This was the day the real road trip began.

Scion Rock Fest was cool and all, but we were really all excited to get to road-trippin on the bus and away from all the craziness that enveloped the festival. First order of business was a quick stop in Indianapolis to pick up our friend and bus driver Jeremy and some supplies, and then it was off to Louisville. We got a bit too late of a start to visit the bourbon distilleries in Bardsville as we’d planned, so instead we stopped in Louisville proper and took a tour of the famous Louisville Slugger factory. For this baseball nerd it was a real treat to visit the place where most of the baseball bats used in Major League Baseball are manufactured. My inner (and outer) dork was really stoked.

Your motley crew posing in front of the giant bat outside the factory.

After the jump, Louisville Slugger shenanigans, Makers Mark, honky-tonkin’ in Nashville and more.

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So this guy Jeff Mueller, and the three seminal bands he formed over the last ten + years, Rodan, June of 44, and Shipping News, has/have greatly influenced the stark, melodic guitar-heavy drone meets aggressive post-rock world, and truly spoken to this guy right here.

I wish I could say I was one of the kids back in the day who really appreciated these forward thinking, understated bands like June of 44 or Slint, but to be honest, at the time, in addition to grungetronica, I was pretty preoccupied with bands like this and a dude they will forever call the G-father. It took me many years before I discovered the abundant fruits of the post-post scene, which often admittedly sound like something coming out of some random basement as you walk by a paint-chipped house in some random city like Portland or Milwakee, but herein lies the charm as well…in this case Louisville is the home of the sound (as well as the birthplace of Slint), and my prolific man Mueller has outdone himself with these three bands.

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