Festus, MO's
Bottle Rockets ranked as one of the leading lights of the 1990s
roots rock revival, thanks to a sound that bypassed the
punk heritage proudly upheld by most of the band's contemporaries in favor of a redneck fusion of Southern boogie,
country-folk, and crunching
rock & roll. The group was fronted by singer/guitarist Brian Henneman, a Missouri native who formed his first band, Waylon Van Halen & the Ernest Tubbadours, in 1977 with friends Tom and Bob Parr. After a succession of names and a steady rise in musical competence, the threesome began landing club dates both locally and in Illinois, where they became friends with the young
Jay Farrar and
Jeff Tweedy, who would later start
Uncle Tupelo.
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Festus, MO's
Bottle Rockets ranked as one of the leading lights of the 1990s
roots rock revival, thanks to a sound that bypassed the
punk heritage proudly upheld by most of the band's contemporaries in favor of a redneck fusion of Southern boogie,
country-folk, and crunching
rock & roll. The group was fronted by singer/guitarist Brian Henneman, a Missouri native who formed his first band, Waylon Van Halen & the Ernest Tubbadours, in 1977 with friends Tom and Bob Parr. After a succession of names and a steady rise in musical competence, the threesome began landing club dates both locally and in Illinois, where they became friends with the young
Jay Farrar and
Jeff Tweedy, who would later start
Uncle Tupelo.
In 1985, the trio was playing straight-ahead
honky tonk under the guise Chicken Truck (so named in honor of the
John Anderson song) with a new drummer, Mark Ortmann.
Instead of giving in to local crowds who wanted to hear covers rather than originals, the bandmembers focused solely on performing their own material, which they began roughing up with a Crazy Horse-like edge. Shortly after frequent tour mates
Uncle Tupelo signed a 1990 record deal, however, internal problems led Chicken Truck to disband; while the Parrs returned to civilian jobs, Ortmann moved to Nashville to become a session player, and Henneman became a roadie with
Uncle Tupelo, even playing on their
March 16-20, 1992 album.
During his roadie days, Henneman recorded a demo tape of new material, which
Tupelo manager Tony Margherita began discreetly shopping around. After cutting a solo single backed by
Farrar and
Tweedy, he re-formed his old band, with Ortmann on drums, Tom Ray on guitar, and Robert Kearns on bass, renaming the outfit
the Bottle Rockets. After a 1993 self-titled effort, a year later the band issued its second independent LP,
The Brooklyn Side, named after a bowling term. A portrait of life in rural, blue-collar America,
The Brooklyn Side was the subject of lavish critical praise, and the positive notices led to the band signing with a major label, Atlantic, which promptly reissued the album.
Shakeups at the label led to delays in the release of their next album, 1997's
24 Hours a Day, and when the album sold poorly,
the Bottle Rockets were dropped. In 1998, they signed with the small Doolittle label and released an odds-and-ends EP,
Leftovers; by the time they completed their next album, 1999's
Brand New Year, the label had gained major-label distribution, but that deal proved to be short-lived, and in 2000
the Bottle Rockets were once again without a label. In 2001, they signed a deal with alt-country trailblazers Bloodshot Records; their first album for the label, a tribute to Doug Sahm, was released early the following year. Tom Ray left
the Bottle Rockets in 2002, and the band moved ahead as a three-piece, signing yet another new record deal -- this time with Sanctuary -- in 2003, and releasing a new album,
Blue Sky, in the fall of that year.
Zoysia arrived on Bloodshot Records in 2006. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
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