Bottle Rockets: oldies but goodies (and getting better)

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Bottle Rockets have been a hard-touring bar band for almost 17 years.

Back when they started, the Rockets were thrown together with other bands in the fledgling ‘90s alternative-country genre, thanks mostly to founder and front man Brian Henneman and his association with Uncle Tupelo.

But more than just a country-ish band with a punk/rock attitude, the Bottle Rockets are Midwesterners — Festus, Mo., is their hometown — with rock ‘n’ roll hearts.

Last week, Henneman talked about “Lean Forward,” the band’s latest record, and its cult of loyal fans, which, these days, includes lots of younger ones.

Q. The new record bears lots of influences and resemblances that have nothing to do with the alt-country thing: the Stones, Faces, Bo Diddley, Black Crowes and some Southern rock, like Georgia Satellites. Did you intentionally stay away from the punk/twang stuff or is this just what came out naturally?

A. All I’ve thought we ever were was a rock band. Other people added more to it than that, as far as the alt-country thing goes. One reason this record came out like it did, I think, was we made one conscious decision: We decided for the first time in 16 years we would avoid all the Neil Young music-style influences. By weeding that out, what ended up coming out was very natural.

Sometimes we’d get the guitars going, and we’d get carried away and drift into that midtempo, Crazy Horse vibe. But usually we avoided that, and other things started popping up very naturally.

Q. These songs feel built to be played live and loud in a beer hall.

A. We never really think about that, and we didn’t on this one either. But you’re right. This album turned out to be more live-friendly than most of them.

Q. What’s better about being in this band now compared to 15 years ago?

A. That’s a good question: What has gotten better? ... We definitely have filtered out a lot of what I call the “curiosity seekers.” There was a time when we had more people looking at what we were doing, checking us out based on what they’d read. These days, it seems like we’ve distilled it down to the hardcore fans. Every show is like a party, a very positive experience. So that’s one thing that has gotten better: The weird oddball shows have dropped off the map. There’s not a lot of surprise at what we do anymore.

A lot of them are old-time fans, but we see a lot of new ones, too, a lot of younger fans. I think what’s going on is they’re the kids of people who started with us in 1993. Their parents raised them on us, and they’re old enough to go into bars. So we’re rolling over into a new generation.

And we’re by no means getting rich, but we’re making more money. I think we’re making better records, and we’re definitely a better band. It’s not the kind of stuff you can break down into facts and figures and flow charts if you want to impress somebody.

Q. You released through Bloodshot. Why not go the independent route, like so many other bands are?

A. We already had a good relationship with Bloodshot, which is as straight-up and honest a record company as there can be. That sounds like an oxymoron — honest record company. The advantage is they put up the money so we could make the record, which gave us one less thing to worry about.