Only 1 album in 9 years

[Bmwm3oz]

Originally Posted by ExistenceNow

By all means, head over to the safe space that is the DMB Family where everything this band has ever done is nothing short of the best thing any band has ever done.

Originally Posted by DMBlunts

For real, objectivity is an idea that is completely lost on those people. That kind of fanbase probably applaud their sports teams for winning one out of 12 games a year. It's sickening really.

I’ve crapped on the band plenty on these boards. And I have no interest in being around brown noser fans.

There’s a difference between the occasional criticism and full on disdain for Dave and his band. ‘Dave has nothing left to say’. Imagine logging into a fan forum about a band you wish would no longer produces music, and that you believe has nothing left to say in terms of their craft. Wow.

[Scoundrel]

The band is done.

Honestly, they missed their chance at a real good farewell tour/show. DMB hasn't been relevant for at least a decade (arguably almost 20 years now).

The last real DMB show happened on 6/28/08.

It's been a downhill slide ever since, and the lack of any creative spark is pretty much the death nail on the band's future.

[ExistenceNow]

Originally Posted by Bmwm3oz

I’ve crapped on the band plenty on these boards. And I have no interest in being around brown noser fans.

There’s a difference between the occasional criticism and full on disdain for Dave and his band. ‘Dave has nothing left to say’. Imagine logging into a fan forum about a band you wish would no longer produces music, and that you believe has nothing left to say in terms of their craft. Wow.

I mean, it's kinda hard to argue that his well is still deep when a large chunk of the last album was stuff from previous sessions. AFTW came out almost ten years ago. How many new songs have we seen since then? A dozen or so? How many of those are great?
It is what it is.

[DMBCardinal]

I think the bigger issue is the decision making on what songs Dave puts on the album. From what we heard there were a bunch of songs left off of CT. Bismarck was one of them, and most people are fans of that.

[ExistenceNow]

Bismarck is a good song. Definitely would have preferred that to be on the album over most of the rest of it.

[Route_2]

What do we think Dave's mindset is when making the album inclusion decisions? Would Bismarck really have had any effect on the flow of CT? Does he have some vision of a future album that it would fit better on? Are producers making these decisions or is it his choice alone? Why can he dust off Idea of You and Can't Stop but not other better older songs?

I love unanswerable questions.

[HonestDenver1]

Originally Posted by jaymas9

What if there were good, new songs that truly embody the best this version of the band has to offer and that helps keep things fresh?

I'm not saying that's what is going to happen, but I'd have to think with the talent in the band, it's a possibility.

Still would like a violin back though.

Well they've certainly had a few DMB esgue songs the last decade IMO. Black and Bluebirds, Bismarck, Do You Remember, I'm sure there are a couple more.. I think these are really good DMB sounding songs. B&BB was such a breath of fresh air when it first came out... I think its honestly the most DMB sounding thing they've done since AFTW... But it drags at shows.. It's just not a crowd pleaser, similar to Lover Lay Down. A classic song that everyone gets stoked about on sets, but at the actually show most people go to the bathroom.. Usually due to it's set placement, but that's another story..

[HonestDenver1]

Originally Posted by Route_2

What do we think Dave's mindset is when making the album inclusion decisions? Would Bismarck really have had any effect on the flow of CT? Does he have some vision of a future album that it would fit better on? Are producers making these decisions or is it his choice alone? Why can he dust off Idea of You and Can't Stop but not other better older songs?

I love unanswerable questions.

Let's speculate... Bismarck and the ending of Black and Bluebirds seemed violin heavy perhaps... Perhaps Boyd never really completed his parts in the midst of him wrestling with the band... Or they just weren't up to par.. The band was due for an album with a date already in the books and needed to get things together to get it out.. All the other newish songs were not Boyd heavy, likely due to him not participating in the creative process at that time...

In the past though, I think it comes down to overplaying some of the songs live. The 2004/2006 songs got a ton of play. I believe all new songs were played almost every single night of the 04 tour with a few exceptions.. But it's like they beat the inspiration out of them, rather than hone them in... Dave and the band just got sick of them and no longer wanted to work on it, so they got a new producer to help spark some fresh ideas and just went with all of them... Makes sense and why of course we got Stand Up and not a great album from that period of time...

