Tumbledown -- Empty Bottle

7/10

In the autumn of 2010, my friend Jon (referred to often here as my "real-life giant walking pal") and I saw Mike Herrera play a show at a thrift store, along with about ten other people. The last time we saw Herrera play, he was fronting MxPx on mainstage at the 2002 Cornerstone Festival, in front of thousands of people. This time, he was fronting his country-punk band, Tumbledown. We'd admired Herrera's music since we were teenagers, and the sensation of standing five feet in front of him as he sang twanged out drinking songs, with a wall of vintage Barbies and lunch boxes behind us, was quite strange. We talked to him for awhile after the show, and he was, as Jon essentially boiled it down to, "just being real and being himself." It was an interesting experience, and I made sure I commemorated it by buying Tumbledown's new album, Empty Bottle, straight out of Herrera's hands (he took my debit payment on his cellphone).
We definitely hit that show just to see Herrera play. Country music is not my jam. There are some country adjacent bands I can get into, but started listening to punk bands like MxPx in the 90's to escape the country music my school bus driver was blasting over the sound of Pointe Coupee Parish potholes. Hearing Herrera meld the two genres is a disarming experience, but the storied frontman brings his usual energy and upbeat attitude to Empty Bottle's 12 songs, and makes the whole thing work. 

Empty Bottle's tempos are mostly punk-rock fast, but with country guitar licks thrown in (often still electrified), and with harmonicas, slide guitar, and other stuff you wouldn't usually hear on an MxPx record. Tumbledown slows it down for a few straight country ballads too. Country scales get played instead of the more often used rock ones. With that said, there are definitely also a few songs that could be classified as straight-forward rock. Lyrically, Mike mostly sings about drinking, either out of loneliness, desperation, boredom, or, in usual Herrera fashion, to have a good time. Indeed, if any collective mantra could be taken from Herrera's work over the last 25 years, it would be "have a good time." While it may not quite be my cup of tea, I can't say that Empty Bottle isn't that...I mean isn't a good time, not isn't a cup of tea. That would be weird.


2010 End Sounds
1. Places in This Town 2:38
2. Empty Bottle 2:45
3. Meet the Devil 3:02
4. Arrested in El Paso Blues 2:28
5. Great Big World 3:45
6. She's in Texas (And I'm Insane) 2:24
7. St. Peter 2:23
8. A Thousand More Times 4:16
9. Dead Man Walking 2:19
10. Bad News 2:54
11. Drink to Forget 3:13
12. Not Hung Over (A True Story) 1:43