[.ca] Too Far to Care

Amazon.com essential recording:
If the Waco Brothers sound like the Clash playing country music, an Old '97s song like "Barrier Reef" sounds like Rancid doing the Wacos. That's not a bad thing, but lead singer Rhett Miller is more distinctive pining for his gal on the sweetly beautiful "Salome" and "Streets of Where I'm From," a jazzy number about living in a place where romance ends as roadkill. The band--Miller, lead guitarist Ken Bethea, bassist Murry Hammond, drummer Phillip Peeples--sounds most like a rock outfit on the album-opening "Time Bomb," and most like a country crew on "West Texas Teardrops," featuring banjo and Hammond's nasal twang. On at least half his songs, Miller reveals himself to be a guy who falls in love easily but takes getting dumped hard. The subject matter might get old, but the '97s vary things enough musically to steer clear of trouble. If the story of a guy scared to death of Manhattan on "Broadway" is too obvious, Miller easily redeems himself on the album's closer, "Four Leaf Clover." Sung as a duet with Exene Cervenka, it sounds like X riding a Bo Diddley beat, but the bitter lyrics send it to the moon. "I got a four-leaf clover, but it ain't done me a single lick of good/I'm still a drunk and I'm still a loser/And I'm still living in a lousy neighborhood." After all the crying he's done, it's nice to hear Miller get good and pissed. --Keith Moerer

thank you kmart in laredo:
this is the all-time best cd i have ever bought without previously knowing anything about the artist. having just escaped a 5-week stint on a seismic boat in the gulf of mexico, we were ready to party hearty. a border town jaunt seemed to be a good idea and we set off from corpus cristi, heading to the laredo frontier. stopping off in the local k-mart for weekend supplies, i spotted the music section and dove in to find something to clear out the endless classic rock that had been pumped into my ears offshore. picked up 2 cd's of artists that i had never heard of before. the first was sara hickman's 'misfits' and the other was this cd by the old 97's. i had been attracted by the bold cover art and seeing as i was in west texas, by the song titles - west texas teardrops, big brown eyes, salome. kudos and thanks to whoever at kmart ordered these cd's for their laredo store and racked them so that local texas artists were visible right up-front. i never ended up going back onto the boats and was instead assigned to work in hotel rooms in south and central texas. i took the old 97's everywhere. this is the cd that i would turn to if i needed a pick-me-up, a way to drown out any heartaches of daily life with a sing-along bellow. after returning to my native canada, i ended up seeing the band at the infamous horseshoe in toronto. opening for them was a denton band that i had never heard of - slobberbone. needless to say, i enjoyed the whole evening, especially getting this cd cover autographed by all of the band members. i have all of their cd's (and all of slobberbone's and all of sara's ...) and have enjoyed every one of them, but 'too far to care' is my hands-down favourite. i recently lent my copy of this cd to someone and they are permanently in my bad books for having misplaced it during an apartment move. while i have most of the songs ripped to mp3s already, and still have the autographed liner, i am SO glad that the internet allows me to find and buy a replacement copy. yes, i could burn my own, but i just want to be able to look those dusty cowboys straight in the eyes.

This plus the live show...:
Will make you a fan forever. Every fan has their entry point into Old 97's and this was mine. Every album has its merits, but none captures the pure energy of the live show like Too Far To Care. Forget about the Waco Borthers allusion in the "critic's" review. If the Clash loved country instead of reggae, this is what they would have sounded like. More than that it's the perfect blend of the four member's personalities (mixed with hot sauce and left of the skillet 'til jumping, of course). Rhett's aw shucks poetry, Murry's goofy charm, Ken's big licks and Phillip's driving beat. And you can sing along if you want. I have to say that this album didn't sink in to its final depth until i saw them live. It was the live show that drove the point home and made me a fan forever. If you get the chance (if they will ever tour again as a group) go see them!

Harken perfection:
This is one of the best album of all time, period. It's a mostly-undiscovered gem, a genre-busting masterpiece, an amazing leap in production and songwriting from previous efforts. If you're a newer fan you'll be blown away by the raw, naked lyrics of Rhett and the band's solid old skool country roots...yet the record is not country, or pop, or rock, or anything else conviently tagged. It's the ninety-sevs at the absolute top of their game: they got pop-ier, they got more polished, but they were never better than Timebomb. If you buy this and hate it: email me. I'll buy it off you - serious - and maybe school you a little in the process, punk. trick_rope@yahoo

Late to the train:
I could pick up a Roget's and list every synonym for excellent, sublime, transcendant, and accomplished, and be perfectly confident in my review if that were all that I wrote. As it is I am six years late to the dance that is the Old 97's. Truthfully, I am just using this space as evidence for posterity to log my unfliching, zealous support for this wonderful band that I believe may be one of the top ten american bands of all time. This is their masterpiece so far, hopefully they will have more.

I wish that I was in this band...:
...that is, if I had their brand of musical talent. Right now, I would just be a fool holding a guitar I can't play. So I guess they can't use me...and they certainly don't need me, as this album proves. I was introduced to the Old 97's through my older sister a few years ago. I remember being unable to discern who these guys were and what they were trying to do. I couldn't understand if they were country or alternative because--let's just face it--I was young and stupid. So basically, I wasn't completely smitten with their music outwardly, but I feel as if it seeped into my brain during the few listenings I had and has finally emerged with a newfound, yet deep appreciation. The songs on 'Too Far to Care' are an usual mix of happiness and melancholy, satisfaction and disdain, passion and apathy--all in one. Many of the songs involve lovesickness or being sick OF love or more likely a combination of both maladies. "Barrier Reef" and "Salome" are both excellent in those areas. And with lines like "I'm a thinking person I think that it's wrong/To keep on saying true love's waiting when true love is long gone," "Just like California" holds true with the embittered, lovelorn theme as well. The album does leave you feeling "dumped hard", but it does it with a joyous kind of dejection that the Old 97's seem to have mastered quite well. Overall, I just love every lyric on this album for being thoughtful and intelligent. 'Too Far to Care' is excellent for driving or when you are sitting at home pondering reality (as we all often do). I raise my glass to the Old 97's, and I hope that they will fill it with more alternative-country goodness.

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