Same with LWS... The songs were even more finished than the 04/06 songs but lost a little magic between the tour and then the studio is my guess. Especially with A&R saying there were no singles in the material...

Dave , and speaking as a songwriter myself tends, to like the new stuff. Most artists do... Especially if it's finished as opposed to a song you've been tinkering with for years and just can't quite get 100% done...A finished new song is always going to the top of the pile as opposed to some song you've been beating yourself over the head with...

However, I think he makes mistakes when making these decisions and I wish the band/producer would step in more often and compare/contrast Come Tomorrow with Bismarck... Or Where are You Going with JTR...

[HonestDenver1]

Originally Posted by ExistenceNow

Bismarck is a good song. Definitely would have preferred that to be on the album over most of the rest of it.

Agreed it would have made the album a lot stronger.. I don't get the decision to leave it off completely... Similar to the bonus songs on Big Whiskey.. Why not just make a double album with those songs on there? It would have made for a much stronger overall opinion of it. Because now I have a seperation of BW and the LRB bonus disc... It's not BW... It's just filler songs.

I also don't get why it's been off the sets completely, even D&T shows since 2017... Makes no sense. It's a really great song.

[HonestDenver1]

Originally Posted by Scoundrel

The band is done.

Honestly, they missed their chance at a real good farewell tour/show. DMB hasn't been relevant for at least a decade (arguably almost 20 years now).

The last real DMB show happened on 6/28/08.

It's been a downhill slide ever since, and the lack of any creative spark is pretty much the death nail on the band's future.

I think people were saying this before 6/28/08 though.. I just would get in your time machine and live during that period. This thread is not for you.

[HonestDenver1]

Originally Posted by grilldanmo

I hear you, but from my perspective your start carries some negativity....not that that was your intention.

I definitely want more music...always...but I'm a big fan of all but two of their albums. CT is an album that I very much enjoy. The evolution of songwriting and sound of a band is of the journey I love, even when I don't always like the results (e.g.: ED & SU, as well as a various tunes like Plastic Girl among others).

Dave's still writing great stuff, but the process of packaging material and trying to sell it is just a crazy endeavor these days, especially for artists that used to make significant amounts of money from sales. If they spent even a small fraction of what they used to on promotional efforts, they'd still be pretty deep in the hole after the initial sales "rush" for a new release occurred.

That said, there's at least two other albums they could have released during there career:
- 2004 - 2006 tunes and the
- 2015 tunes
The latter obviously adding to the post 2012 total. And then there's another two albums (at least) of material that have no official studio releases throughout the years.

The longer the band is around WITHOUT regularly releasing new material, the more stuck the fans will get in their myopic views of what the band is supposed to sound like and what constitutes "good" songs. That said, no one has to like anything (let alone everything) from any artist.

To a certain extent, I don't fault the band for recognizing the lack of benefit of officially releasing new music. Despite having more income (and theoretically more disposable income), their fan base isn't buying the new music. I'm not interested in the argument about the quality of said music, because my ears and I strongly disagree with any notion that it's mediocre let alone garbage.

We've got no choice but to take it when it comes (obviously). I definitely wish they recorded and released a lot more music than they have.

Well any negativity was just that I wanted more music in the last decade with a big hope that more is coming soon. It was not to kick start a convo about not preferring any more new music... But that's where it went which is just surprising to me.

[Route_2]

Originally Posted by HonestDenver1

Let's speculate... Bismarck and the ending of Black and Bluebirds seemed violin heavy perhaps... Perhaps Boyd never really completed his parts in the midst of him wrestling with the band... Or they just weren't up to par.. The band was due for an album with a date already in the books and needed to get things together to get it out.. All the other newish songs were not Boyd heavy, likely due to him not participating in the creative process at that time...

I always think of B&BB as more of a horn-centric song, so while I'm happy they included it, because I think it's a great song, I was among the disappointed that they cut the ending so short, preferring the longer outro with the horn lines like the live versions.

When I think of Bismarck I can't even hear the violin part in my head. I need to go give it another listen. Hope it makes the cut this time.

