|
Post by nosferatu on Jan 12, 2009 11:45:50 GMT -5
put it all down on technology and lost everything we invested
i dunno. maybe this is really obvious but the record sounds a bit more like the replacements in terms of production and stuff... lyrics wise, it's finn being really smart - i like the way he deals with being in the band in the first place. seems a logical thing to do on your first album.
it's my favourite hold steady album, and i think their best. you can kinda be tempted to separate it from the other three albums a bit too though because for the most part franz isn't involved and judd counsell is on drums, which makes for a completely different vibe to SS. I think it's looser in terms of jams than the other three too - it's truly the sound of a band finding their sound. which is why it's exciting.
|
|
|
Post by Jersey on Jan 12, 2009 11:50:16 GMT -5
that song does NOT get enough attention. those lyrics are just incredible but kids always say it's boring. pfffft. no. it's genius. Agreed. It's an excellent song. +2
|
|
|
Post by sketchymetal on Jan 12, 2009 12:17:34 GMT -5
went through a razor blade stage, I guess I went through a hundred dollars a day
|
|
|
Post by sketchymetal on Jan 12, 2009 12:20:43 GMT -5
put it all down on technology and lost everything we invested Interesting to me that at the time Finn was a registered Rep with American Express (read that somewhere), so he probably seen the big .com boom first hand, and also got to see people mad as hell when they got their quarterly reports. Kinda like today!
|
|
|
Post by heidivandernice, nice on Jan 12, 2009 12:39:50 GMT -5
honestly? this album makes me a little sad because i know it can never happen again. like "oh, let's just record some shit. maybe it'll be a record. do we have any more beer left?" i dunno. doesn't mean i won't look forward to everything they do, but ... i get nostalgic.
|
|
|
Post by nosferatu on Jan 12, 2009 12:45:04 GMT -5
honestly? this album makes me a little sad because i know it can never happen again. like "oh, let's just record some shit. maybe it'll be a record. do we have any more beer left?" i dunno. doesn't mean i won't look forward to everything they do, but ... i get nostalgic. yeah, I get that. Even though I first got into BaGiA I just love the "hey, let's have some fun and if it sounds good it'll be a bonus" type attitude on AKM.
|
|
|
Post by superfan99 on Jan 12, 2009 13:15:44 GMT -5
AKM is definitely my favorite and it always bums me out when I see people putting it as their 3rd or 4th on "Best Hold Steady Album" lists - which probably don't happen anywhere but here. "Knuckles" is my favorite Hold Steady track and "Killer Parties" is probably the best album (and show) ender. Ever. Fo sho.
Thanks for starting the thread in appreciation!
|
|
|
Post by hoodrat on Jan 12, 2009 13:24:38 GMT -5
i am not one those people who desperately wants another AKM. indeed, i am one of those people who bums out superfan99 (usually 3rd or 4th, depending on my mood).
AKM couldn't and shouldn't be recaptured. it is a perfect sliver of time. a little sloppy, a lot corny, even a little stupid here and there, but down-and-dirty rock, perfect all the same.
|
|
|
Post by sketchyjoe on Jan 12, 2009 15:24:51 GMT -5
It's an incredible album. I think I became a Hold Steady fan about half-way through the first time I heard Most People for DJs. I was checking out the album on a recommendation from a friend and I thought it was pretty good, I wasn't really paying attention, but when it gets to that bit "A thousand kids will fall in love in all these clubs tonight, a thousand other kids will end up gushing blood tonight, two thousand kids wont get all that much sleep tonight. two thousand kids they still feel pretty sweet tonight. Yeah, I still feel pretty sweet." and it tears into the solo that did it for me.
It was one of those musical epiphanies you get every now and again, it doesn't happen very often, I can only think of the first time I heard Dylan's Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts and Screeching Weasel's My Brain Hurts as comparable moments. I listened to the song, then I listened to it another five times, then I listened to the album through several times. Then I got everything I could find by them.
