Song:Gravity Fails
Album:Bottle Rockets/The Brooklyn Side
Today The Bottle Rockets are hailed as pioneers of Alt Country. But they never had the commercial success that was achieved by Drive By Truckers among others. Their music is worth checking out. Bottle Rockets leader Brian Henneman is from Missouri. He started a band with Tom and Bob Parr in 1977. They became friends with Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy who would go on to form Uncle Tupelo. Henneman's band Chicken Truck opened for Uncle Tupelo in the late 80s. After Chicken Truck split up, Henneman toured with Uncle Tupelo as a roadie. One of his demos got the attention of Rykodisc label East Side Digital. So Henneman reformed the band as The Bottle Rockets with Tom Parr on guitar, Tom V. Ray on bass and Mark Ortmann on drums. Henneman sang lead and wrote most of the songs. Gravity Fails is from the 1994 album The Brooklyn Side, their second album. After plenty of critical acclaim, The Bottle Rockets signed with Atlantic's TAG label and they rereleased The Brooklyn Side. They appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. They recorded the album 24 Hours A Day. But staff layoffs at Atlantic delayed the release until 1997. And most of the staff who promoted The Brooklyn Side were gone. So the album didn't sell and Atlantic dropped them. After recording for a couple of other labels, The Bottle Rockets signed with Alt Country label Bloodshot Records. Bloodshot released the first two Bottle Rockets albums as a twofer with plenty of bonus tracks. Henneman still leads The Bottle Rockets. Ortmann is still in the band along with John Horton on guitar and Keith Voegele on bass. Their latest album Bit Logic was released last year and they are currently on tour. Here's The Bottle Rockets performing Gravity Fails for Music Fog at the 2011 Americana Music Festival in Nashville.
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