When 90's Musical Genres Collide: Mike Daly of Whiskeytown, Time Flies When You're In A Coma and MTV's Headbanger's Ball

This is really great for Damn The Man when this kind of thing happens...One of my new favorite websites and books is Time Flies When You're In A Coma , a place where the words of metal gods transform into daily affirmations and advice that work like nothing since "The Secret," I'm telling you. Please visit this site if you are in a bad mood. It is the cure. Here's a sample:



Well, I've just discovered that I neglected to note that Mike Daly, former member of Ryan Adam's pre-massive-success, 90's alt-country band Whiskeytown (1994-1999) is the author of the book and owner of the very funny website. And now, MTV's Headbanger's Ball, (which enjoys life even now, but was alternately maligned during the 90's for its format switch from hair metal to "grunge" and loved by those of us starving for videos of heavy music on MTV at the time) has an interview with the man himself on why an alt-country pioneer is giving advice culled from metal lyrics now. Check it out here.

I found out about Whiskeytown later in the 90's, but was immediately hooked, being that I have a soft spot for No Depression-era alt-country (No Depression being the name of the premier magazine about the genre; it began life in 1995 and just became defunct in Fall 2008) and Americana-flavored music like Uncle Tupelo, Wilco and The Jayhawks.

Their 1995 debut album "Faithless Street" is a great place to start if you're interested in getting into alt-country,and interesting for Ryan Adams fans who are familiar with his particular brand of ego-driven contentiousness. I have a love/hate relationship with Adams himself, having seen him play at a small NYC bookstore called Bluestockings the night before the first time he was going on tour with the Rolling Stones...he was positively giddy with excitement and gratitude, and his performance was spot-on and moving. But then you hear the stories about his fights with fans, baqndmates and critics alike (you can check out his pissed-off voicemail to Chicago Sun-Times music critic Jim DeRogatis here) sometimes lead you to believe that the man is full of more than his own genius.

Here are some gritty fan recording videos of Whiskeytown songs off Faithless Street. Grab yerself a beer, kick off them sh*tkickers and rock with me on the porch, y'all!



Whiskeytown - "Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight" (Live April 1997, St. Louis, MO)



Whiskeytown - "16 Days" (Live April 1997, St. Louis, MO)