Bourbon & Beyond 2026 - Line 9 (The Devil Makes Three, Better Than Ezra, Durand Jones & the Indications, Jet, Plain White T's)

The Devil Makes Three

One Liner: Wild mixture of rag-time, bluegrass, and Americana that works
Wikipedia Genre: bluegrass, Americana, folk, folk blues, old-time, country
Home: Santa Cruz, CA
Day: Friday

Thoughts:  That is an excellent band name.  The only recollection I have of that phrase is from the Sirens' song in O Brother Where Art Thou, but I'm sure that was an old spiritual that has been around for decades.

The guitarist (Bernhard) and banjo player (McBean) were childhood friends in Brattleboro, Vermont, making music together at a young age.  They moved to California independently, as did the original bassist from the band (who also went to their VT high school).  After some time in punk rock bands, the original two hooked up with the third and formed this band.  After a few albums, McBean moved to Austin and Bernhard and the bass player moved back to Vermont.  Despite the distance, the band continued to tour and write music.  In 2019, the bassist was replaced and the band kept plugging along.

The tunes are hard to categorize - I guess that makes sense with the genre list recounted up above - but it feels dark, mysterious, groovy in a sneaky way.  And then after I think that way, they break one out that sounds like the Squirrel Nut Zippers or something.  And then one that sounds like BR549.  So, who knows what you are going to get around these parts (except for guitar, stand up bass, banjo, and a dude singing).

They have been making music for a while - 10 albums (2002's eponymous, 2004's Longjohns, Boots and a Belt, 2006's A Little Bit Faster and a Little Bit Worse, 2009's Do Wrong Right, 2011's live album Stomp and Smash, 2015's I'm a Stranger Here, 2016's Redemption and Ruin, 2018's Chains are Broken, 2019's Live at Red Rocks, and 2025's Spirits.  Somewhat surprisingly to me, five of their top songs on Spotify are still from that first album.  I could see that being the case if the first album was a big hit, but not where it never seemed to be a big deal.  Top track, by a lot, is from that album - "Old Number Seven" has 107.6 million streams.

Kinda hokey, not entirely sure why it would have been such a big hit.  Fun enough, but I definitely think they have better stuff in the catalog since then.  Was probably in a freaking episode of Yellowstone...  The newest disc is a much more polished sound - still a down-home hoe-down style, but a cleaner and more structured set of song structures.  Hearing things like Old Crow Medicine Show, Robert Earl Keen, and BR-549 in here.  I tried the Live at Red Rocks album, and it sounds good - it is sort of weird, you'd barely notice it was live.  And then I just let these older albums play for a day while I got some work done, and I like this more and more.  They feel like they might really be a fun live act.

Better Than Ezra

One Liner: Alt rock masters who somehow just never made it out of the 90's
Wikipedia Genre: alternative rock, post-grunge
Home: New Orleans
Day: Sunday

Thoughts:  Man, I looooved some Better than Ezra back in the Deluxe/ Friction, Baby timeframe.  Not long after I started college, an exceedingly attractive camp friend invited me down to Dallas to see Better Than Ezra play at The Stone Pony.  Three anecdotes tied to that story: (1) and no one reading this will be surprised at all, nothing happened between me and this attractive camp friend, much to my chagrin at the time; (2) the show was freaking awesome - in part because the Stone Pony is tiny and these guys blew the doors off; and (3) soon thereafter that show, in the bathroom of the Stone Pony in the midst of a night where my friend Tate and I went down to SMU to party with a sorority girl friend of his, some meathead dipshit called me a "four-eyed faggot" for reasons I can no longer recall, and Tate bowed up to the guy and said something to the effect of "if you wanna come after my friend you gotta go through me," and like a John Hughes movie villain, the guy was like "er, sorry bro, cool." RIP Big Dawg.

Anyway, back then, I thought these guys would be the next greatest rock and roll band of all time.  Deluxe is great from start to finish - I just heard it all again and forgot how much I loved it.  "Good" is the obvious hit.  "This Time Of Year" is a beaut - I can't believe it only has 1.4 million streams.  I'm going to pass it along to my daughter to make a TikTok thing for graduation 2026.

Solid.  Still a good singalong.  The 1998 album is funny - I think I must have just downloaded a few of the tracks from Napster or something, because many of them ring no bells at all, but then others remind me of other singles that I associate with my first job out of college and the pirated mixes I made back then.  "Particle" kind of sounds like Muse.  Same thing with the 2001 album - I recognize "A Lifetime" and "Extra Ordinary" but not the rest of the disc.

I tried the most recent disc (they have continued releasing many albums over the years), 2024's Super Magick, and it is not great.  His voice sounds saggy/warbly (kind of reminds me of Brandon Flowers from the Killers) and some of the good bass line work that held up the old stuff is missing.  Sounds very generic.  I hope they stick to the old songs!

