A Positive Rage - Bonus Tracks

More A Positive Rage goodness. Those with so little of a life as to actually retain my blathering might remember that there were bonus tracks to be had for those that purchased this. The Hold Steady b-sides are often as good, if not better than some of the album cuts. Of course I am a contrarian, but as the boys are just as likely to bust out a leftover as an album track, so you'd do well to become familiar. 

So the first run of this had a defective link to the bonus tracks. Upon receiving the replacement (loose in a padded mailer without a sleeve - not a good look) I tried to get the unreleased tracks and was stymied once again. Having to cough up an e-mail address and zip to get them is a little shitty, too (like you're not going to sell that info off, Vagrant. Keep news of the umpteenth Thrice vinyl reissue to yourself, will you). Especially when you don't actually get them. After a couple three e-mails, the enigmatic Jake of Vagrant and HS list fame hooked me up with the five tracks via a link (like they should have just done in the first place).  Props are due to him, but it's all about the b-sides here, isn't it? So let's get to it:

First, while there are five bonus tracks available for your APR dollar, it's really only two new tracks, as the first three tracks were available if you bought the deluxe version of Stay Positive.

The tracks were strung together as a single track, so if you weren't of a mind to chop them up, I guess it's refreshing to get them as separate tracks. And a great trio of tracks they are:

First up is Ask Her For Adderall, which is as good if not better than any of the Stay Positive tracks. It rocks and it's awesome. It's also pretty much the same as Constructive Summer with different lyrics. Who cares, it's one of the best Hold Steady tracks yet.

Second is Cheyenne Sunshine. A slower tune with good Franz parts. Melancholy, kind of Modesto-esque.

Third is Two Handed Handshake, one of Craig's character studies. You've heard it live and liked it. All three tracks are great, and for my money one of them could have taken the place of Navy Sheets. But that's just me.

As for the two actual unreleased tracks, 40 Bucks is sort of a companion to Sequestered In Memphis, again with a Modesto/212-Margarita flair to it and Spectres has the big string and B3 treatment. Epic, heartfelt, better than a gang of Arcade Fire records. Plus, it's pretty much free for buying a CD/DVD set that's as cheap and awesome as some of the less tragic women in Hold Steady songs.  Buy a copy if you haven't already. Buy a second for a friend if you have. Here's a link.

R

Live: Drive By Truckers with The Hold Steady 11.6.8

I had been looking forward to this show for a while. My Hold Steady obsession is well documented here, but it has been almost equalled in recent years by my love for Drive By Truckers. My dear friend Steven had introduced me to Patterson at a BBQ joint (on Bleecker Street, bizarrely enough) shortly after I had picked up Alabama Ass Whuppin at Academy. I was pretty damn impressed. It dovetailed nicely with my tenure dating the loveliest woman in North Carolina and seeing the gents in venues ranging from Antones to the house shows like the epic three hour acoustic set the gents played at Pine Hill Farm years ago. 

 I hadn't listened to The Hold Steady for a month or so to heighten the anticipation, with only a brief foray or two into the musical methadone that is the mighty Lifter Puller. The pot was sweetened by Drew and Flynn coming to their first show and the aforementioned Steven and male companion Mike making a rare appearance in NYC with their lady friends as the guest of the Brothers Johnson. Good times, plus there was no small amount of beer to foster a little crowdside bonhomie. 

The Hold Steady were on by 8:15 and played a pretty decent set. If you are a FLAC aficionado, you can get a copy of their set here.  It was most of the new record plus a couple dips into stuff like Cattle and the Creeping Things and The Swish. Terminal 5 has terrible sound, which was a mild bummer, but all in all a good time seem to had by most. Was nice to meet the lovely Joelle again and see some of the Unified Scene kids like John Cake.

