Showcase info: Deer Tick performs at 1 a.m. on Wednesday, March 18 @ Club de Ville (900 Red River St.) and 1 a.m., Friday, March 20 @ Habana Bar Backyard (708 E.6th St.)
Other appearances: Gigotron/Videothing Presents …, 11 p.m., Thursday, March 19 @ Club 1808 (1808 E.12th St.); Music by the Slice, 1:30 p.m., Saturday, March 21 @ Home Slice Pizza (1415 South Congress Ave.)
Show info: Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit / Deer Tick perform at the Rumba Cafe on Friday, March 6. Tickets are $10 (advance) / $12 (at the door) and the show is 18 and over (under 21 pays a $2 surcharge).
(Jason is also playing SXSW)
Ex-Drive-By Trucker guitarist Jason Isbell and his band – The 400 Unit – released their self-titled album in mid-February . It’s Isbell’s second post-DBT release but the first where he’s put a name to the guys backing him up. And it’s with good reason that he gives credit where credit is due – the 400 Unit brings a consistency to Isbell’s sound, a consistency that was lacking (a bit) on his 2007 debut, Sirens of the Ditch. Don’t get me wrong, I loved that album and went so far as to call it one of 2007’s most “outstanding country-influenced rock albums” but it sounded exactly like what it was – a culmination of years worth of songs that had been brewing in Isbell’s head.
With less time to write, and more input and influence from his band, Isbell’s latest sounds like the fully realized vision of an accomplished Southern songwriter and contains some of Isbell’s strongest compositions to date (“Sunstroke,” “Good,” “No Choice in the Matter” and “The Last Song I Will Ever Write” are personal favorites).
MP3: Sunstroke
I sent Isbell some questions via his publicist a few weeks ago. Read the interview after the jump.