It's a fantastic album, Most People Are DJs and Killer Parties are my favourite tracks but there's not a bad one there.
|
|
|
Post by dot info on Jan 12, 2009 15:47:36 GMT -5
Similar experience, but mine was a couple lines in Barfruit Blues, while doing the dishes.
|
|
jsonx
Cityscape Skin
Posts: 21
|
Post by jsonx on Jan 12, 2009 17:10:21 GMT -5
AKM was a big, "YES! That's it!!" for me. Definitely their most unpolished but also so much more honest and real than anything else out there at the time. (or - excluding of the rest of THS archive - anything out there now) To me this band has always been about the no bullshit heart of the truth put to some of the most aggressive guitar tone and interesting chord changes I've ever heard. The kind of truth Hemingway and Kerouac and Joyce wrote about. With Lifter Puller you could sort of hear that they were trying to hit something. With THS and Almost Killed Me it was like pulling focus and suddenly the target is sharp and clear and every album since then has been, if not a direct bull's eye, at least a confirmed kill. This album will always amaze me.
|
|
lee
Hoodrat
unified scene #503. that's portland, everyone.
Posts: 411
|
Post by lee on Jan 12, 2009 18:39:39 GMT -5
i don't know what to tell you guys who are confused by those of us who are less-excited about this album. when it was just akm and ss, i definitely went back and forth, and akm would surprise me frequently by how i would crave listening to it. it is definitely better than a lot of other albums, and i prefer to listen to it over a lot of others. even when bga came out, it was still fighting for the number two spot in my mind, but when sp came out, it slowly fell to number four for me. it definitely has its high points, and those points are certainly some of the best songs i've ever heard, but the lack of cohesion leads me to rate it lower than the ones that have it. personal preference, i suppose. it gets a little blues-rock-ish at points, for my taste, in the same way that "charlemagne in sweatpants" does. i still love it, and the lyrics are mostly great and always clever, but it occasionally lacks the things that i appreciate and engage with most about the other three.
good call on the fantastic b-sides, though.
i worry that i've made no friends by saying these things. (sigh.)
|
|
|
Post by missalabamanobody on Jan 12, 2009 19:40:10 GMT -5
I keep listening to all four albums in order (I think I might have mentioned that before). Because I got to know the music more recently, the whole thing was handed to me like a rock'n'roll bouquet. Though each album has a separate and distinct personality, I can't pull them apart. It's like a novel in four installments to me, and I see and feel the story arc throughout the whole thing.
Whatever will they do next?
|
|
|
Post by clarence5ybr on Jan 12, 2009 23:17:02 GMT -5
AKM is definitely my favorite and it always bums me out when I see people putting it as their 3rd or 4th on "Best Hold Steady Album" lists - which probably don't happen anywhere but here. I think the majority of the people on this board got into THS via BaGIA or SP, and I think even if people like a band's back catalog, they are always most attached to what got them hooked in the first place. AKM is my fave, although SS is an almost-tied second. I love BaGIA and SP, just not on quite the same level as the first two albums. Aside from the overall feel and the production (you can actually hear the bass!), one of the things I love most about AKM is what I call the 'nonlinearity'. You know how the last 30 seconds or so of 'Barfruit Blues' is completely different than all that preceded it? And that's just one example--there are several songs on AKM that end up in a completely different direction that the one in which they started. Subsequent albums are much more standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus-verse stuff.
|
|
|
Post by penetrationpark on Jan 12, 2009 23:22:12 GMT -5
AKM is definitely my favorite and it always bums me out when I see people putting it as their 3rd or 4th on "Best Hold Steady Album" lists - which probably don't happen anywhere but here. I think the majority of the people on this board got into THS via BaGIA or SP, and I think even if people like a band's back catalog, they are always most attached to what got them hooked in the first place. AKM is my fave, although SS is an almost-tied second. I love BaGIA and SP, just not on quite the same level as the first two albums. Aside from the overall feel and the production (you can actually hear the bass!), one of the things I love most about AKM is what I call the 'nonlinearity'. You know how the last 30 seconds or so of 'Barfruit Blues' is completely different than all that preceded it? And that's just one example--there are several songs on AKM that end up in a completely different direction that the one in which they started. Subsequent albums are much more standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus-verse stuff. Or Knuckles where Craig just tells us he was full of shit?