Originally Posted by HonestDenver1

In the past though, I think it comes down to overplaying some of the songs live. The 2004/2006 songs got a ton of play. I believe all new songs were played almost every single night of the 04 tour with a few exceptions.. But it's like they beat the inspiration out of them, rather than hone them in... Dave and the band just got sick of them and no longer wanted to work on it, so they got a new producer to help spark some fresh ideas and just went with all of them... Makes sense and why of course we got Stand Up and not a great album from that period of time...

I suppose, but he did decide to work Hello Again into Stand Up. Those 2004 songs were getting great crowd responses. Is there a story behind why he selected that one song out of the group?

Originally Posted by HonestDenver1

Dave , and speaking as a songwriter myself tends, to like the new stuff. Most artists do... Especially if it's finished as opposed to a song you've been tinkering with for years and just can't quite get 100% done...A finished new song is always going to the top of the pile as opposed to some song you've been beating yourself over the head with...

However, I think he makes mistakes when making these decisions and I wish the band/producer would step in more often and compare/contrast Come Tomorrow with Bismarck... Or Where are You Going with JTR...

I agree with this in general, his tendency to favor new work, but he then does cherry pick some old things. I guess I'm more curious about his thought process when making these selections. Agreed on wishing he had 'more supervision' when doing this. I'd like an album where they had a bunch of songs, new and old, and then Carter and/or Stefan got to choose the album line-up. Just to see what it would look like.

[HonestDenver1]

Originally Posted by Route_2

I always think of B&BB as more of a horn-centric song, so while I'm happy they included it, because I think it's a great song, I was among the disappointed that they cut the ending so short, preferring the longer outro with the horn lines like the live versions.

When I think of Bismarck I can't even hear the violin part in my head. I need to go give it another listen. Hope it makes the cut this time.



I suppose, but he did decide to work Hello Again into Stand Up. Those 2004 songs were getting great crowd responses. Is there a story behind why he selected that one song out of the group?



I agree with this in general, his tendency to favor new work, but he then does cherry pick some old things. I guess I'm more curious about his thought process when making these selections. Agreed on wishing he had 'more supervision' when doing this. I'd like an album where they had a bunch of songs, new and old, and then Carter and/or Stefan got to choose the album line-up. Just to see what it would look like.

There's definitely some violin in both Bismarck and the ending on live versions of B&BB.. It's not necessarily featured, and agreed it could be easily removed but that's just my speculation as to why they were left off the album.

I don't know how the bastardized version of Hello Again ended up on Stand Up. Lyrically it was finished though compared to the other ones which were close but not quite..

I'd love Carter's input on what ends up on the albums.. But not so much Stefans.. he still loves Hunger for the Great light because he came up with the guitar part on it.. That alone is reason to not want him making decisions.

We'll likely get less input as Dave is now referring the band as HIS band, no longer THE band... Just a small thing I've noticed the last couple years. Perhaps him taking leadership/ownership as it could have fallen apart after Boyd left.. but it's definitely intentional. I would assume he treats the new material the same way.. HIS songs, not THE bands songs. Doesn't mean they won't get rights to them, but he used to try very hard almost to a fault to be the humble front man, not necessarily the leader of the band.

[SGIndy]

There likely won't be another studio album released until they can go live with "new tickets" for an entire tour. A new album in 2021 isn't happening with recycled 2020 tickets. They will do whatever they can to protect their #1 album streak. One of the only reasons why CT made #1 is because they piggy backed it on with tour ticket sales.

If no 2021 tour, will they refund tickets to be able to have true new sales in 2022? Or recycle yet again? If recycled for a 2nd time, will they really wait until 2023 for the next album release? Or risk losing their #1 streak? --- Should be interesting to see what happens.

[HonestDenver1]

Originally Posted by SGIndy

There likely won't be another studio album released until they can go live with "new tickets" for an entire tour. A new album in 2021 isn't happening with recycled 2020 tickets. They will do whatever they can to protect their #1 album streak. One of the only reasons why CT made #1 is because they piggy backed it on with tour ticket sales.

If no 2021 tour, will they refund tickets to be able to have true new sales in 2022? Or recycle yet again? If recycled for a 2nd time, will they really wait until 2023 for the next album release? Or risk losing their #1 streak? --- Should be interesting to see what happens.

They changed the rules on this last year I believe. No more "free albums" included with tickets to boost sales. DMB is fucked. I have 7 copies of CT still in my possession.