Live: Song Of Zarathustra @ Cake Shop 10.6.10

Historically, I have always been more into the Twin Cities bands on the periphery of Song Of Zarathustra, like The Cardinal Sin and The Hold Steady, but SOZ get props for combining Brainiac and Lifter Puller in an unsettling but strangely pleasant bit of dischord. I had seen them at ABC prior to their breakup (horribly enough, way back in 2003) and the discography had enjoyed a fair amount of nostalgia spinning over the last couple months, so for $10 it seemed worth the walk.

It had been a long day, with a guaranteed bear of a week in front of me, but I figured that a Song Of Zarathustra reunion set at Cake Shop might be a fine way to take the edge off the previous long week before the next jumped off. After an early drive-by stamping, I posted up stage right just in time to stake out real estate for the SOZ set. I haven't really seen too much in the way of solid explanation for the reunion beyond their ability to do so, but for those of you scoring at home these shows featured the circa 2000-era Birth Of Tragedy lineup of Munsen, TJ McInnis, Mark Jorgensen, and Bos. The set sported a nice mix of blast and blargh, with Bos flailing about in comfortably familiar fashion. Couldn't have been much more than a half-hour worth of set to a quarter-filled room, but the small choir Song Of Zarathustra were preaching to seemed to like what they heard. I numbered among them, and liked the fact that they didn't overstay their welcome even more. No word on more shows, but if there are more, I'd expect they will be located Midwestern way but here's a place to keep an eye on to see if they do transpire.

blaaRgh!

Jaded Scenester NYC Top Ten Singles of 2009

It was tough for me to come up with this list for a couple of reasons. One reason is that technology hates me. It's one of the many reasons that I'm happy to just be a dumb bass player. When I initially tried to figure out the tracks, it seemed prudent to just use the counter in my iTunes. Makes sense, right. In consulting said oracle I was surprised to find that there was one track that really was head and shoulders above any others playwise. I was most surprised to find said track was The Northside, The L&L, And Any Number Of Crappy Apartments by The Lawrence Arms. While that is a solid track, I can't see having played it 285 times, despite what the good folk of Apple might have me think. As a result, I'm going to throw empiricism to the wind. Additionally, I'm not going to limit this list to songs actually released in 2009. Mostly because I can. I bet a bunch of them are from 2009, but hey let's keep it interesting, shall we?

Ok, here we go.

Jaded Scenester NYC Top Ten Singles of 2009

1. Lifter Puller - Star Wars Hips (7" version)

from Slips Backwards

2. Kith n' Kin - Austin Lucas

from The Common Cold

3. Lonesome Dogtown Nights - Lucero

inexplicably not released on 1372 Overton Place

4. The Ballad Of Marvin Heemeyer - Shorebirds

from It's Gonna Get Ugly

5. Calloused Heart #2 - Drag The River

from Bad At Breaking Up

6. Darlin' - Austin Lucas

from Somebody Loves You

7. Jessica's Suicide - Jon Snodgrass

live with Joey Cape or Cory Branan

8. Geraldine - Glasvegas

from Glasvegas

9. Magazines - The Hold Steady

from Stay Positive

10. Sherman City - Lifter Puller

from Half Dead And Dynamite reissue

Lifter Puller vs. the end of

Almost exactly coincident with my having spent an arm and a leg on buying the aggressively out of print Lifter Puller back catalog, Jessica Hopper mentioned on her blog that she was involved in compiling a book on Lifter Puller that would include all their records, some nostalgia and some bonus/unreleased tracks. Color me priapic and cue a frantic Ebay resell.

Now, only four or five months past the time that the compendium was supposed to drop, Treehouse Records in sunny Minneapolis has finally released Lifter Puller vs. the end of. It's a small softcover with photos, compiled lyrics and a download card that has the new odds and sods compilation (review soon and seperate) along with the full-lengths and an EP. Lifter Puller are the best, so unsurprisingly it is exceedingly awesome, and for $25, you really can't go wrong.
Pick it up here from The Hold Steady store or straight from Treehouse in MN via this link. Act quick regardless, as there are allegedly only 1000 printed and they will definitely sell out in short order.

