Bottle Rockets – Leftovers

With the passing of the holiday season, you may have had your fill of leftovers. Hopefully you saved some room for the Bottle Rockets’ Leftovers, a collection of rarities and unreleased material that explores the trials and tribulations of the Mississippi River, Hank Williams, drinking too much coffee, loving the wrong woman, and being holed up in Georgia with Peter Buck’s ex-wife.

The EP, the band’s first release since splitting with Atlantic subsidiary TAG, was put out by Austin independent label Doolittle. The band plans to release a new full-length album sometime this spring.

Leftovers is sloppy and fun, kind of like that Replacements live bootleg you probably have somewhere in your collection. Its eight songs show the raw and rocking side of the Bottle Rockets (“Coffee Monkey” and “Financing His Romance”), as well as the heartfelt slice-of-life songs the band has perfected (“If Walls Could Talk” and “Skip’s Song”).

Also included is “Get Down River”, a song previously released on a Bloodshot Records compilation. “Get Down River” and “If Walls Could Talk” are part of the Smithsonian Institute’s public television and radio series The Mississippi: River of Song, which airs in January.

Leftovers doesn’t take the Bottle Rockets anywhere they haven’t already been, but it should hold you over to spring.