Last Night Out

In September of 2004, David Barbe called me up and said it was time to make another record. He knew all about our troubles, and he suggested that Eric and I get away from the soap opera, hire a rhythm section and concentrate on making a good record. It seemed the band was all but broken up anyway, so on Barbe's suggestion we hired Jon Mills (Barbara Cue) on bass, and Kyle Spence (Harvey Milk) on drums, and made LAST NIGHT OUT. ... When I listen to LAST NIGHT OUT these days, it's an angry, violent, painful piece of work, heavily colored by the war in Iraq, George W. Bush winning his second Presidential election, and his administration using 9/11 as an excuse to rape our country's sense of human rights, civil liberties and simple decency. That ugliness was all over the television and newspapers at the time. ... Overall this record received the least attention of any of our releases, though in my opinion it contains some of the best hard rock tracks we ever recorded. And it has its loyal fans amongst our listeners. Patterson Hood called it "artistically amazing" and listed it in his year's Top 5. But I don't know how we lived through the goddamned thing. -Daniel Hutchens