The Dinosaur Truckers Set Bluegrass On Fire
Holy mother. Find something big and heavy to grab on to and hold on tight, because Deutschland’s Dinosaur Truckers are about to blow your ass DOWN!
Not since the legendary days of the .357 String Band have we seen this combination of machine gun speed and precision mixed with sheer energetic madness. Instrumentation at the height of human abilities and high caliber songwriting and composition like this defy all the stereotypes when you must resort to using “punk” as a prefix to describe a band’s blazing speed and unrelenting attitude. While the Mumfordization of roots music has left so many string bands looking for the right watered-down derivative to forge mass appeal, The Dinosaur Truckers offer up the pure, uncut, unadulterated form–potent and dangerous and not for the faint of heart. Listen to The Dinosaur Truckers at your own risk.
I know what you’re asking. How in the world can four guys from Germany, so foreign to the soil that bred bluegrass music be so good? Free from scene or stereotypes or silly arguments and expectations of what bluegrass is or is supposed to be, The Dinosaur Truckers can simply put their music out unhinged and uninhibited, and wait for the rest of the world to figure it out.
And these dudes might be new to us, but they’re not new. Their first album Songs For Homefolks came out in 2008, and their followup Down This Road was released in 2009. Their latest, self-titled album will be released in Germany on April 12th, and according to Amazon will hit the US April 26th. They’ve played more than 100 shows in 2011 and 2012 respectively, and have toured Germany, Austria, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Belgium, and will be playing Muddy Roots Europe this summer.
With a new album to poised to invade the English-speaking world and a wild-eyed energy, The Dinosaur Truckers are a band to watch, and you can do that below.
(review of their new album coming soon…)
April 11, 2013 @ 9:25 am
Is it selfish of me to not like them because they sound too much like 357?
April 11, 2013 @ 9:49 am
My take:
If the .357 String Band was still around, that would be one thing. But since they’re not, yet I still have the hunger for that sound, The Dinosaur Truckers are very welcome to my ears.
Also, I think for folks familiar with the .357 String Band, it may be easy to jump to the conclusion that The Dinosaur Truckers are a knock off. But this band has been around for years, we just didn’t know about them. I’m not sure they had even heard of .357 String Band when they were developing their sound. The two could have grown up parallel from each other on separate continents. There’s a lot of back story on The Dinosaur Truckers to discover, including two albums from ’08 and ’09. And this sound is so intuitive and good, I’m not surprised there wasn’t more than one band doing a similar thing for a long time. I think the breakup of .357 left a huge void yet to be filled. The Dinosaur Truckers may be the ones to do it.
April 11, 2013 @ 10:00 am
This is why I love this site…. I’ll be getting this album for sure… They do sound a lot like .357, but I’m perfectly ok with that.
April 11, 2013 @ 10:11 am
Saying someone sounds like the .357 String Band is a huge compliment in my opinion. I posted these videos now ahead of an album review for their new album because I wanted folks to get familiar with the name. They’re both over a year old, and a live video may not always represent the full breadth of a band’s sound like an album does. Their new album has a lot of electric guitar on it, some drums, and though they do still sounds similar to .357, there’s more separation than what is represented in these videos. These videos are excellent though, and since they are of older songs, I wanted to share them first.
April 11, 2013 @ 10:34 am
I’m going to be picking up this one for sure. Interesting that Amazon lists the genre as “alternative rock.”
April 11, 2013 @ 11:40 am
Wow. While listening to the videos, I closed my eyes and all I could picture was being at a .357 show. I’ve been hard up for some new .357 music and that will likely never happen. This will definitely do. Excited to dig a deeper into their music. Thanks you sir for this and every other great recomendation you have given over the years.
April 11, 2013 @ 11:58 am
Very cool, thanks for posting. Makes me think about REK “Bluegrass Widow”. This is how i picture Robert Earl playing blugrass in that song…
April 11, 2013 @ 12:22 pm
Nice picking and vocals they have talent but the sound is to progressive for me.
April 11, 2013 @ 12:41 pm
holy pasture apples. I just got my ass sliced off and handed to me on a golden plate after watching the videos. love speedgrass and don’t think they copy. 357, just sounds the same cause they play bluegrass instruments so fast and hard. thanks for the introduction of this band.
April 11, 2013 @ 1:15 pm
they sound great but pretty much sound like a split lip cover band except with a bit more of a bass line.
April 12, 2013 @ 11:35 am
Love Split Lip Rayfied and I feel they don’t get enough credit for being one of the first bands pioneering this fast-paced style of bluegrass. But overall I think their sound is a lot more dirty than .357 or The Dinosaur Truckers. They’re really 3 different bands. If you go back and listen to old bluegrass records from Bill Monroe, Jimmy Martin, and Flatt & Scruggs, it may be hard to tell the music apart if you’re not intimately aware of the bands. That’s because they’re all playing pure bluegrass and its a very dedicated sub genre of country, not because they’re ripping each other off. If anything, everyone is ripping off Bill Monore. But you know, that’s okay because it has resulted in some really good music.
April 11, 2013 @ 1:19 pm
And not a hint of German accents. Nein!
April 11, 2013 @ 2:31 pm
HELL YEAH!
April 11, 2013 @ 2:54 pm
They pick the shit out of it! As mentioned similiar to 357 String band but also Trampled by Turtles and Carolina Still.
April 11, 2013 @ 2:59 pm
These Tracks do sound quite a bit like .357, and that’s just fine with me. However, I previewed more of their stuff and I’d say they are more in line with Canadian band The D.Rangers.
