**Big Whiskey and The GrooGrux King**

[markTR]

What are these acoustic versions? Are they released stuff or Lillywhite Sessions-esque?

[Coldchillin]

D&T played a few of the songs IIRC, maybe that is what they are referring to.

[markTR]

Ah, yeah. Forgot about that

[skilly]

i need those acoustic versions!!!!!

[mattinbeloit]

i need those acoustic versions!!!!!

I've looked all over ants and can't find them either, sorry...

[Cor]

Tried listening to this for shits over the weekend. Got about 3 songs in and switched to that Red Rocks CD from 95.

[skilly]

yeah dude big whiskey is really bad.

Stand up >>>> whiskey

IMO

[markTR]

I think Lying in the Hands of God pretty much trumps all of Stand Up. Squirm is pretty good, too

[skilly]

see the ask anyone anything thread. i dont get LITHOG really either. if timmy wasnt on the track i dont think it would bee everyones unanimous favorite like it seems to have become.

[markTR]

It feels like a song they would have produced back in '98 or something. That's probably why I like it so much

[littlefriend]

No fucking way is Stand Up better. Not by a long shot. And I like most of BW better than Everyday. Just barely, but still.

[skilly]

No fucking way is Stand Up better. Not by a long shot. And I like most of BW better than Everyday. Just barely, but still.

i guess i just dont "get" whiskey. i think it kinda blows

[markTR]

Its not great by any stretch, but Stand Up sucks so hard I can't agree with it being better than any of their other albums

[GSR]

No fucking way is Stand Up better. Not by a long shot. And I like most of BW better than Everyday. Just barely, but still.

Absolutely.

Big Whiskey obviously doesn't come close to touching UTTAD, Crash, or BTCS, but it's infinitely better than Stand Up, and I've almost decided it's significantly better than Everyday. When I do have the urge to listen to Everyday, which is pretty rare, I skip quite a few tracks. I can listen to Big Whiskey in its entirety and multiple times in a row. The music is tight, Carter is a beast, I enjoy Tim's contributions, and Dave's old songwriting talent comes through in more than a few places.

Another big factor that supports BW for me is the entire dynamic of the album. Everyday is not a DMB album. It's a Dave and Glen Ballard record. The parts were written out for the band before they got to the studio. Big Whiskey absolutely has lyrical blemishes and cheesy moments, and some songs are certainly weaker than others (Seven is the one that comes to mind, but I don't even bother skipping that one), but for the most part the music and songs are solid and have a much greater amount of depth compared to anything on Stand Up.

Everyday is electronic, overproduced, and features no active contributions from the rest of the band. Whining about the band's involvement in the songwriting process has become the latest thing (mostly just because of Hunger for the Great Light), but I'd rather have a record that feels like a group effort.There's no chance of getting back to the first three records, and we have to remove the unrealistic expectation of the band ever producing something of that caliber again. Big Whiskey is the first successful true collaboration by the band in a long time if you consider Busted Stuff to be an obligatory official release of the botched LWS, and while it's obviously not a masterpiece, it should completely be considered an improvement and a step back in the right direction for the band. I just like it for what it is.

[MakoMako]

No fucking way is Stand Up better. Not by a long shot. And I like most of BW better than Everyday. Just barely, but still.

Absolutely.

Big Whiskey obviously doesn't come close to touching UTTAD, Crash, or BTCS, but it's infinitely better than Stand Up, and I've almost decided it's significantly better than Everyday. When I do have the urge to listen to Everyday, which is pretty rare, I skip quite a few tracks. I can listen to Big Whiskey in its entirety and multiple times in a row. The music is tight, Carter is a beast, I enjoy Tim's contributions, and Dave's old songwriting talent comes through in more than a few places.

Another big factor that supports BW for me is the entire dynamic of the album. Everyday is not a DMB album. It's a Dave and Glen Ballard record. The parts were written out for the band before they got to the studio. Big Whiskey absolutely has lyrical blemishes and cheesy moments, and some songs are certainly weaker than others (Seven is the one that comes to mind, but I don't even bother skipping that one), but for the most part the music and songs are solid and have a much greater amount of depth compared to anything on Stand Up.

Everyday is electronic, overproduced, and features no active contributions from the rest of the band. Whining about the band's involvement in the songwriting process has become the latest thing (mostly just because of Hunger for the Great Light), but I'd rather have a record that feels like a group effort.There's no chance of getting back to the first three records, and we have to remove the unrealistic expectation of the band ever producing something of that caliber again. Big Whiskey is the first successful true collaboration by the band in a long time if you consider Busted Stuff to be an obligatory official release of the botched LWS, and while it's obviously not a masterpiece, it should completely be considered an improvement and a step back in the right direction for the band. I just like it for what it is.

I agree to a degree. My only real piece to add is that my crying over the whole band writing the songs extends far beyond just HFTGL. I think a good portion of the songs that the entire band has sat down and written have been significantly weaker, lyrically, than any of the songs they produced in the past where Dave is about 90%-100% the lyrics. Each of them has a talent for something, and Dave's has always been interesting lyrics. By the whole band wanting to jump in and write lyrics as well, they're taking a big part of Dave's contribution away (at least in my eyes).

I think they are all wonderful musicians, but being a good musician doesn't make you a good lyricist.

All of the interviews and articles show the band defending this album to death. I think a big part of that is that this was a tribute to Roi. But I think if that wasn't the case, you could hear them in a few years admitting that the album wasn't nearly as good as their older ones. The same thing happened with Stand Up. They were psyched about the new album and still hyped over the new songwriting/recording process that they swore it was a great album. Ask them now, and they admit its shallow.

I also have to give my defense to Everyday, though really the songs as opposed to the album. I think that the Everyday songs have grown live and are really more "DMB" songs as opposed to "Dave Matthews and Glen Ballard" songs. You can clearly hear how they've changed from when the album first came out, at least some of them.

I don't really know what I'm trying to get at, but I haven't posted in a while and this felt needed.