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Post by thrasher9294 on Apr 26, 2023 14:04:50 GMT -5
Hey gang. Some of you may have already seen this, but Steve Dude just posted this on FB today:
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Post by thrasher9294 on Apr 19, 2023 23:22:49 GMT -5
Nice work, thrasher9294! That BB19 sweater might be the sole reason that I now know you. I doubt I would have approached you if it wasn't for the sweater, who was the perfect way to start a coversation. I think that was the very first I went to all by myself, and I'm happy that I walked out of there knowing you. I came back to look through this thread and saw that I never really responded to your words here; I just wanted to say, even all these years later—that will always be one of my favorite memories from my brief time living in NYC. I really enjoyed our discussions at the time, and how positive that night was with all of us chatting prior to the show. Being willing to reach out like that makes a huge difference, and especially in NYC, it always felt like there was such a massive gap between so many people in such a tight space from time-to-time. It's kind of funny—I had a pretty similar experience just a few weeks back. They Might Be Giants played a show here in Nashville at the Brooklyn Bowl. I'd brought along a friend who'd never heard of them, and I wore another one of my sweaters I'd made (similar to the Half-Dead one I posted in this thread a few pages back). During the interim of the show, someone actually walked up and said "Hey man, I really like that Lifter Puller shirt—do you mind if I take a picture of it?" He told me he wanted to send it along to Craig, told me he's actually played with his touring UCs/solo shows at a few stops around this area of the country. We only had about 5 mins to chat before the band started up again, but it blew my mind and I still kick myself for not getting the guy's name, honestly, It was such a ridiculous thing to happen at a show like that again. I genuinely loved reading everyone's words in these threads, and I absolutely loved the insight into the music and the message. Hope I didn't seem like a bit of an ass back in these days, looking back at some of the things I wrote
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Post by thrasher9294 on Mar 14, 2022 12:24:16 GMT -5
Excited to see it, man! Looking forward to your analysis. Sorry I still haven't posted any real list/opinions of mine in the LP thread, promises that I will at some point. including brokerdealer songs in this too?
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Post by thrasher9294 on Jan 26, 2022 21:25:58 GMT -5
Wow. I cannot believe this quote: Blows my mind how much more overlap I find with this whole scene and their work. I've been listening very heavily to Reed's solo work for the past several years (I highly recommend checking out 'Songs For Drella,' the tribute to long-time Reed former friend Andy Warhol) and I would never have expected Craig to consider him an influence as well.
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Post by thrasher9294 on Jan 24, 2022 21:32:02 GMT -5
Just wanted to drop in after reading the thread again this week and say how fantastic a finale this whole thing is. I've been working a 7-day work-week and will finally have a chance to write up some more of my thoughts when I'm off on Thurs/Friday, but until then I just wanted to say I love the positioning of 4Dix as a true endpiece of the band. I've really never thought about it with that sort of depth before, sadly—four dicks and the apocalypse.
To be honest, my experience before this recent thread was pretty rough at times. When I saw Craig in Cincinnati during his living room tour back in January 2016, I believe? I ended up speaking with some of the fans there afterwards and there weren't many others who were as familiar with it. Granted, again I would've probably been coming across as kind of a pretentious ass with how I was talking about them at the time, but when one of the fans asked about them, another interjected to say "Just listen to 'Let's Get Incredible' and that's all you need." Ah well. I do get it, again—I still remember seeing that LFTR PLLR hoodie/book available for sale back in '09 and just wrote it off back then too before I really got the chance to discover the band.
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Post by thrasher9294 on Jan 19, 2022 19:05:49 GMT -5
I have a distinct memory of the first time I listened to Let's Get Incredible, sitting there with my iPod one morning. The moment I heard that synth intro, I knew it was going to be a momentous track in the catalog. Another one that definitely competes with TMS or Lonely in a Limousine for me with being as good a mission statement as any.
I promise I'll start writing up some more soon. I was hoping to get around to it a bit today but my life/schedule's been keeping me busy.