April 11, 2013 @ 4:50 pm
While listening to the songs my son sitting on the couch said “Hadn’t heard that .357 song before” your take is spot on. Hope they tour America soon.
April 11, 2013 @ 5:57 pm
wow…awsome….makes me miss 357 that much more….they are very good…
April 12, 2013 @ 10:55 am
What’s next, a Chinese version of 357 Stringband, Arab, or how about South African? This seem a little disingenuous to me. If you’re gonna play roots music, it helps to actually have that music in your roots. Couldn’t they play Polka, or German Folk.
It’s like letting yuppy city people play country country music. Nashville already did, and look what happened.
April 12, 2013 @ 11:29 am
Well, as I’ve said before, I have their upcoming album and it offers a lot of distinction between them and .357. These are just two videos. I agree that where an artist is from can lend to authenticity, but in the end the music itself should be the most important thing. Judging music based on where a band is from seems to be a limiting of one’s music experience.
April 13, 2013 @ 1:38 pm
That’s right and Jerry Jeff Walker among others is a good example. Bigfoot and PB: one could never mistake them for Rhodes scholars.
April 13, 2013 @ 1:50 pm
Woops, meant jerry jeff…edit button?
April 12, 2013 @ 12:23 pm
I have to agree PB. Next thing you know a ragged ass bunch of damn Yankee punks from some way up north place like Wisconsin or Minnesota will think they are entitled to play bluegrass. Lordy, I only hope and pray its not too late for Nashville to save us from that.
April 12, 2013 @ 2:52 pm
Maybe you should take a remedial reading class before you start arguing with people. Nashville isn’t gonna save anything, they allowed a bunch of yuppy fags and dikes from the city come there and pretend to be hillbillies. That’s how you got pop country. There’s more to 357 than just being punks, read some of their lyrics.
April 14, 2013 @ 4:55 am
Hey PB,
this is Daniel of the Dinosaur Truckers.
I just wanted to let you know that we’re well aware of the issue of playing music that’s not based in our culture. But we think one of the great things about music is that it knows no boundaries or borders. Otherwise Irish folk should never have been allowed to cross the Irish border, make its way to the US and function as one of the very cornerstones of Bluegrass.
In our opinion, when it comes to “keeping it real” it’s the lyrics that count. And you will NEVER hear us sing about drinking moonshine, driving a semi down highway 54 etc. as that would be undoubtedly ridiulous! Our songs deal with stuff we witness in everyday life (except for completely fictional stuff like murder ballads, but that’s a different thing anyway) and the lyrics could as well be performed with a whole different sound backing them.
So we just play the kind of music we want to play, regardless where we actually live and we’re not trying to pretend to be something we’re obviously not.
As for .357, of course we love this band, but there’s a thousand other bands we also love. And we naturally incorporate a little of everything we like into our sound… As those videos are indeed not really up to date and we couldn’t use amps etc. when they were recorded, they may not show that. But you can check some of our current stuff in the Media section at http://dinosaurtruckers.de/ if you please.
Don’t you think that makes sense?
Cheers,
Daniel
May 30, 2013 @ 8:43 pm
The Dinosaur Truckers played Muddy Roots Europe last year and will again this year. Cool folks. Get out to Tennessee in 2014 and we’ll give you a reason to sing about some shine.
Dinosaur Truckers are Muddy Roots family.
January 13, 2014 @ 9:40 am
wow, that’s the most stupid comment I have ever read… Bluegrass, country, blues and a lot of other styles that you love are the consequence of mixing different styles, cultures and influences.. That’s the beauty of this music: it’s not your music, nor is it mine.. Do you think Bill Monroe or Elvis Presley would’ve created the music they did by sticking to a style that they were supposed to play? The answer is NO. They were also influenced by black musicians. Back then there were also people like you who said about Elvis that he should’ve sticked to the decent white music of his parents. But luckily he didn’t. By the way I’m Belgian, I guess you’d rather not hear me talk about “your” music he? You know what, I even play “your” music! Oh no, what has this world become!
April 12, 2013 @ 4:15 pm
Hey all effing around aside, this is the shit!!! Great find here Trig. Thanx. Ditto on the 357 String Band compare. A band could pick why worse influences.
April 12, 2013 @ 4:36 pm
…I need to take a remedial typing class too. Should be “way worse influences”. Anywho loving all the great tips here on SCM. Carolina Still, Foghorn String Band, etc…
April 12, 2013 @ 6:18 pm
are they officially just “The Dinosaur Truckers”? For years it was Pistol Pete’s Dinosaur Truckers.
Europa & Punk/ Bluegrass | Driftercountry.com
April 13, 2013 @ 2:05 pm
[…] Truckers uit Duitsland. Deze Folkpunk Bluegrass band heeft onlangs een werkelijk uitstekende recensie mogen ontvangen van het toonaangevende blog Savingcountrymusic.com. The Dinosaur Truckers hebben […]
April 13, 2013 @ 10:04 pm
Now that’s a band I want to see live!!
April 17, 2013 @ 11:58 am
im having an issue posting comments. hopefully this one works.
Having both been in .357 String Band AND meeting the Dinosaur Truckers last year, I have to chime in.
I think these guys are awesome and VERY genuine. You dont have to be from Kentucky to play stringed instruments. If this your take on whatever this kind of music we play, keep in mind that .357 came out of the midwest. Yup, we’re yankees.
hey PB, check this out man, seriously. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH2rCPkSDI4
im not takin shots at ya, just trying to inform ya brotha.
heres another
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozrDl3MJ6ME
this is folk music brother. its all of ours