This week’s “From The Casks” video is The Drams performing “Unhinged” at Subterranean in Chicago in August 2006.
Most people know Brent Best as the leader of Slobberbone, the badly-named but great rock/alt-country band from Denton, Texas. Unfortunately, Whiskey Bender Productions never had the opportunity to shoot a Slobberbone show before the band played its final tour in 2005. But in August of 2006, we got to shoot Brent Best’s follow-up band The Drams at Subterranean in Chicago. The Drams had just released their first (and ultimately only) album “Jubilee Dive” on New West Records and were touring to promote it.
Of course, we LOVE Slobberbone, but we are also big fans of The Drams and “Jubilee Dive”. Yeah, some Slobberbone fans grumble about the production on the album, but we love the expanded instrumentation and pop flourishes. We’ve always considered “Jubilee Dive” to be Brent’s “Summerteeth”. It’s a great songwriter stretching into new musical territory with a couple of new collaborators, Chad Stockslager and Keith Killoren, to help push the pop possibilities and expand the arrangements, and a couple of old Slobberbone bandmates, Jess Barr and Tony Harper, to make sure there’s still plenty of rock on the album. Plus, old Denton friend Matt Pence (of Centro-matic) pulling it all together as producer and engineer. We encourage folks to go back and listen to “Jubilee Dive” with the distance of fifteen years and the benefit of fresh ears. It’s an album chock-full of songs that showcase Brent’s ability to work on a bigger artistic palate than the twangy guitar rock that Slobberbone does so well. This may upset a few fans, but we consider “Jubilee Dive” to be a high-water mark for Brent’s songwriting (along with his somber but spectacular 2015 solo album “Your Dog Champ”).
In retrospect, we feel pretty lucky to have captured The Drams on film (er, videotape, actually). Going back through the footage, the performance at Subterranean was all over the place in the best way, including songs from “Jubilee Dive”, several choice Slobberbone tunes, and a handful of covers including songs by The Band, Chris Bell and Buffalo Springfield. Sadly, The Drams didn’t stay together all that long. It would have been interesting to see where the band might have gone over the course of a few albums. Happily, Slobberbone reunited and continues playing shows to this day, though they rarely make it outside of Texas. One upcoming notable exception is Shoalsfest in Florence, Alabama in October where Slobberbone will be on a bill with old friends Centro-matic and Drive-By-Truckers.
Негізгі бет The Drams, "Unhinged", Live at Subterranean (2006)
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