I will say, I've always been hesitant to put my opinions on Lifter Puller into words. There were so many conflicting thoughts in my head, preventing me from feeling like my opinions had any validity. I was just a kid when I first heard them, another fan who had learned about them from being a fan of The Hold Steady. The usual feelings of "Wow, lookit this guy—he likes the older band, great." I had several years between first hearing their work before I became damn-near obsessed with their music as a college student back in 2014. I was never as lyrically-minded a fan as most other THS fans I interacted with; there were several bands whose works I had fallen in love with by that time, for both lyrical storytelling and musical abilities, but the focus on lyrics was practically all I ever heard about in the circles that even knew about the Unified Scene to begin with.
I didn't want to seem like some hipster kid who liked a band nobody had ever heard of, but that wasn't how I genuinely felt. As we've all documented here, there's something that really fucking resonates in their music. Not just words, but the goddamned music too. Even in those first records.
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Post by thrasher9294 on Jan 17, 2022 16:46:35 GMT -5
Definitely wouldn't be far from the top of my list either. One of my first choices to show off F+F when I'm given the chance. Fantastic track
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Post by thrasher9294 on Jan 12, 2022 21:16:50 GMT -5
Still love reading these man. Totally agree about Sherman City—was one of their first ones that really started that connection for me when I was first listening to Soft Rock back in the day. I still hear all of these little sounds in the guitar part that make me wonder what the fuck chords they're playing. I'd love to share some of my more in-depth opinions next time I have a chance to do a write-up for sure
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Post by thrasher9294 on Dec 31, 2021 0:32:20 GMT -5
Here's another one I made with my guy, a hoodie closer to one of the original sweaters I made when I went to the Brooklyn Bowl shows back in '19.
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Post by thrasher9294 on Dec 10, 2021 18:43:13 GMT -5
Figured I'd just drop by and show the new shirt I was finally able to get made recently
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Post by thrasher9294 on Nov 15, 2021 20:16:28 GMT -5
#11: ROCK FOR LITE BRITELifter Puller have a way to make single guitar riffs or parts so stacked with - in the lack of a better word - meaning, in a way that very few bands do. They seem to fill these short musical themes with ambivalence, emotion and almost abstract narratives. And Rock For Lite Brite is one of the finest examples of that.
What a great way to put it, for sure. Like you say here, there was always something about that damn intro that drew me in everytime, despite the facade of simplicity. A fantastic song, with little moments throughout that really elevate it from being "just" the parts alone. The rhyme of "...Makin' love to your stereo equipment," the repetitions afterwards. It's more of the Lifter Puller qualities that I love: off-putting, but catchy as hell once it finally grabs you.
Great to see this thread still going. I've been wanting to make a post on it for the past month and it's been in the back of my mind every time I open my browser, but I never know just what to say really with how hectic everything has been. Will still be checking it out for sure
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Post by thrasher9294 on Oct 8, 2021 13:50:10 GMT -5
No worries at all man. I've been dealing with some heavily family stuff in the mean time, drove up the country a few days back to be with the folks. I'll try to do more than just "react" once things have finally settled back down a bit.
Hope you feel better soon, of course!
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Post by thrasher9294 on Oct 5, 2021 15:05:02 GMT -5
Definitely a surprise to see such a high ranking for that one, but it's certainly another one of the odd-ball tracks I really enjoyed as well. I was always drawn to the fairly unique sound and rhythm, especially during that opener as you mention. Back in the day of listening to Soft Rock (before I even knew that they were compiled on "Slips Backwards") I always loved the flow of those last few tracks, even before I really knew that they were separate from Half-Dead and Dynamite. Even back then I was fascinated at the ability of every single song on the record to have such a unique sound (even with a guitar tone that might be seen as simple or even "generic" in some other context). It would definitely be difficult for me to rate it above 11th Ave, Mick's Tape, or Pirate/Penpal still, but they're all great friggin' tracks.