Drive By Truckers are pretty great live their own bad selves. They are relentless touring machines that have only slowed somewhat in recent years due to their growing number of offspring. Patterson and Koob have had an on-line love affair for a while now and it only seemed logical that the two would hit the road together eventually. Patterson popped up during The Hold Steady set, grinning his way through a couple tunes and heightening the anticipation for their turn as the headliner. It was a pretty good cross-section of the last few records. Cooley continues to churn out great songs and he's a hell of a player, as is multi-string threat John Neff. Drive By Truckers are a hell of a live force and this night was no exception. I'd say they had the best of the Hold Steady, but both sets were as great as the company.

See you all tonight to do it all over again solo.

R

Live: Hold Steady @ Artist's Den Live 9.18.8

It's always the way. Nothing goes on and then everything jumps off on the same night. Internet scuttlebutt brought to light that the mighty Hold Steady were doing some taping for The Artist's Den. It was sponsored by Grey Goose, theoretically free, and would probably feature a gang of the Unified Scene kids. This I would call a good time. Of course, it was on the same night as a work function and the Opeth show at Nokia. We'll get to that. So, as regards the Hold Steady I never heard back from the Artist's Den, prompting a spate of Internet and message board grovelling. I managed to get the address for the taping and figured I'd just bum rush the proverbial show and bamboozle them with name-drops of magazine and industry connects. As five o'clock rolled around, I recieved a mysterious e-mail instructing me to report to a location near to the venue where emissaries of our heroes would get me/us in.

Shockingly enough, that didn't happen. I arrived to a ridiculous line and a bunch of embarassed US kids who had passed on the info, yet still had guest list. The enigmatic John Cake had scored a plus one from someone on line and was kind enough to pass on his sign. Someone must have been looking out for me, as I managed to hook up with some guest list via my new friend Shawn and get inside in short order. Maybe I've not mentioned that the venue was an old bank across from City Hall? While it looked beautful, it was hardly an acoustical dream. Add slippery floors and all you can drink vodka and you've got an accident waiting for happen. For better or worse, a bizarre funnelling incident was instrumental in my never wanting to drink vodka unless the woman is exceedingly hot. While there were options in that regard, I decided that discretion might be the better part of valor this time around. Said hello to the US kids and at nine sharp the boys sallied forth and set to rocking.

I'm no front of house guy, and the Hold Steady have some of the best guys around backing them up, but rock music is not optmized for high-ceilinged old banks comprised entirely of marble. There was more bounce to the ounce in that room than a Zapp and Roger show, and the sound more than suffered for it. A decent set, but with jack-ass crowd-riders and camera booms flying overhead, plus the odd unplugged microphone, the show wasn't one of their best. Better than most bands, but not the best Hold Steady show. I bailed at the last songs to go see Opeth at Nokia. Look out for the commemoration of that awesomeness coming up soon.

Some Things Bitchin', Soon To Come

It's going to be an interesting week, kids. I can almost guarantee that both of my readers will be pretty close to entertained. As the feast/famine pendulum swings towards the positive as it regards live rocking, there happens to be a lot of good live stuff to be had this week: two nights of This Will Destroy You; Opeth and High On Fire; Hold Steady and Pretenders. Seeing so much always looks good on paper, but any time you can get four Mats records with bonus tracks in your grubby little paws for the down time, you should revel in such delights.

Look forward to:

1. A four part review retrospective of the the new Rhino reissues of The Replacements' Sire catalog. That's Tim, Pleased To Meet Me, Don't Tell A Soul and All Shook Down, for the uninitiated. New art (boo!), liner notes from Jesperson and the like (yeah!), along with some pertinent bonus tracks comprised of alternate takes, remixes, studio fuck-ups and the like. 

2. Reviews of tomorrow night and Tuesday's This Will Destroy You/Lymbyc System shows.

3. Review of the Opeth/High On Fire show on Thursday.

4. Review of the Pretenders/Hold Steady show at Sonar in Baltimore.

Live: Converse presents Sonic Youth and The Hold Steady @ TLA Philadelphia 8.29.8

I heard about this show at the last minute, well after the $6 tickets were sold out, and lapsed into my normal routine of phone and e-grovelling. I normally wouldn't go to such lengths, but it was on a Friday, and I had vacation time to burn, plus what the hell else was I going to do. A man can't blog all the time and feel in any way good about himself.

