Back in the day, blogs were great places to find new bands and the odd free MP3 was a keen way to get you into liking a new band. Blogspot in particular was great for finding out of print albums and rarities that were either overpriced or simply no longer available.

MP3 blogs were also great for discovering bands that had a long career and you just had to listen to. Such was the case for me with Drive-By Truckers, whom just like R.E.M., are Athens, Georgia natives. Dunno what’s in the drinking water there, but we’ve got several bands hailing from the town.

The Great Car Dealer War was the song I heard by Drive-By Truckers. I know songs like to tell stories, and some succeed more often than not. The chiaroscuro landscape Drive-By Truckers paint is grimy suburban decay. A series of arson attacks leading to murder, fueled by greed and several competing car dealer giants in an unspecified southern town.

Our protagonist, half-confessing, half-bragging, ready with a can of petrol and a book of matches. He justifies himself, having just “some fun”, and once the war is done, having fulfilled tour of duty, he walk along, with only his conscience overwhelmed by guilt. He’ll never have another drink without growing eyes on his back. He’ll never walk into a room without thinking it might be his last day out of prison (or worse).

The Great Car Dealer War was first included in the odds and sods collection The Fine Print (a collection of oddities and rarities). It’s a strange place to start with Drive-By Truckers, but it’s the place I started at!

Back in the 90s, there was a string of arson attacks directed to bathroom tile and toilet shops. Over a series of continuous Fridays, you could listen to fire trucks and car cops running up and down the vicinity. Not much coverage on the newspapers, and they just suddenly stopped. Never knew what was all that about, but wrote a short story about it ages ago. Hope you like.

-Sam J. Valdés López