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Post by thrasher9294 on Sept 29, 2021 22:21:53 GMT -5
Two tracks that would've been super tough to rank, for sure. La Quereria might compete for my favorite of the more dramatic, slow-burner tracks in the entire discography, and it's great that we have a live version of a B-side/Soft Rock track like that from the Brownies show in 2000. Whoa! didn't know about that. Got a link by any chance? By chance, I actually originally accessed it in this thread here from Soniclovenoize—or it may have been from someone else who had downloaded it, actually, as I'd be surprised if that mediafire link was still there when I would've finally found it back in 2015 or so. I did upload the files here, at my dropbox. If there's any trouble with sharing these let me know. La Quereria was specifically played during the recording of "Live at Brownies 3_30_00".
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Post by thrasher9294 on Sept 29, 2021 19:34:43 GMT -5
Two tracks that would've been super tough to rank, for sure. La Quereria might compete for my favorite of the more dramatic, slow-burner tracks in the entire discography, and it's great that we have a live version of a B-side/Soft Rock track like that from the Brownies show in 2000.
Star Wars Hips was always a tough one as well—Craig's words as you mentioned have always given it an insane amount of weight in their catalogue, and I'd be lying if I said the "Two big scoops: it wasn't just an accident / This is not coincidence" still wasn't one of my favorite lines of theirs. Still, I'd totally agree with their position outside of the top 10.
Same feeling with the "Violence > Silence > Sirens >Violence / Violins" lines. It was always such a goddamned brilliant little balance of what I'd probably feel was a cheesy-as-hell line from damn near anyone else. Something about Lifter Puller's ability to say some rather out-there shit without breaking face once throughout every album is part of what really drew me to them back in the day.
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Post by thrasher9294 on Sept 23, 2021 21:28:57 GMT -5
#16: THE PIRATE AND THE PENPAL I was curious where this one was gonna pop up, and am blown away to see its warm reception here or anywhere else. It was one of the first tracks I really stuck with all those years ago, riding the bus—much like 'Lazy Eye', a bit too out-of-the-way to ever see any positive discussion about it in the community back then. All of the little rhythms to the verses, as you've mentioned. The outro, the backing vocals there. The wavering synth holding out. It's so out-of-place for a Lifter Puller song, and I dig the insight that it probably wouldn't be as interesting if it was just sitting on an album somewhere, and being a prototypical Finn solo song almost in its depiction of characters far removed from the usual THS/LFTR PLLR epoch. Or maybe its just that goddamn little 2-note guitar line that plays after the "slips through your hands 'cause you buy too many stamps" and other moments, it stuck with me almost instantly—one of my favorite musical moments from the whole catalogue. Great to see. I'd love to know what the guys think about seeing this so high as well—I think I asked Craig about it during the Living Room Tour when I first got the chance to speak to him, although all I really asked was "did you guys ever play it live?" and he said "yeah." Would love to have a recording of it like we do some of the self-titled tracks.
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Post by thrasher9294 on Sept 10, 2021 22:49:35 GMT -5
Just finally got back home to my PC after the past two weeks, and should finally have a chance to respond some more soon! I've still be reading and following along on my phone of course throughout. Really enjoying reading all these opinions
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Post by thrasher9294 on Sept 2, 2021 10:52:54 GMT -5
I'm afraid I've been away on a trip for the moment and will be until the 12th or so, and that's why I haven't been saying as much either. I'm always reading the thread, but I'll definitely respond when I can.
Manpark is a tough call for me as for where I'd put in the overall ranking—it's likely in the teens/twenties, but I couldn't put it over Candy's Room, Touch My Stuff, or Limousine personally. I love that synth sound at the beginning and all that, the little moments like the breakdown, everything is great.
Nice, Nice on the other hand—and I'm not taking any pride in saying this—may be my lowest Fiestas track. As we've all said many times, these tracks are all great to some degree or another, and I'd still say I love the song in the grand scheme of things. And I could certainly see how strong it is as a character piece of the whole story, and there are tons of lyrics of note throughout the track (The drinks taste like Pantene/The Visine wipes clean all the bad dreams | or the aforementioned roofies/jungle juice, great stuff), but it's one that musically I've always found a bit less interesting. Still has "sounds" here and there that I love—the descending bassline gets me as always, the little synth kicks during the verses, the last note droning into Katrina, but it's almost SO lyric/line heavy that it's the one track that I feel the music just doesn't seem to matter so much. Maybe it's less abstract/cinematic to me than something like I Like The Lights in its depiction of a character's debauchery, but I do see how we need that character study to really understand what's going on in on this record, and why the ending is so heavy.