R

Lifter Puller Anthology Info

Hey Kids:

Looks like more info on the new Lifter Puller anthology is trickling out. It's a pleasure to hear that they are finally re-releasing all this stuff as soon as I've ponied up big bucks to get their entire catalog on Ebay.

Jessica Hopper put out a request on her blog for LP stories and pictures a couple months ago and Steve Dude was on local Minneapolis radio talking it up, so it looks like things are moving along nicely. Not quickly, mind you. Details are sketchy as to how the retrospective will manifest itself, but there are semi-firm details concerning a book that is to be included and punknews seem to believe that French Kiss will have a hand in the proceedings. Interesting! We can only hope for live shows to commemorate the anthology's release.

Keep up on what's doing at the Lifter Puller web presence here.

R

Live: Lemuria, Gordon Gano's Army, Cheeky at Death By Audio 11.15.8

Let me derail this from the start and say how pissed I am that I missed the Thorns Of Life show. I heard it was pretty bananas. But really, what the fuck is deal with Hiesel posting info about their shows on the front page of the fucking Alternative Press site. I hope that this isn't some intentional anti-press promo stunt. 

In poking around on Jessica Hopper's blog for more dirt I found this curious post from 12/13 about a Lifter Puller project? Please forward all dirt to me immediately. The same for Thorns Of Life. I'll do the same unless the information is forwarded in confidence.

Ok, then. So I go to Death By Audio and finally blunder my way in. I'm not sure how above board the shows are there. They are pretty gung-ho about shooing people away from the front of the building and keeping things under the radar. I noticed a couple cruisers passing on my way home, so maybe there's a gentleperson's agreement between the two. Either way, they seem to start on time, as I got there at 9:30 and had already missed Get Bent and Slingshot Dakota, who evidently replaced the road-worn Bridge and Tunnel. Cheeky were setting up on the floor as I staked out real estate. I admire the Born Against aesthetic, but when you are a band mostly comprised of diminutive ladies, it does make for a bummer presentation-wise. 

So there was a pretty long wait before Cheeky jumped off. There sure was a lot of smoking (tobacco) in the back room. Like Carolina shows at the Brewery smoky. Yowza. When they did it was fun, but I wouldn't go so far as to say good. Granted there were PA issues and amps failing, so it wasn't all their fault. Either way, they seem to be decent folk and share Angie from Little Lungs, so maybe it was just a bad night.

There was also the small matter of none of the bands having Blake Schwarzenbach in their ranks, but Gordon Gano's Army were pretty damn great. I'm pretty sure Alex from Lemuria and Art Of The Underground was playing drums for them, but I'm not sure if that's a permanent thing. Either way, they did us the solid of actually using the stage and sounded like a slower UK Chixdiggit on the hookier stuff like First Song. That can't really be a bad thing. The crowd was pretty into them, especially an odd gang of young ladies who were hell-bent on attracting a lot of attention to themselves. If it was for the band's benefit, it seems like went unheeded, as GGA handled their business without a hint of distraction. You can get the full-length from Art Of The Underground here. When I get a copy, I'll get a review up stat. They are in the States for five more days. The dates are here. I'd see them if you could.

Lemuria closed out the night. Evidently Sheena's moved to Queens. We'll see how that works out, especially as they have been spending a hell of a lot of time on the road behind Get Better. It shows live, as the band brings it pretty seriously. Sheena's dual Music Man heads up the gear dork factor. She's a great guitar player, not in a Marnie Stern kind of way, but she drives that band with authority. Her rhythm section is no joke either. Alex and Jason are lock-tight and the band is authoritatively together to the point where various pieces of equipement crapped out over the course of the set and there wasn't a hiccup. It extended all the way to the lead vocals. Whenever Sheena had a mike crap out or her voice lagged in PA, the crowd was more than willing to take the reins and finish an entire verse or chorus as needed. The kids got kind of frisky towards the end of the set, which only asserts that pits at indie-rock shows are really the arena of amateurs and poseurs, but all in all a great evening, even if it wasn't the Thorns Of Life show.

R