|
|
|
Post by semihollow on Jan 13, 2009 0:10:42 GMT -5
i have a hard time deciding if AKM or SS is my favorite (SS always wins, but its close), i have such fond memories of listening to this album and thinking "wow, this is gonna be BIG", the Swish is SOO fucking great DJ's is in my opinion THE song to hear live and Sweet Payne is my favorite song hands down.
i hate that Sketchy Metal doesnt get the love it deserves, it contains some of CF finest, most clever wordplay, and most people just write it off as filler...
|
|
|
Post by mhetrick14 on Jan 13, 2009 1:35:16 GMT -5
it's just a statement of fact that those who enjoy the last two records more enjoy singalong choruses and glossed over production compared to drug addled sing speak and some raw, gritty shit.
like whatever you will, but the lyrics on the first two albums are objectively much more clever.
|
|
lee
Hoodrat
unified scene #503. that's portland, everyone.
Posts: 411
|
Post by lee on Jan 13, 2009 1:40:24 GMT -5
it's just a statement of fact that those who enjoy the last two records more enjoy singalong choruses and glossed over production compared to drug addled sing speak and some raw, gritty shit. like whatever you will, but the lyrics on the first two albums are objectively much more clever. i'm so glad yr here to tell us (me, i suppose) objectively why i like the others and objectively why i'm wrong for liking the objectively less clever ones.
|
|
|
Post by mhetrick14 on Jan 13, 2009 1:47:48 GMT -5
do bagia/sp have more singalong choruses? yes.
are they produced to sound a lot more "clean"? (esp. compared to akm) yes.
does craig straight up spit shit on the first two records? yes.
these are all facts. alls im sayin is people that prefer the last two records are more likely to prefer a verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus structure. it's clearly the same band- that's not in question. what draws one to a certain album is, and there are stark contrasts here.
and honestly, it's hard to argue regarding the lyrics being more clever on akm/ss. note: i didn't say better.
relax, i didn't say anyone was somehow wrong to enjoy bagia/sp (i love em), but to not admit the differences seems silly, especially on a discussion board.
|
|
|
Post by mhetrick14 on Jan 13, 2009 1:51:39 GMT -5
i mean the guy took singing lessons for the new album. they're clearly attempting to appeal to a wider audience.
and i really have no dog in this hunt. the first i ever heard of em was probably a few weeks before bagia came out, and i decided to see what all the fuss was on another board i post at about separation sunday.
|
|
lee
Hoodrat
unified scene #503. that's portland, everyone.
Posts: 411
|
Post by lee on Jan 13, 2009 2:12:36 GMT -5
note: i didn't say better. neither did i. i guess i just found these "statements of fact" which are "objective" to be a little presumptuous. i mean, crass is one of my favorite bands, and i don't know a lot of bands who "spit shit" more than crass does. or ghostface, or lil' wayne's mixtape stuff... i'm just saying, i don't think that it's a fair statement to say that everyone does anything. i thought i made it clear that i appreciate and like that album a lot, and i just prefer the others, and why. anyway. stay positive.
|
|
|
Post by zefferoni on Jan 13, 2009 2:53:41 GMT -5
Good call, guys! It's an excellent album. I was hooked the first time I heard it, when the sound kicks in halfway through Positive Jam. What a way to start an album. Really, though, what a way to start a discography! I always felt that Positive Jam was like a thesis statement of sorts for what the rest of their career would be like - Not necessarily in sound, but as the character for the band (this is who we are, this is what we do). BaGiA was my first album and the one that made me fall in love with the band, but I find myself returning to Almost Killed Me more often than any of the other albums.
|
|
|
Post by mike on Jan 13, 2009 3:25:58 GMT -5
note: i didn't say better. neither did i. well, if you guys are being wimps then i'm just going to have to come out and say it myself, aren't i? the first two albums are better.
|
|
|
Post by lilhan on Jan 13, 2009 6:21:17 GMT -5
i wouldn't say any of the albums were better than any of the others. simply because they all mean a lot to me annnnnd bring something different to the hold steady table of wonders. that's a big table.
|
|
|
Post by dot info on Jan 13, 2009 7:57:21 GMT -5
For LilHan this is Sophie's Choice
|
|