It's still a great track—just a little middle-of-the-road for me on an album full of expressive, wild, and exciting moments I suppose.
Wow, I didn't even realize it hadn't been listed yet. That bright/dark contrast from beginning to the end, the outro, so many little moments that are distinctly "Lifter Puller"'s version of indie rock in a way that I love. I can't say it's higher than the other tracks I've mentioned (and damn, I somehow missed your ranking of Double Straps back at #35, but it's great to see it get some love. It was definitely one that I was put off by when I first heard it all those years ago, but all these little charming moments throughout really grew and grew on me over the years.
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Post by thrasher9294 on Aug 30, 2021 22:57:59 GMT -5
I do wanna clarify that I absolutely think there's more to Mission Viejo than just a cover for sure! just was always fascinating to see how newcomers judge their music. We often talk about that aspect of peeling back layers, making new discoveries, etcetera, so that initial reaction is always interesting to me.
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Post by thrasher9294 on Aug 29, 2021 2:48:33 GMT -5
Always great to see them inspiring more and more people to write/create, for sure! I was similarly pretty young when I first started listening to them. Always wanted to give a shot at writing our own music, but all my friends and I ever did was play covers sadly. They're absolutely real—the center spread of the "Lifter Puller Vs The End Of" book is a photo of those particular knuckles. Edit: A quick google search shows this photo was uploaded to Tumblr at some point, and I believe this is the exact same photo as used in the book.
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Post by thrasher9294 on Aug 28, 2021 9:47:50 GMT -5
But as a general rule, I tend to find more small easter eggs, WTF moments and revelations in Lifter Puller, even after spending well over a decade with their music. That's what really did it for me all those years ago. I'm still a huge THS fan as anyone here, but one day it hit me that nearly every track on Soft Rock was getting better and better as I drove back and forth through the snow on my ways to and from work that semester. I'd sit and re-play the same moments over and over again, including the intro to MV, just to hear those little sounds I was talking about. "Damn, this is really fascinating shit." And it was easy to get looked at like "man, you're just a hipster" but I was always genuine about how I felt, and I still am. I can never tell if it all is that "mythos" of the band. Maybe it's because they broke up at their "peak," so we'll always just be wondering "what if?" Can that really affect the way we interpret and listen to the music? I'd like to say no, because again, Lifter Puller is probably the only band in my collection I can say that I love every damn song they did, to one degree or another. Perhaps only having 53 tracks to count is what makes that possible. Makes a lot of sense. Even though I knew for sure Craig was always inflicting his own personal feelings and emotion into the writing and performing of every song his bands have done, there was something about this first record that I always felt was more like an insight to the kind of people they really were, rather than the characters they'd be writing about later on. Stories about nightlife, out-there characters and locales, etc. are all fascinating, but is that somehow antithetical to that more emotional side of indie rock? Is it "relatable?" Or is it noir/fantasy? It's fantastic music either way. Sorry if I'm rambling a bit as well, kind of out of it this morning I'd love to man. I'll always remember you looking at that sweater I made from the Slips Backwards single, and that time we spent hanging out and chatting is still one of my fondest memories from my time in NYC. I still kick myself for being kind of a social goofball by not trying harder to get in the show that second night. Sadly I don't know how easy it'll be—I was let go from that job shortly after COVID began and I've been living here in Tennessee of all places for the last year. Once things clear up more I'll try to make it to a Massive Nights show again—I'm hesitant this year with all the stuff going on and shows being cancelled, but I'll definitely shoot for next year if I can. If I ever get a job with a salary like what I had in NYC again, I'd love to come out to London, I've got a few friends out there I'd love to meet for sure. It's one of my favorites. Maybe it was seeing this Riverboat video all those years and years ago: I couldn't separate it from Plymouth Rock—on my list, I've kept them together specifically for how they flow together (One day Spotify will fix the bullshit where it doesn't work properly), and I could be wrong but I believe every live performance is always both tracks together? Both tracks are, to me, damn near the epitome of what I love about their later music, lyrics, everything. That off-beat drumming from Dan, the "clean" little guitar licks from Steve that fit so perfectly but I can't think of any other indie rock song that would have a sound like that with a song so rough-and-tumble. The breakdown, the Self-titled references/re-framing, "And she shoots it off to try to impress you / First she gets off, then she tries to undress you." To me, Plymouth Rock/Candy Machine is a damn near perfect pair to introduce someone to Lifter Puller who, at the very least, likes some "weird" music of their own and will appreciate it. It's funny, every time I wanna describe their music it's always like "a snapshot here, a snapshot there" that I focus on. I suppose it's harder for me to speak to larger context than that still, it's why I love reading your guys' descriptions and interpretations.
