Rhett Miller occasionally watches the clock when he’s onstage. That’s just one of the revelations he makes on “Longer Than You’ve been Alive”, the opening track from the Old 97's’ ninth album, . He also fesses up to washing down “mountains of weed, a handful of pills” with “oceans and oceans” of booze. “None the hard stuff, that shit kills.” He jumps off risers he shouldn’t even attempt to climb at his age, bickers with the other guys in the band like they’re old married couples, and still sometimes dreams of being the kind of rock star that simply can’t exist in today’s industry. “Rock stars were once such mythical creatures, up there with presidents, Playmates, and preachers,” he explains. “Now you just do it cause it’s what you do.” When Miller sings, “I’m not crazy about songs that get self-referential,” the universe threatens to collapse in on itself.