Durand Jones & the Indications

One Liner: Retro Soul goodness with a great live sound
Wikipedia Genre: Retro soul, contemporary R&B
Home: Indiana
Day: Saturday

Thoughts:  These dudes rolled through for the 2018 and 2021 ACL Festivals.  I didn't get to see them (or at least I don't have any recollection of it, which feels like the same thing).

But, if you are into that retro soul movement that has been cropping up for the past few years, this group is right up your alley.  A powerful vocal of a guy feeling himself so hard that he can't be contained, over organ and guitar and hand claps and solid rhythm.  Its good.  Not as smokin' good as, like Nathaniel Rateliff or St. Paul & the Broken Bones, but still a fine sound.  Four albums - self titled from 2016, American Love Call in 2019, 2021's Private Space, and 2025's Flowers.  The original album was kind of cool, because it shows you both a studio side and a live side, with eight studio songs followed by 10 live tracks - the band sounds freaking good on stage.

Top track from that original album, with just over 22 million streams is called "Smile."

Yeah, you know, that works.  Funky and soulful and good lyrics about the weird social interactions we have every day.  Maybe even more appropriate now than back in 2016!  "As me how I'm doin', smile and say just fine."  Good tune.  THE PANDEMIC ANTHEM!

This short article notes that the lead singer apparently got popped for sharing some prescription pills, which lead him into this life as a lead singer of a group of dudes from Indiana University School of Music.  That sucks.  But cool that they are taking a low key route to making some good tunes, their studio setup sounds awesomely DIY.

The most streamed tune is "Is It Any Wonder," with 49.4 million streams and a different singer going for that falsetto-soul thing like dudes used to do.  

His voice is flipping pure as hell.  The live songs sound really good too.  Let's also check out the big single from the 2021 album, something called "Witchoo."  56.3 million streams so far.

Okay, I dig that funky ass intro for sure.  We still have the drummer doing the singing!  Why are they taking my man Durand out of the mix?  Ah, there he is - he's throwing down some quasi rap there after the first little bit.  That bass line is dope, and I really like the background chatting stuff like some classic Marvin Gaye jam used to have.

I'd give this stuff a shot to see what happens in person.  

Jet

One Liner: Aussies mixing strutting pure rock and roll with Beatles action
Wikipedia Genre: bluegrass
Home: Canberra, Australia
Day: Friday

Thoughts:  I am so annoyed.  I wrote a long as post all about these dudes, and it just disappeared.  MFer.

So, the shorter version is that this is two brothers - Chris and Cameron Cester - who formed a band, dominated the world with a great mix of swaggering guitar rock and Bealtes-esque balladry, and then quit.  Three studio albums – Get Born (2003), Shine On (2006), and Shaka Rock (2009) – and then they disbanded in 2012.  They are obviously back together to get that sweet ass reunion cash, but the first two albums are legitimately fun rock and roll.

The big three songs were all off of the first album - "Cold Hard Bitch," "Look What You've Done," and the mega-hit used in iPod commercials, movies, TV shows, video games, and everywhere else, "Are You Gonna Be My Girl."  848.4 million streams.

Absolutely classic rock banger.  I feel like this band is just bigger than everyone else on this line.  Is that just me?  Feels like Durand Jones and Plain White T's can't hold this band's jock.  Weird.  And I have been listening to the second album a few times today and yesterday, and it is excellent.  If you are a Beatles lover, then this should be your favorite album of 2006.  I really like it.  Shaka Rock sounds like more of the same, this dude yelping and jamming over pure rock and roll.  But yeah, I would go see this.  I love rock and roll.

Plain White T's

One Liner: Hey There Delilah!  You Don't Know Me But I Think About You All The TIME.
Wikipedia Genre: pop rock, pop-punk, soft rock, alternative rock, power pop, emo
Home: Lombard, Illinois
Day: Thursday

Thoughts:  We'll get to more of this, but "The Giving Tree" makes me want to cringe my way out of the universe.  Yuck.  I also just hit a song that is credited to "Plain White T's, Disney" and now I realize what this is - pop punk for Disney kids.  Like, if Blink 182 wasn't doing mom sex and fart jokes but was trying to sound the same while staying squeaky clean.  I hate it.

Their big hit was massive - "Hey There Delilah" has 1.3 BILLION streams as of now, which is freaking nuts.

Nuts because it is a perfectly lovely little love song, but it ain't special.  That was from their second album, 2005's All That We Needed, and no other song on there breaks 4 million streams.  Crazy.

They came up playing Chicago basements until that song went nuclear.  The track was at #1 for two weeks, and was written about a track star named Delilah DiCrescenzo, who the singer had met in 2002.  How fucking weird is that for her?  Some dude you met (but had no real relationship with) writes a song about "what you do to me" and whatnot and it goes platinum.  Creeper!

I've tried more of this but I really don't like it.  No thank you.