How am I supposed to know if you're high?

There was a lot of hype around Lifter Puller back in the late nineties. I tried to resist just because everybody kept saying how great they were.

I was at the record store a month or two after the band broke up and I found a used copy of Fiestas and Fiascos. I was blown away and I was kicking myself for not ever seeing them. I learned a lesson that sometimes when everybody tells you how great a band is, that sometimes it's because the band really is great. I did get a chance to see them when they played a few reunion shows in 2003 when the Triple Rock opened.

Then came the Hold Steady. Some are turned off by Craig's voice, but I love it. Some are turned off by the big guitar riffs, which border on classic rock shlock at times. I think if you see it live though, you can really understand that this band is something special.

I saw the Hold Steady last night at a sold out First Ave. They played for an hour and a half and, of course, it was incredible. Craig Finn is such a dynamic front man, he knows how to engage the audience for sure.

Here is an interview the boys did with Mary Lucia at the Current.

Giving Up to the Parent Life

So Mrs. Give Up to the Good Life and I are breeding. I sometimes stop to think about what it means to be a parent and you can imagine that fucks with my head something good.

I think it is impossible to wrap my head around it. I still think of myself as a kid trying to figure what to do with his life. Maybe because I am still trying to figure out what to do with my life.

But,

I have found that there are some seriously cool kids stuff out there. You can bet your ass my kid is going to be rocking a Ramones onesie at some point:


And this Johnny Cash onesie:


Also there are these lullaby CDs of bands like Radiohead, The Cure and Tool(?). I'm not too sure about my toddler listening to too much Cure though, that might have repercussions down the line somewhere.

Anyway, while this whole parenthood thing scares the hell out of me, I know it's going to be indescribably fun too.

TVOTR

photo by RockNRollStar

It was last winter. I was standing by the bar on the music side of the Triple Rock waiting for some band to go on. It was a weekday night and it was snowing outside and their were only a handful of people in the bar. Over the soundsystem came this amazingly complicated weird music with soaring crazy gospel-chanting vocals. It was TV on the Radio.

I'd heard "The Wrong Way" before, but didn't give it much thought, but this night it sounded amazing. I realized that TVotR are not a headphone band, their music is best at bone-rattling volume, that is when it speaks to me.

I saw TVotR last weekend and their live show even further solidifies my fandom. They take the slickly produced sheen of their albums and turn it into raw live energy.

Here is my review from HWTS. Here are some more pictures from Rock 'n Roll Star.

Who Goes There?

Yawn!

Oh! Hello. You scared me, I didn't think anyone was still here.

I've been busy (and lazy). Too busy (and lazy) to blog even. I am attempting a comeback though.

First things first... This badass website that I do stuff for won an award because we are all badasses and the Minnesota Music Academy knows this.

Second. Nick Leet nudged me from my slumber and although it goes against the arbitrary and self-imposed rule of one gig per year, Juan Apagado will play again on Nov. 19 at the Acadia. So all those songs that I forgot how to play after my last gig, I'll have to relearn them, and then I will play the hell out of them.