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Post by thrasher9294 on Aug 27, 2021 18:09:37 GMT -5
Certainly a fantastic track. I can't say that I have quite the same personal connection to it that both of you have mentioned, but musically it's always been great for all the reasons mentioned above.
I apologize for not being able to put it in a clearer thought, but I've always found that there are plenty of "moments" like that throughout their music that have always gotten to me—the warmth and fullness of the intro, I mean. The layering of certain sounds, guitar tones, effects, whatever it is, that always makes me wonder "how in the hell did they get that sound?" Presumably it's always been that second guitar, but still, gets me every time. Bloomington always did it for me too, as I said earlier, but especially MV. That little single tremolo guitar note that plays throughout nearly the entire song, but fits for every moment. There's this chord I always seem to focus on in the intro/other moments that, it almost makes me think I'm hearing phantom notes or something, I don't even know if I could pick out that exact note, even though it's just a simple G chord progression.
That warmth, in particular, is why I like the first album so much I think. Not that it's missing from later albums, but in much the same way it makes it a more generic indie rock album, there's something almost dreamy about those little moments here and there that I always get lost in.
I haven't spoken much about my overall ranking, I keep looking at it and making tweaks as the thread goes, but I will say It'd be hard to get ahead of Bloomington, Double Straps, and Sublet for me personally. Still, one of my favorites, and one I tend to show first-timers often.
quick little anecdote: I recall sharing a video of the band playing a few years back, and I typed up a little description and linked MV as an example track, talking about all of these unique qualities and mentioning much of what you both said. The only response at all on the thread was "They sound like a Dinosaur Jr cover band in that song."
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Post by thrasher9294 on Aug 25, 2021 11:36:08 GMT -5
Damn near perfectly agree with everything you said. Love the insight into the relevant music scene as well, I've never thought of considering them in that context before. I did always love the aggro-level Craig in this one, pretty mind-blowing. I totally love the almost 8-bit crushed bassline in... huh, I guess this another one with a chorus?
When I saw them open for Atmosphere in 2016, there was a part of me that was really, really hoping Slug would come out and they'd do this track together. Killed me when it didn't happen
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Post by thrasher9294 on Aug 24, 2021 13:39:50 GMT -5
I can understand that, for sure. Much of what you said for Sublet apply to Bloomington for me as well, and your mention of "gritty and distorted intro turns into a steady and sweet indierock" is a big part of why I love the music in it. The first cymbal crash around 1:15, and that descending bassline is one of my favorites in the genre.
The lyrics, to me, make it really special. Something about the juxtaposition of the music with all of these phrases that, for one reason or another, have stuck with me. The stark use of Craig's at-times off-putting voice in the intro saying all of these boastful things, or perhaps it's because "90's neo-noir indie rock" is so well-encapsulated by these two verses, for me:
Not to mention the mall motif/setting. It's probably the cheesiest, most on-the-nose use of "noir" voice in their music—usually a quality I find off-putting, as it makes it feel more "theatrical" than I like. It's likely the first-person perspective then, I suppose.
The music is what really makes it though, something about that guitar line throughout...
Still, it's a hard call for me between it, Double Straps, and Sublet for my favorite Self-titled track.
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Post by thrasher9294 on Aug 23, 2021 13:14:08 GMT -5
Perfectly put, one of my favorite songs of theirs. I have similar feelings for Bloomington (which is *way* up there for me). I do agree that it's a bit more generic, but I love it anyways
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