New West Records
2004
Drag It Up
About This Album
"You're a bottle cap away from pushin' me too far," sings Rhett Miller on the title track of Old 97's' Drag It Up, and those who hold the band near and dear to their hearts will be overjoyed to hear that the album just gets more heartbroke after that. "Won't Be Home" is a headfirst leap into the group's trademark sound -- with a fiery blast of Ken Bethea's Telecaster and a dirty stumble from Philip Peeples' kit, the first song rips through Miller's familiar croon buoyed by bassist Murry Hammond's bright harmonies. This earthy return to form will be welcomed by those who thought their last album, Satellite Rides, and Miller's solo excursion were too slick, and if anything, it seems as though the boys took special care to keep some raw edges on the recording. On the rock numbers, Bethea's guitar frequently bursts beautifully into the red, tearing holes in the already volatile structure of the song, and on occasion the drums mischievously threaten to rattle the whole train off the tracks, but like the hero in an old kinetoscope, the whole band swoops down in the nick of time to rescue the damsel tied to the tracks. A handful of the songs are rumored to be from a Ranchero Brothers album that Miller and Hammond have been threatening to complete for years, and a few of the more straightforward countrified numbers, like "Blinding Sheets of Rain," "Bloomington," and the breathy "In the Satellite Rides a Star," are likely candidates.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.