Customer Reviews

Fiestas & Fiascos

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a good record. If you're coming to this via the Hold Steady like me, you won't be disappointed. Just take the big arena sound of that band and replace it with some punk/new wave backing music and there you are. I actually prefer this to Almost Killed Me, but not to Separation Sunday, which is a masterpiece. Just DO NOT pay $100 for this. I bought it on iTunes for $10. In general, watch out for the price gougers selling used copies of out-of-print CDs. Itunes might surprise you with some of the out-of-print stuff it sells and, of course there are other slightly less reputable online vendors selling deeply discounted mp3s that you can always check before letting some dude rob you of a day's pay.

Lifter Puller have changed a lot over the last 5 years: Craig's voice has gotten more aggressive, the lyrics more self-referential, the band simultaneously more angry and goofy. And then they broke up. But you can still hear them on "Fiestas + Fiascos," practically a concept album that bears as much resemblance to the Minneapolis club scene as "Purple Rain" did. Like that album, it totally rocks and at times becomes almost unbearably silly ("Computer Blue," anyone?).

Craig Finn's mouthful-of-marbles voice spits forth a barrage of words that would mean nothing if they came from anyone else. Even though he never seems to be singing about anything of any particular relevance (drugs, whatever it is that his girl wants, some guy named "Nightclub Dwight") it all manages to take on some sort of holy power. This street hustler's sham sermon is meant to draw you into the vortex that is Lifter Puller: punk rock, catchy pop, snakey guitar lines that border on prog-rock, and a dash of Salt'n'Pepa. You will have no choice but to kneel at their altar- or flee in terror. Are you a believer?

FYI: "Candy's Room" is not a Bruce Springsteen cover...though you get the same kind of on-the-edge passion. And no lousy guitar solo.

Watch out for guitarist Steve Barone's brilliant sideshow "Hawaii Rocks."

On Lifter Pullers's latest opus- we find an audio screenplay of bad drugs, cheap booze and visceral characters intertwined in what seems to be one night. A loose concept album with amazing lyrics from Craig Finn, and a nouveau garage style of playing. Tempos shift from scene to scene as we follow along to meet all types of seedy characters and tales of self destruction or possibly self discovery. One of the finest records put out in the past year. Catch the live show if you get an opportunity, always unpredictable and quite the experience. A rough and tumble rhythm section with very cool guitar chords and textures and late 60's style keyboards sets their sound apart from almost every other band. If you like late 60's garage punk with a hint of Elvis Costello on cheap cocaine Lifter Puller should be your new favorite band. Fiestas + Fiascos is a real fiesta.

alas, boys and girls, Lifter Puller are no more. But with this one, they at least went out with a bang. this is where all the elements that went into the making of the Lifter Puller sound finally gell into a grand and visceral whole. Seemingly this is some sort of concept album with continual references to characters like "Nightclub Dwight", "Jenny" and some club called the "Nice Nice". copious drug and arson references also abound. It's seems to be trying to tell you something, but what the actual story line is, I defy you to figure out. I can't anyway and it's not like it really matters. It rocks. pure and simple. the singer spews forth a relentlessly intense stream of conscious barrage of surreal (and eminently quotable) lyrical imagery that would give Mark E Smith pause. (and all while playing guitar at the same time, I might add.) behind him the band uncoils a tightly wound brand of modern-post rock (or whatever they're calling it this week...) stops, starts, stutters and the shards go flying and it ain't exactly pretty but it rocks, yes indeedy, it do. (there are also a whole lot of (and I blush to mention it)80's "new wave" synth flourishes on this one, but don't let it scare you. it works. No, really. it didn't leave my deck for two weeks until I forcibly pried it out and made myself listen to something else.) bits and sundry phrases and images, both musical and lyrical, will haunt you for days. ("face down in the grass/with the assless chaps" anyone?) I can't help but have the suspicion that Lifter Puller will someday achieve for Minneapolis/St Paul the same sort of legendary status that Mission of Burma has for Boston. The great local band that everybody took for granted until they broke up. So do yourself a favor, give the samples a spin and if it's your cup of tea, pick it up. then five years from now, when some uptight nerdy hipster record collector type tries to give you the name drop, you'll be way ahead of him...

Basically, this record is about drugs. In a word, drugs. At last count, over 50 references to either narcotics (crack, coke, ecstacy) liquor (32, Jungle Juice) or cigarettes. This record is a song by song story told through the eyes of a hard-living narrator and his wacked out friends. Only Lifter Puller could pull this off without making it obvious. If you're into Les Savy Fav, older Dismemberment Plan, Pulp...you're in for a treat. I know a person who threw this record out his window, but I also know some one who refuses to turn it off...that tells you something.

Their final album, 1999's "Fiestas + Fiascos", finds the Minneapolis proto-art-punk band Lifter Puller at the top of their game. (Also check out "Soft Rock", a must-have collection of all of the band's albums, EPs, and singles, with the exception of "Fiestas + Fiascos". They are essential companion pieces, as you'll find out in a minute.) Songwriter Craig Finn's voice will surely appeal to no more than 1% of the general public, and the band's main fans are typically card-carrying members of the very small, very nebulous "indie rock" scene. To me, it's the songs that carry the music - and Finn's surgical-strike wordplay, hip-hop-influenced rhyme style, and half-step-behind vocal delivery lifts a large portion of that weight (pardon the pun.) What Dylan did with "Tangled Up In Blue" - re-casting each verse's lyrics from different perspectives every time he sang the song - Finn manages to stretch across several albums and singles. A significant number of Lifter Puller tunes revolve around a private detective story, in which Finn casts himself as the PI who's been double-crossing, double-crossed, and witness to a series of events that seemingly climaxes with the last tune on "Fiestas + Fiascos". (Perhaps this makes them the world's first "concept" band? If not the first, then certainly the best!) So, you'll hear about shady characters like "Juanita" and the "Eyepatch Guy", and places like "15th and Franklin" (yep, the intersection in South Minneapolis) in several songs at various times and situations. There's always enough to leave you guessing. In fact, the "mystery" was never really resolved, and may never be. Finn moved to New York after Lifter Puller disbanded in 2000, and has started a group called The Hold Steady. The characters from the Lifter Puller albums are not likely, he says, to re-appear in the new band's lyrics. The standout on "Fiestas + Fiascos" is the very last tune, "The Flex and the Buff Result", in which one of the main characters in the "mystery" is about to buy a nice pair of cement shoes... but the story is far from over.

For lack of a better description, Lifter Puller is the Hold Steady before the Hold Steady was the Hold Steady. Craig Finn's clever lyrics and unique delivery style got their start in Lifter Puller. If you're a Hold Steady fan and haven't heard this album, buy it. Now. You won't be disappointed. And kudos to the reviewer who told people not to pay $100.00 for this CD on eBay. Download it from Amazon and save yourself some hard-earned cash!

The cd is awesome -- distinctive, dramatic sound and funny lyrics. Live they are incredibly high-energy and fun.

It rocks, smart and hard. I saw them in NY a week ago and have been entranced by their CD since. Buy it.

This just in: everyones' on-target reviews of this excellent CD still apply three years later! Get it while it's still gettable! (hey, 'microwaveable' is a word, isn't it?)