Kevn Kinney has less to say about the American Dream than he thinks he does, but he comes up with plenty of great two-chord rockers for Drivin’ n’ Cryin’s new full-length Great American Bubble Factory. As befits a band releasing their first record in 12 years, Bubble Factory adds a weary undercurrent to its survey of the country’s economic wreckage. “I didn't want to work where my father did,” Kinney sings in “Midwestern Blues.” Still, he's an optimist, so he advocates playing the guitar as part of every American’s birthright, and he’s not above writing a dumb, sincere lyric. “We’ve got lots of movie stars / If you’re a movie-star fan,” he sings. Perhaps it’s because Kinney has moved from his longtime Atlanta home and settled in New York, but Bubble Factory sounds as much like proto-punk ravers The Dictators as it does Southern rock.
Thu., Oct. 15, 9 p.m., 2009
