Bottle Rockets with Chuck Prophet and The Mission Express

“Before the Drive-By Truckers got in gear, when Ryan Adams was still settling in Whiskeytown, the Bottle Rockets were setting off M-80s as perhaps the most underappreciated roots-rock/Americana band of the mid-‘90s.” – Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

When the Bottle Rockets hit the scene in the mid ‘90s, the world wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. With their punk-rock pedigrees and arena-rock energy, their tougher-than-Springsteen storytelling and their romantic hearts sewn bare on their denim shirts, the pride of Festus, MO confounded musical generalities as they laid waste to clubs across the Midwest and then, soon enough, the nation. Back in a time when the critical language and resulting idioms for mixing underground rock with country was in its infancy, the Bottle Rockets were fearlessly – and quite loudly – playing rootsy weepers alongside howling rave ups, with singer/guitarist Brian Henneman leading the charge as some sort of Roger Miller of the indie set. The Bottle Rockets’ first and second albums, Bottle Rockets and The Brooklyn Side, are widely revered as not only two of the band’s finest releases, but also two formative, flagship recordings in the nascent era of a now-broadly recognized genre.

The band was unceremoniously birthed in 1992 and they very quickly became a forbearer for the new style alongside Uncle Tupelo, Old 97’s and Whiskeytown. Bottle Rockets was originally released in 1993 and was the first true showing of the band’ s signature country-aware, rough and ragged rock ‘n roll, matched with Henneman’s blue-collar songwriting skills, with lyrics depicting the life, struggle and dark humors of everyday people. In 1994, The Brooklyn Side came out to a relatively greater amount of significant success, marked both by its stature in the now burgeoning alt-movement and as the Bottle Rockets’ most popular effort to date. Following the album release, the band later signed with major label Atlantic Records, toured widely and reached a national audience with an appearance on Late Night with Conan O’ Brien. Bottle Rockets are Mark Ortmann, Keith Voegele, Brian Henneman and John Horton.

Chuck Prophet described his new album Bobby Fuller Died For Your Sins, released February 2017 on Yep Roc, as a “California Noir,” an album inspired partly by the mysteriously death of rocker Bobby Fuller in LA in 1966. Gritty and jangly, Prophet’s new album features 13 original works that explore doomed love, loneliness and fast-paced violence via Prophet’s muscular songwriting craft. They include songs about Fuller, the death of David Bowie, and the killing of a San Francisco security guard named Alex Nieto that drew international headlines as “Death by Gentrification.” Bobby Fuller finds Prophet coming full circle. He cut the album to tape at Hyde Street Studio in San Francisco, which also happens to be the same studio where Prophet did his very first recording session, while still in high school. Prophet brought out his ’64 Stratocaster for the sessions, conjuring a sound that Jonathan Richman once described as “gasoline in the sand, like a motorcycle at a hot dog stand.” He’s backed by The Mission Express, a band featuring his wife Stephanie Finch (vocals, keyboards, guitar), Kevin White (bass), Vicente Rodriquez (drums, vocals) and James DePrato (guitar). Lead single “Bad Year for Rock and Roll” is a timely homage to rock greats lost in 2016: “The Thin White Duke took a final bow / there’s one more star in the heavens now / I’m all dressed up in a mohair suit / watching Peter Sellers thinking of you.” “Jesus Was a Social Drinker” starts as a punchy mid-tempo rocker with clanking cowbell before unfurling into an explosive, psychedelic coda.” “Alex Nieto” is what Prophet refers to as his first protest song. It’s “an homage to a good man who should still be alive,” says Prophet.