming home from touring. He was informed at the bar they frequented that the friend was “on a vacation in the drunk tank, so they say.” Anyway, the dude strikes up a convo with a girl at the other end of the bar, who just happens to be fresh off a breakup from the friend in the drunk tank…

17. Springfield, IL

Sufjan Stevens was behind in the times when he made Illinois, because Slobberbone already wrote a great song about the capitol city of Springfield.

18. Sweetness, That’s Your Cue

The last song on this compilation is probably the most pop sounding Slobberbone song. It sounds like it belongs on the radio during the late 90s and early 2000s. It is from their final album, 2002’s Slippage. The previous song was from that album as well. Both songs demonstrate a high level of maturity for the band, but to me they eschewed the sloppiness that worked so well on their earlier albums. I can’t blame them for taking a shot. The band broke up a few years later. They still sporadically tour, though.