I put feelers out to my boy Drew, who hooked me up with his girl Sarah, who wields some juice in this regard. In the meantime, I ended up getting a released ticket from Ticketmaster, so it was on regardless.

I had seen the Sonic Youth at Battery Park on the 4th and enjoyed them, but was more intrigued that I was much more taken with the 'hits' ala 100% and Schizophrenia, than I was with the noise skonk out. This was quite a departure. There was a period of time that I would only watch the 100% video for the Watt cameo and bitch and moan how they fell off after Sister. All historical revisionism aside, I was a little more fond of the Jim O'Rourke sideman era than the Mark Ibold, but that may be residual loathing for the profoundly overrated Pavement. Either way, without the benefit of a gig behind it, I could get my old guy on and not have to take the 2am drunk Greyhound back. Plus the last time I had seen SY, it was my 20th show, in a Polish Union Hall in Chicago with Fugazi opening and I got to smoke weed with John Cusack and his dog. I was more than willing to let that be my SY swan song, but the siren call of The Hold Steady is a little hard to resist. Cue a couple hours of public transport and a fair amount of legwork and I was bellied up at Tattooed Mom quaffing a Guinness or two.

So there was the small matter of the lovely Sarah and her boy Derek at Tripwire coming through with a guest list plus one for the show the day before, which caught me with my highwater pants down, as I was going to have shoot photos as well, but I had managed to snag a new SD card on my way to the train in NYC and was ready to rumble. After exchanging pleasantries with Phils Fan and Christine from Milwaukee, I sallied forth TLAward. TLA is not my favorite room in Philly, but it works. There were a fair amount of the Unified Scene kids in attendance, causing no end of brow wrinkling by the surprisingly staid Sonic Youth fans.

It's worth pointing out that Sonic Youth seem to be filling the role for my generation of the band that you loved in college and could still get cred for liking when you're older, much like Radiohead does for the late twenty-somethings. You can make them one of the two or three bands you see in a given year, maybe with another trendy band like Franz Ferdinand or Arcade Fire and still be able to feel comfortable and edgy writing that check to NPR. Long gone are the days at CBs where if you were a dick at the Sonic Youth show, a nice skinhead would step on your neck and ask you to calm down. Now there's lots of clucking and general derision for people singing along and an insufferable arty affectation that would be irritating in New York, but just plain silly for Philly. Save it for your Stinking Lizaveta shows, kids.

So the Hold Steady were only afforded a 40 minute slot, but they came out the gate with guns blazing. It had been a couple months since they had been in the area and the tri-state Unified Scene was chomping at the bit for the boys. The herculean amount of $1 PBRs consumed at Tattooed Mom's may have accounted for the added exuberance. Most of the stuff was off the new record and up-tempo. Craig proved to be his usual stage dynamo self and the band was tight as ever. It was over far too quickly and save for a spate of shoving and general asshattery by some cranky Sonic Adults that resulted in the tromping of my camera, it was a good, albeit far too short, time. I'm pretty damn eager for the dual headline shows with Drive By Truckers in November. My liver hurts already.

Sonic Youth are celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the release of Daydream Nation and have played the record in its entirety at a couple events around the world. Consequently, there's a lot more of that record and its deep cuts in the set. That's always a good time, plus they opened up with two solid new tunes Thurston claimed had just coalesced the day before. I understand they are currently free of any Geffen attachment, which should make for some interesting affiliations in the coming months. They encored with 100% and Expressway to Yr Skull, garnering ecstatic adualtion from the converted masses. I'm not sure there was a lot of winning over of new fans by either party, but for a $6 door charge, it was more than worthwhile.

Thanks again to Sarah and Derek @ The Tripwire for making it happen!

Look for a more expansive, less partisan review there soon.

R