Mad Trucker Gone Mad

Album Review

The revival of country music in indie-band land (led by the two bands that formed out of Uncle Tupelo's split, Wilco and Son Volt) has been different than the last fascination circa 1983. Though the new brand is certainly more "country-rock" than the bluesy formula laid down from Hank Williams, Sr. to George Jones, there was more roots rock and rockabilly in the '80s kind. But this Madison, WI-based trio, led by former Ladybeard leader Del Monte Carlo, rocks as sure as it howls, with so many swigs of moonshine '30s-'50s hoot rock that the band is more energized psychobilly. Harder and less quirky than fellow Wisconsinites the Violent Femmes and faster than the Cramps (who were more wonderfully perverse), if not as ballsy as the Didjits, Mad Trucker Gone Mad scores with a set of greasy but great hooks, reminding in the best senses of the Libertines' modernization of Leadbelly's '30s classic, "In the Pines." Or the Long Ryders if they'd had more Bill Haley, Hank Ballard, Jimmy Rodgers, Gene Autry, Carl Perkins, Gene Vincent, and Sun era Elvis in them (and a splash more cowboy hats and spurs). Great surprise!