The Bottle Rockets remain one of the most steel-solid bands amongst the greatest of rural-rock trailblazers. The St. Louis, Missouri outfit long regarded and adored as THE workingman's rock band have hit a creative high water mark with a new homecoming record that is at once their most spirited and finely honed. Zoysia is the latest sample of the Bottle Rockets' tenaciousness, their eighth album and second release on Bloodshot Records. Produced by Jeff Powell at the legendary Ardent Studios in Memphis and captured largely in two or three takes in a city with its own kind of groove. Coming out on the heels of a litany of knee-jerking changes measuring 4-years deep, this album finds the band (Brian Henneman - guitar/ vocals, Mark Ortmann - drums, John Horton - guitar, and newest and final member, Keith Voegele - bass/vocals) the proudest they've ever been of any other recorded works. The Bottle Rockets channel some serious cascading Crazy Horse squall, they nail the scruffy romantic, dirty fingernail rock of the Midwest and soak up the soulful vibes that ooze from the cement blocks in Memphis studios. Lyrically, the band's underdog outlook finds the optimism and the resignation behind worlds faraway, or just on the other side of the screen door. Add it all up and what you get is something that's all its own, something that is pure Bottle Rockets.
