Weedeater - God Luck and Good Speed (2007)^{Release ID: 18083}

Cape Fear North Carolina's Weedeater, are one of my favorite bands, because they tap into a sort of rural anger that no other band captures quite the same way. This is not polished refined music, or high art of any kind. This taps into something more visceral. I'm a 36 year old man at the time of this writing, soon to be 37, and mostly happy with where I'm at in life, but there was once an extremely angry young man on a Nebraska Cattle farm who saw a lot of things, and had some feelings about it. Weedeater is the band to speak to that young man-again they simply understand rural frustration, and it comes through as the secret sauce to their formula. The formula is to take a given southern rock song, strip away anything finesse, technical, or pretty about it, distilling the raw essence of the almighty riff, channel this riff through an absolute wall of distortion, fuzz, and raw percussion, and then deliver a few carefully chosen lines through "Dixie" Dave Collins. Collins sounds like a cement mixer, his voice is raw, whiskey soaked, marijuana smoked, and gravely. He also one of the greatest front men to ever do it-an angrier, more eccentric, and aggressive Ronnie Van Zant, and one of the finest gentlemen I've ever smoked cigarettes with. Again you aren't going to get anything refined with Weedeater, but I actually think Dave is an underrated lyricist (Shep might write some too)-like a country singer he isn't going to give you metaphor, or surrealism, he's going to say exactly what needs to be said and nothing more, which I think is an art in and of itself.

Example from this album:

"Wish I could be like you all the time

Blind, deaf and dumb all goddamn day

But everybody needs just a little bit of downtime

So I'll just turn my back and walk away"

It's lyrics like that I feel in my veins more so than anything Dylan-esque.
 

 Every album is consistent. I chose this one because it has some of my favorite songs on it, and it's considered to date by many to be their best offering, but I listen to their whole discography. It's probably not for everybody, but it's exactly what I need.