May 7, 2007 | Posted by David B. at 9:51 AM

High living, that's history!

robbie fulks

Please allow me to be defensive for a second. Pitchfork slammed Robbie Fulks' new live disc Revenge! last week, focusing mainly on Fulks' schtick. While it's true the man is chock-full of schtick - and that if you don't buy it, you'll be too distracted to enjoy anything - his music is just amazing. Fulks is a first-rate country songwriter, a crazy bluegrass guitarist, and a first-class showman.

The review also had an "alt-country is soooo outdated" angle to it, which, in Fulks' case, is ridiculous. There's nothing alt about Robbie Fulks' country. While it's certainly, uh, post-modern - song titles include "Goodbye, Good-Lookin'" and "The Buck Starts Here" ("with Hank soon to follow") - this is country music plain and simple, and it's fantastic.

Robbie Fulks - Cigarette State and Let's Kill Saturday Night.

It was hard to pick a track from Revenge!. I'm actually not thrilled about the set list - where the hell is "Tears Only Run Way"?! - but these two songs are good choices.

I saw Fulks at TT The Bear's five or so years ago, and it remains one of the best shows I'e ever seen. He did a great set of country barnburners with his band, and threw in some ridiculous covers (most notably Michael Jackson's "Black Or White") for good measure.

You can order Revenge! from Yep Roc.

Comments

Old habits die hard, so I skim Pitchfork every morning. Most of what I see is forgetable and predictable, but every now and again (like the Revenge review, panning Amy Winehouse, giving everything Bob Pollard shits out at least a 6, usually more), they miss the mark so badly that I am reminded all-over again why that site fucking sucks.

Posted by: BabyPop at May 8, 2007 12:02 PM

Yeah, BabyPop, I'm with you. And I suppose I need to apologize somewhat, if only for ranting. Whining about Pitchfork is very, uh, 2002. But sometimes I just need to let it out, and I'm too cheap to get a music website therapist.

Posted by: Robot David at May 9, 2007 9:23 AM

Love this guy, and I hadn't heard of him before, so thanks for the alert. A friend in Texas says she's seen him cover Abba's "Dancing Queen." What a character he must be.

Posted by: John Branch at May 9, 2007 11:27 AM

Yeah...unlike his Cher cover, "Dancing Queen" doesn't really come off as snarky or anything. It's almost kinda sad.

Posted by: BabyPop at May 9, 2007 11:30 AM

Revenge is a very good record... and there's only 3 pieces of "Shtick" on it (which are very funny anyway).

I saw Robbie last weekend and he was brilliant. He did the Cher song but the Abba one seems to have dropped from his repertoire. He also used to do a killer "Beat It" as well...

Posted by: Mikey at June 11, 2007 3:39 AM
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