Brew City Brawler

Sweet Gesu, the new Hold Steady "album" is amazing

Because the Brawler is of that age demographic/mind frame that needs his music packaged in physical form, he picked up the Hold Steadys' latest see-dee "Stay Positive" and oh my lord is it awesome. It's not "Separation Sunday" -- that is a very (a bad adjective in this case justified) special album of which there are few -- but after 1.9 listenings, it is a fab album. Singalongs, invocations of 7 Seconds, some stretching beyond their trademark reliable Husker Du by way of the E Street Band sound (banjo by J Mascis! Theremin!) and meditations upon growing old, murder, guilt and other Craig Finn (a hedgehog, not a fox) obsessions,it is a fabulous piece of work. Hold Steady have produced as solid a body of music in their four full-length "albums" as anyone over these past several years. And Minneapolis suburb boy Craig Finn has grown into the sharp, smart, vernacular lyricist that Paul Westerberg always wanted to be. "So I mostly just pray she won't die"? Yow. That's from "Lord I'm Discouraged" (with the tuneful singalong refrain "excuses and half truths and fortified wine":

The guy shredding the Jimmy Page double ax is Janesville's own Tad Kubler. Bassist Galen Polivka would be Whitefish Bay's Phil Lynott if Phil Lynott had been of Eastern European descent as opposed to Black (literally) Irish.

And here's some Auld Steady:

M.I.A. coming to Milwaukee May 12

Turner Hall. Be there.

Jason Isbell (formerly of Drive By Truckers) -- Danko/Manuel

Let the night air cool you off.
Tilt your head back and try to cough.
Don't say nothing 'bout the things you never saw.
Let the night air cool you off.

I ain't living like I should.
A little rest might do me good.
Got to sinking in the place where I once stood.
Now I ain't living like I should.

Can you hear that singing? Sounds like gold.
Maybe I can only hear it in my head.
Fifteen years ago we owned that road
now it's rolling over us instead.

Richard Manuel is dead.

God forbid you call their bluff.
Like the nightmares ain't enough.
Remember when we used to think that we were tough?
God forbid you call their bluff.

First they make you out to be
the only pirate on the sea.
Then they say Danko would have sounded just like me.
"Is that the man you want to be?"

Can you hear that song? It sounds like gold.
Maybe I could make it bigger overseas.
Fifteen years ago we owned this road
now it only gives us somewhere else to leave.

Something else you can't believe.

Can you hear that singing? Sounds like gold.
Maybe I can hear poor Richard from the grave
singin' where to reap and when to sow
when you've found another home you have to leave.

Something else you can't believe.

The Hold Steady -- How a Resurrection Really Feels

Her parents named her halleluiah, the kids all called her holly.
If she scared you then she's sorry.
She's been stranded at these parties.
These parties they start lovely but they get druggy and they get ugly and they get bloody.
The priest just kinda laughed.
The deacon caught a draft.
She crashed into the easter mass with her hair done up in broken glass.
She was limping left on broken heels.
When she said father can I tell yr congregation how a resurrection really feels?

Holly was a hoodrat.
Now you finally know that.
She's been disappeared for years.
Today she finally came back.
She said: St. Louis had enslaved me.
I guess santa ana saved me.
St. Peter had me on the queue.
The St. Paul saints they waved me thru.
I was all wrapped up in some video booth.
When I heard her say I love you too.

She said I've laid beneath my lovers but i've never gotten laid.
Some nites she felt protected.
Some nites she felt afraid.
She spent half last winter justa trying to get paid.
From some guy she'd originally thought to be her saviour.
They wrote her name in magic marks.
On stopsigns and subway cars.
They got a mural up on e.13th.
That said halleluiah rest in peace.
Halleluiah was a hoodrat.
And now you finally know that.
She's been disappeared for years.
Today she finally came back.

Walk on back.
Walk on back.
She said don't turn me on again.
I'd probably just go and get myself all gone again.
Holly was a sexy mess.
She looked strung out but experienced.
So we all got kind of curious.

Caetano Veloso -- Alegria, Alegria

Pavement -- Gold Soundz

Update: A pic of Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks at the Pabst, from a loyal reader:

Circle Jerks -- Beverly Hills/Wasted

Richard Thompson -- Dad's Gonna Kill Me

Out in the desert there’s a soldier lying dead
Vultures pecking the eyes out of his head
Another day that could have been me there instead
Nobody loves me here
Nobody loves me here

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me
Dad’s Gonna Kill Me

You hit the booby trap and you’re in pieces
With every bullet your risk increases
Old Ali Baba, he’s a different species
Nobody loves me here
Nobody loves me here

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me
Dad’s Gonna Kill Me

I’m dead meat in my HumV Frankenstein
I hit the road block, God knows I never hit the mine
The dice rolled and I got lucky this time

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me
Dad’s Gonna Kill Me

I’ve got a wife, a kid, another on the way
I might get home if I can live through today
Before I came out here I never used to pray
Nobody loves me here
Nobody loves me here

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me

Dad’s in a bad mood, Dad’s got the blues
It’s someone else’s mess that I didn’t choose
At least we’re winning on the Fox Evening News
Nobody loves me here

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me
Dad’s Gonna Kill Me

Dawn Patrol went out and didn’t come back
Hug the wire and pray like I told you, Mac
Or they’ll be shovelling bits of you into a sack

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me.

And who’s that stranger walking in my dreams
And whose that stranger cast a shadow ‘cross my heart
And who’s that stranger, I dare speak his name
Must be old Death a-walking
Must be old Death a-walking

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me

7 muzzle monkeys standing in a row
Standing waiting for The Sandbox to blow
Sitting targets in the wild west show

Nobody loves me here

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me

Another angel got his wings this week
Charbroiled with his own Willie Pete
Nobody’s dying if you speak double-speak

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me

Suburbia

Suburbia was a 1984 Harvey Roger Corman exploitation pic about the LA punk rock scene (written and directed by Penelope Spheeris) . Grade school sociology meets a sexed up, dumbed down telling of Rebel Without A Cause with a dash of  band cameos. 

The Brawler viewed it many many years ago. While it had its moments, it was on the whole pretty amusing.  The Brawler's favorite part: One of the punks is about to get branded with a coathanger as an initiation thing. You see the redhot metal, camera cuts to the exterior of the house. Then you hear the branded punk say: "Oww."

Here's the trailer from youtube:

Here's the performance that stuck the most in the Brawler's mind, "Darker My Love" by TSOL.

Wikipedia has more

Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers -- Chinese Rocks