Drive-By Truckers & Opinions on Gorillaz

Southern rockers Drive-By Truckers pull up to the studio to perform live and talk with Jim and Greg.

Drive-By Truckers
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Over the years a number of politicians have butted heads with rockers over the use of music in campaign ads. Not surprisingly most of the squabbles have been with Republican candidates. But this most recent lawsuit between Talking Heads singer David Byrne and former Florida  Governor  Charlie Crist has a new twist. Not only did Crist have to apologize for using "Road to Nowhere" without permission, but he had to do it on YouTube!

Drive-By Truckers

The term "Southern rock" brings images of long hair, confederate flags and Lynyrd Skynyrd to mind. But when it comes to the Drive-By Truckers, you have to push that all aside. Patterson Hood, son of Muscle Shoals  bassist  David Hood, and Mike Cooley formed the group in Athens, GA in 1996, and since then they've consistently toured, recorded and pushed the envelope of Southern sound. In 2001 people took notice with Southern Rock Opera. Now three members of the band, Hood, Jay Gonzalez and Shonna Tucker, stop by the studio to perform new tracks from Go-Go Boots, as well as an Eddie Hinton  cover.

The Fall Gorillaz

The Fall

Gorillaz, the animated act fronted by Damon Albarn of Blur, has a new album out called The Fall. The title is both a reference to the band and also to the fact that this might be their last album. Albarn recorded the songs on his iPad while traveling on the last tour. Therefore, it's lower-key with fewer guest stars. Jim appreciates this quiet, ambient sound. It's a little sleepy at points, but he says Buy It. Greg admires the modest, headphone quality of the record, but defines this as a "must-own" only for hardcore fans. For the rest of you, he says, Burn It.

Jim

Jim noted that 20 years ago on April 23, 1991, Johnny Thunders died. The former New York Doll sadly became as famous for his bad heroin habit as he was for his music. So, Jim uses his turn at the Desert Island Jukebox to remember the music. He plays a song about addiction, "Chinese Rocks," which was written by fellow punk legends Dee Dee Ramone and Richard Hell, and performed by Thunders and his band The Heartbreakers in 1977.

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