White Noise

Today's tune comes from an album that has yet to see its release. However, it is my belief that this forthcoming album is the best effort of 2006. Since 2004 The Hold Steady has been rocking bars all over the great United States of America. The band formed from the skeleton of Minneapolis area indie staple Lifter Puller, namely nasally voiced vocalist/lyricist Craig Finn and guitar shredder Tad Kubler. For The Hold Steady, Finn and Kubler relocated Brooklyn, though most of the lyrical content of the band's three albums revolve around happenings in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The band's first album, Almost Killed Me, was all but ignored, despite being one of the best albums of 2004. Almost Killed Me is a ball-busting examination of one man's journey through drugs, alcohol, rock'n'roll, and “killer parties” in general. Along the way Craig Finn mostly talk-sings his way through ten Springsteen and Thin Lizzy inspired tracks, bustin' enough thick and descriptive narrative to immediately put him among the top lyricists in the game today. He brings characters like Holly and Charlemagne to life like a true novelist, and leaves with lyrical gems that shine even out of context: “They got coaxed out by a certain perfect ratio: of the warm beer to the summer smoke, and the Meat Loaf to the Billy Joel...certain songs they get scratched into our souls!”; “Half the crowd is calling out for born to run and the other half is calling out for born to lose. Baby we were born to choose. We got the last call bar band really big decision blues. We were born to bruise!”; “If they ask about Charlemagne. Be polite and say something vague. Like another lover lost to the restaurant raids.”

Separation Sunday, the band's sophomore effort, was released only a year later and officially put the band on the map. It was about a month after this album was released that I first heard the band; they opened for The Get Up Kids on their farewell tour. Separation Sunday is the story of Holly, a girl that gets caught up in hard drugs and parties that always seem to get ugly and “druggy”. Holly goes through years of seeing America, taking drugs, meeting sketchy people, and basically living out Kerouac's America before finding God on the shores of the Mississippi river. Separation Sunday is a complex and beautiful concept album about a “hoodrat” who finds religion first in drugs and then later in Christianity. Musically the album was also more complex than it's predecessor; the band added a keyboardist and explored and experimented with their bar band sound a little further.

Boys and Girls in America is a damn near perfect album and sure to be a star-maker for the band. The album title comes from a Kerouac quote in On the Road (“Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together”), which is perfect, seeing as The Hold Steady are constantly channeling Sal Paradise. Craig Finn continues to also channel Springsteen, but this time does it with more actual singing and less talk-singing. The band also abandon the concept album shtick for a less structured, but more successful, rock and roll format.

The track I've decided to share with you all is the fifth track on the album, and probably the most emotional track the band has ever recorded. "First Night" is the only song on the album to specifically make mention of Holly and Charlemagne, Finn's party-lovin' heroes. The band breaks its own precedent here by laying a pedal steel delicately over the drama of the keyboard and guitar pairing. “Holly's insatiable, she still looks incredible, but she don't look like that same girl we met on that first night...” a wonderfully bittersweet...fuck it- PAINFUL sentiment. Nothing will ever measure up to the intense perfection of the first night, no matter what you try. “Charlemagne shakes in the streets...” These are the boys and girls in America, stripped naked for us to see. All drugged out and pulling “street corner scams”, or recovered and not quite as lovely as they once were. “And then last night she said 'words alone never could save us', and then last night she cried and she told us about Jesus...”

Craig Finn also delivers the one-liner of the year: “When they kiss they spit white noise...”
A positive jam, more or less.

05 First Night.mp3

A Super Positive Jam

My initial plan with this here blog of mine was to leave the first post I did by its lonesome for a while. I had this notion that I should let the idea of the whole thing sink in first, and maybe give people some time to read the first post and digest it.

Then I threw that out the window when I stumbled upon this brand new Okkervil River track, the wryly optimistic "The President's Dead". This is a jangly, upbeat, what-if examination of what the world might be like if the president were to be shot to his death. Will Sheff, who happens to be one of the best modern lyricists in the game, wastes no time in throwing us headfirst into the situation, opening the song as such:

"'The president's dead', the radio said 'dear friends, is it not so horrible?', a shock through my heart like a knife right through bread, the newspaper said 'the president's dead'. The sea doesn't dry and the sky isn't split, but friends it just seems so wrong don't it? A shot from the crowd and a shot in the head, the president's lying on the tarmac dead..."

Holy shit right?

It gets better later.

"I'm a small quiet man, I've got no wars to win, I don't have a big plan. But I love my new place, and I love my old friends, and I scrimp and I save, and one day I'll have kids. I can truthfully say that my day was like that, until the radio playing on the stand by the bed fired out this report and in three words they said, like three shots to my head, 'the president's dead...'"

Sheff packs a bunch of what-if drama into a song that barely runs over the two and a half minute mark, proving that he's a master of wordy and brief indie rock songs, perhaps only beaten these days by John Darnielle AKA the Mountain Goats.

Anyhow, this is worth checking out. Whether he's talking about Bush or not is up for debate.  I lean towards yes, but I'm open to any interpretations, of course.

Okkervil River - The Presidents Dead.mp3

Let's Get It Started With A Positive Jam!

This is a new blog. This is me half-ripping off my good pal Dead Dog Aids, half experimenting with my obsession with music and talking about music. These posts will be mildly insane ramblings about individual tracks.

I have set no rules for the tracks I choose to write about and share with all of you faithful readers. Any genre, era, and artist is fair game for my crazy talk. Hopefully some of you will get to hear some stuff you wouldn't normally listen to. Hopefully some of you will hate some of these tracks and communicate this hatred with a big rant against the tune using the comment option at the bottom of each of these posts. Hopefully some of you will fall in love with a tune or two.

The idea is to read whatever crap I have to say about the track and then listen to it. Then, if you feel motivated enough, comment on the post. Sound like a plan?! Yeah! Let's begin...

The first ever "Positive Jam" that I will ramble on about comes from the golden year of 1973, and from the paradise of an American city known as Detroit. Detroit yielded hundreds of number one hits and all around "hot tracks" from the early 60's up until the mid 70's, making it no surprise that The Detroit Emeralds have since been lost in the shuffle.

The Emeralds are sporadically brought up in some discussions of the greatest R&B songs ever recorded, but most of the time people are talking about another great Emeralds' song: "Feel the Need". I love "Feel the Need", but the song I've been obsessing over lately is the much forgotten "You're Getting A Little Too Smart".

This jam just grooves and flows smoothly along until your entire body is moving in sync with it. I'd love to find this entering my ears on a gigantic dance floor, the girl of my dreams dancing steamily in front of me as the crowd pulls back to encircle us, cheering us on as we boogy real sweet-like to the "whoooo-ohhh"'s, funky bassline, and perfectly timed horn stabs. This song is addicting in the same way as vintage Michael Jackson and recent Justin Timberlake songs: it's sheerly brilliant and undeniably danceable pop music. A positive jam.

Detroit Emeralds - You're Getting A Little Too Smart.mp3