The May '07 issue of Paste Magazine (Issue 31) is out now. Every Baby Boomer's favorite bar band, The Hold Steady, is on the cover. This may be the best quote to ever appear in Paste:
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"In England, where the set times are earlier, we see a lot more older fans, groups of guys who are 55 years old," Finn says.
"It's like A Hard Day's Night," concludes Polivka. "Only instead of teenaged girls chasing us, it's 50-year-old, mustachioed men."
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Another great quote: "They're the band you go see when you feel like getting drunk on cheap beer, dancing and then loitering outside the venue, eating crappy pizza on the curb; they embody the half-tragic, half-ecstatic American adolescence every 33-year-old with a desk job wants desperately to re-live."
She nails it. Thank you, Amanda Petrusich.
But rest easy, kids, there's fun for you, too. The sampler CD is absolutely amazing this time, with tracks from Dinosaur Jr. (I had no idea they were still around; they sound great), Dungen, Nick Cave's new/old band Grinderman, sensitive folkies Great Lake Swimmers, the legendary and saintly Mavis Staples, Chris Knight (the best gravel-voiced rootsy songwriter not named Steve Earle), and Rosie Thomas. And two, count 'em, two tracks from The Hold Steady: "Massive Nights" from Boys and Girls in America, and a previously unreleased acoustic version of "Stuck Between Stations." Joseph Arthur's on there, too.
For those keeping score at home, my Listening to My Life column is on Winnipeg literary punks The Weakerthans, and I have reviews of the new Black Rebel Motorcycle Club album and a Fats Domino/Jerry Lee Lewis/Ray Charles DVD.
Joseph Arthur wrote a letter to the editor/"poem" that was published in Paste. He takes the magazine to task for being too safe and predictable, and gives the magazine a 2.5 star rating. That's okay. I listened to his song on the CD sampler, and heard some reheated blues riffs and some more "poetry." Two stars, I say.
Hey watch this
I can write
Prose and make it
Look like a
Poem
Or should I say
A fuckin' poem
Because then it
Will sound
More hip.
Hipsters. Gotta love 'em.
holy crap Andy, I had no idea you were into the Weakerthans! Okay, I didn't know anyone else in Columbus knew who they were either, lol. I just received the May issue the other day, but haven't read it yet. It is good to know though, that a fellow Vineyarder (is that a word?) also has an appreciation for Canada's finest.
ReplyDeleteOh...and while Joseph Arthur's letter to the editor I'm sure is a bit tongue-n-cheek, it is indeed spot-on about Paste.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, Scott. I don't agree, and frankly, I'm not sure how anyone could listen to the first two songs on the latest CD sampler and make that comment.
ReplyDeleteThe Hold Steady and Dinosaur Jr? I mean, I know you think that THS is the greatest band on earth at this moment. And while I certainly think that they are good, very good in fact (your constant commentary made me go back and listen to both Separation and Boys and Girls several times again) , I am not about to bestow that title upon them. And while it is indeed nice to have Lou Barlow back with J (though, I mean its no surprise with where Barlow's solo career has gone and who ever knows whats going on with Sebadoh), there's not really anything new there. And while I won't pretend to know more than a few chords which aren't played great and can not hold a candle to your writing I must say that more "jagged edges" are definitely good for anyone or anything.
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