The Rug

Description

~this is a tall tale, set to music~ from doughblood The Rug marks the first recorded material from Big Ass Truck in over three years. Easily the most complex record that the band has made to date, The Rug masterfully blends the band's traditional Memphis-style rock with Colin Butler's turntable/sample-heavy sound, jazz and experimental grooves, lo-fi weirdness, twangy spaghetti western riffs, tribal chanting, and a unique and esoteric sense of humor. The first gig Big Ass Truck ever played was booked before the band was even a band. Guitarist/singer/keyboardist Steve Selvidge recounts: "The owner of The Antenna Club (in their hometown Memphis) called up and asked for a last minute replacement band. I told him I had been working with some people and could put a band together pretty quick. When he asked me the name, I just blurted out the first thing that came to mind, which was Big Ass Truck." After seven years together, the name has remained, as has the lineup of the band, with the one exception being the recent addition of bassist Grayson Grant, the brother of guitarist/vocalist Robby Grant. The band has been quite successful during their seven year history, playing 200+ gigs a year and sharing the stage with a variety of well-known acts including Ben Harper, 311, Fishbone, Widespread Panic, and Medeski, Martin, and Wood. Soon after the band formed, Big Ass Truck signed to Upstart, a division of Rounder Records. The band became quickly frustrated when Upstart was no longer a priority for Rounder and decided to revive the acclaimed Memphis label Peabody Records. Peabody was founded in the mid-70's by Sid Selvidge, the Memphis music legend best known for his work with Alex Chilton and Mud Boy & the Neutrons (he is also the father of BAT guitarist/vocalist Steve Selvidge). After being defunct for two decades, Peabody Records released Big Ass Truck's Who Let You in Here? in 1998. Looking for distribution and marketing on a larger scale, Big Ass Truck signed with Terminus Records in early 2000. Terminus Records re-packaged and re-released WLYIH ? that fall and several months later, the band returned to the studio for their follow-up. The Rug was recorded in four days at Easley-McCain Recording in Memphis and was mixed and edited over the course of four months at Memphis Soundworks. The band walked into the studio with only two and a half songs; the rest of the material emerged spontaneously during recording. Selvidge explains the process: "Typically, Colin would throw up some different loops on one or more samplers, and we would just see what we started reacting to. From there, motifs and chord changes would begin to make themselves apparent, and parts would be arranged, until we had a concrete song that made sense. Once we got all the music into [the computer], we really had a lot of freedom in terms of experimenting with the song structures. Songs were lengthened, cut, and then stretched again. We were basically able to carve songs out of gigantic blocks of music." There are a universe of different sounds and approaches on the record: the nervous pop sound of the single "Locked In", the layered atmospheric soundscape of "The Me", the synth and organ work on "The Ghost Story" and the chanting heard on "Doughblood", the rousing sax and trumpet backing on "The 0", the swirling effects on the album's title track, the silliness of "Add-a-Shag". And a song such as "The Path" serves as a reminder that even though there are a variety of musical influences that can be heard on the The Rug, the record retains the band's singular and unique sound. Big Ass Truck is: Robert Barnett - drums Colin Butler - turntable, beats, loops Grayson Grant - bass Robby Grant - vocals, guitar Steve Selvidge - vocals, guitar