Pages tagged “Robbie Fulks”

[Above: The New Pornographers.]

Ahhh, the CTA. Gotta love those delays and train station closings, right? The two-hour travel time to Hideout prevented the chance to see The Uglysuit and those that played before them, but nothing cools off an angry commuter like some free watermelon and a playful game of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes with Tim Fite on a lovely Sunday. His lively hip-hop performance was one of the weekend's many kid-friendly offerings, which also included crafts, a Wee Hairy Beasties performance and a puppet show whose theater was rigged to a bike.

Home to the out-of-place and in-between, the Hideout welcomes locals and musicians of any and all persuasions to the industrial North Branch along the Chicago River year-round. And even after a summer full of stacked festivals rolling through the city (Lollapalooza, Pitchfork Musical Festival and myriad neighborhood fests), the annual Hideout Block Party is one of the most anticipated by Chicagoans.

We believe in equal time here at Paste, so after naming the biggest Republican and Democratic musicians earlier this week, I thought I'd look into who's supporting third-party candidates. The libertarians claim some fine musicians, including the first one I ever interviewed back in 1990—Mojo Nixon.

Robbie Fulks isn’t trying to become the king of country put-down songs, but on his new album, Georgia Hard, he offers what could be construed as a sequel to his infamous Nashville kiss-off, “Fuck This Town.”

Though he says the song is about the country music industry, and his new tirade, “Countrier Than Thou,” is about fans, he admits, “They’re definitely connected by my own wrathful contempt. They’re both putdowns of country-music appendages.”

While the fans and industry are appendages, Fulks is at the heart of country music, or would be, at least, in a Nashville less-driven by glossy pop. Still, delivering a sound at home in honky tonks from Bakersfield to Birmingham, Fulks’ Chicago exile is an apt illustration of how Music Row has changed.

That’s not to say Georgia Hard is alt.country. At least, Fulks doesn’t think so.

He mentions ’70s country stalwarts such as Gene Watson, Mel Street and Don Williams as influences, but other voices pop up—George Jones hovers over novelty song “I’m Gonna Take you Home (and Make You Like Me),” sung with Fulks’ wife, Donna. And Loudon Wainwright III could’ve penned “Countrier Than Thou”—which also takes a swipe at President Bush.

But the album’s biggest impact comes from a tune with no yuks involved: the hankie-puller, “Leave It to a Loser.” It’s a lovelorn slice of perfection just waiting to become a country classic—whether Nashville likes it or not.