It's a great band for lazy people because they're actually two bands, separated by time, geography and style (somewhat), but if you like one, odds are good you'll like the other. So, if you're among the slothfully-inclined, you can refer to Lifter Puller (or "LFTR PLLR" for vowel-haters) and The Hold Steady collectively as "Lifter Steady".

I won't go into biographical detail too awful much. There's other people who've done a better job doing that, some of whom who were present when these bands did/is still doing their thing. (Check the links page for interviews that do just that.) I'll just tell you what I tell pals when I try and sell them on this band:

"You *have* to listen to Lifter Puller. It's this indie band from Minneapolis that broke up a few years ago. They never really got big outside of the Twin Cities, but in that one town, they were like the Beatles. It is seriously some of the most messed-up rock-and/or-roll you will *ever* hear. Stark. And the singer doesn't sing --- he just tells these stories that all center around a handful of characters at a nightclub. And no matter how much a dork you are, you will walk around listing to this band and you will feel like a Guy-You-Do-Not-Fuck-With."

Then, a month and one mixtape later, I get to go:

"You know, this same singer? Craig Finn? He has another band, The Hold Steady. They sound pretty much the same --- the bass player is the lead guitar player now (that would be Tad Kubler, the Koob) --- except instead of sounding like something from the ass-end of a "Nuggets" boxed set, this band is a Classic Rock band. Like Fleetwood Mac or Meat-fucking-Loaf. They're out of Brooklyn. They're actually getting a lot of Critical Buzz (TM), so two years from now, every annoying person we know will likely be into them. They're also the best rock-'n-roll group on Earth right now."

So Lifter Steady are a great band for nerds.

If you grew up (or are still growing up) on comic books and sci-fi/fantasy and you've used the word "continuity" out loud more than once in the past year, you'll probably love Lifter Steady. Each band has its respective universe of drug-runners, club owners, pimps and innocent souls caught up in a maelstrom of decadence and staying out past their bedtimes.

In Lifter Puller, it's Katrina ("the Queen of the Clubs"), Juanita ("the guys, they call me 'LL Cool J'"), legal intern and hedonist Jenny, local loan shark the Eyepatch Guy and, of course, Nightclub Dwight, proprietor of The Nice Nice. Dwight likes the lights, and he likes them plenty bright --- but you'll find that out yourself.

In The Hold Steady, the stories revolve around this former Catholic schoolgirl-cum-hoodrat named Holly (nee Hallelujah), a pimp named Charlemagne, and a travel-weary user named Gideon. As you might guess from the characters' names, religion (specifically Catholicism, more specifically the doctrine of Original Sin) is a fairly prominent theme for The Hold Steady.

If I may quote:

"Singer/songwriter Craig Finn weaves tales rooted in his suburban Minneapolis youth, where driving an hour to make it to a punk show on Saturday night doesn't mean you'll miss Sunday morning mass." - NPR's "All Things Considered"

(If these themes ignite your eros, you should listen to Green Day's "Church on Sunday", their best song. But I digress.)

Speaking of quoting, Lifter Steady is a great band to quote. That is, if you're not above quoting a lyric in an online bio, or scrawling it across your clipboard when you're sitting in an undergrad class.

Permit me a few favourites:

Craig Finn is (and this does his sublime command of language ZERO credit) very, very witty. Clever, even, although in his songs (see "Hot Fries" and "Barfruit Blues") Finn tends to use that word in the Machiavellian sense of people using their intelligence merely to further their own ends rather than do anything Good. The clever kids just want, desperately, to be cooler than everyone else at the party.

Despite Pavement, or whoever else the press is fetishizing at any given moment, it's my belief that Lifter Steady are the American rock band that are the closest descendents to the Velvet Underground. That's in terms of style, subject matter, willingness to experiment, storytelling ability and plain old heart-and-soul. I suspect Craig Finn may have thought this himself when he had a DJ in one of his songs segue from LFTR PLLR song "Sangre de Stephanie" into the VU's "Stephanie Says". (Hell, the two songs could very well be about the same character, but that's probably just my inner nerd talking.)

As I write this, (July 2006), no releases by Lifter Puller are still in print, but Craig has expressed interest in releasing an all-encompassing Lifter Puller box set at some point.

For right now, however, copies of their albums go for exorbitant sums on eBay --- upwards of $75 at times. But if you're willing to expend a little effort, you can probably find the songs somewhere online.

Somewhere like Soulseek, for example. Where my username is "strikedynamite". Sayin'.

All three Hold Steady full-lengths are still in print. Two on French Kiss Records, and the third, newest, on Vagrant Records.

That's all I got. Go and do likewise.

Thanks to Mitch Clem who turned me onto Lifter Steady (as well as Jets to Brazil, Dillinger Four, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Discount, Screeching Weasel, Constantines, The Epoxies, Randy, This Bike is a Pipe Bomb, The Shins, Streetlight Manifesto, Against Me!, The Queers and The Mountain Goats) via his webcomic.

P.S. I have never been to the Twin Cities and do not have "LFTR PLLR" tattooed across my knuckles. I am the worst kind of poser there is. (I did, however, have a shirt made up that said "WHAT WOULD JUDAS DO?", like in "Milkcrate Mosh", but I think I missed the point of the song, so now I just use it as PJ's.)

P.P.S. I know, I know. My site design sucks. But I had this crazy notion that sometimes you can produce something if you're really passionate about doing it, even if you don't possess any technical skill. We'll call it 'punk rock' for argument's sake. =)

P.P.P.S. I recently found out that Craig Finn was in a techno band in-between LP and THS, called "The Brokerdealer." A couple of their MP3's can be found on this page. I don't know if I'd call myself a fan.