Interstate Demo, by the Buckets

Interstate Demo

by the Buckets

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Joyful Noise Records White Label Series
limited edition vinyl LP of the Interstate Demo our first recordings from 1992

Includes unlimited streaming of Interstate Demo via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.	Postmarked, Virginia [Demo] 03:32		buy track
2.	Seven Babies [Demo] 02:30		buy track
3.	I Wrote This Song [Demo] 03:32		buy track
4.	Beer Belly *[Single Version] 04:20	info	buy track
5.	Cowgirls [Demo] 05:12		buy track
6.	Western Star [Demo] 04:36		buy track
7.	Buckets Theme [Demo] 00:43		buy track
8.	Pony Express * [Single Version] 02:44	info	buy track

about

San Francisco was so cheap in the 1990s that people would move there when they ran out of money. You could get around on a $35 monthly MUNI pass, cable cars included, and there was always a rundown Victorian in need of another roommate. There were plenty of bar jobs, temp jobs, restaurant jobs, part-time work that afforded the luxury of doing the important stuff: boozy nights, bookstore afternoons, art and music.

I washed up there in late 1992, having bummed around Eastern Europe for a while. Because I’d spent a memorable night carousing with Giant Sand in Prague, when I saw they were playing San Francisco’s Bottom of the Hill, I took the bus down to Potrero. The opening band started up just as I got my first beer, and within half a song I had relocated to the edge of the low stage.

The music they played stuck right in my soul and have been there ever since. It was one of those rare moments when you walk into a bar and everything feels like a movie—and you’re in it, along with all these beautiful people: punks and bums and booze-bags, spirits high despite the usual load of troubles on everybody’s back.

The group was called the Buckets. What you’ve got here is a platter of demo/single songs they put out themselves, or on minuscule 45 labels, in the era of grunge and alternative. “Postmarked Virginia” and “I Wrote This Song”—both performed that long-ago night at the bottom of Potrero Hill—are perfect country compositions, better than anything of the Nashville or Alt-Country of the time. The rockers had a bit of grunge, and all their music has soul and sincerity far beyond the jokey truck-driver premise of the band; none of them drove big rigs, as far as I know.

Earl Butter and Wanderlean Taters were the heart of the Buckets, loaning themselves from the oddball folk group Ed’s Redeeming Qualities, but each lineup I saw in those years was terrific. I brought everybody I knew to see the Buckets, and nobody ever regretted it.

—Ken Layne
Curator

credits

released December 4, 2020

Banjo - Ukulele – Jessica "Boots" Daniel
Bass – Long John Gonzales
Drums – Jo Jo Hoot
Drums Blue Jewel *
Engineer – Greg Freeman
Engineer – Randy Rood *
Fiddle, Vocals – Wanda Taters
Guitar, Vocals – Earl Butter
Lead Guitar – Kid Coyote
Producer – the Buckets
cover art: Jesse Joe Leone 
All songs by Earl Butter

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about

the Buckets San Francisco, California

The Buckets were an alt-country band from San Francisco. They played in CA from 1991-1998. They made only three recordings, couldn’t get it together long enough even to tour. But they had plenty of post punk country tunes, harmonies, and an equally enthusiastic hometown crowd. When the fiddle player is in town, they’re happy to relive the old days. ... more

open.spotify.com

discography

Interstate Demo

Dec 2020
Silo

Jul 2008
Sod

Jul 2008

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