Lifter Puller - 1997 - Half Dead and Dynamite

 

Nick Nelson has been a musical influence on me for almost forty years, and the weird thing is, I have only known him for a little over 33. He and Glen were good friends and he would turn Glen onto music in the early-to-mid 1980s, and he'd dub albums for Glen which I would then dub.

In 1989, Nick and I met when he was visiting Glen and I in Minnesota from the Bay Area. Glen and I moved out there in 1990, and Nick has been a great friend ever since. He was my best man at my wedding in 1997. 

The weird thing is that just a few years after Glen and I moved out west, Nick moved back to Minnesota. 

Lifter Puller was a Minnesota band led by Craig Finn, the leader of a band you've more likely heard of... The Hold Steady.

Well, this was the album Nick shared with me, and by share, he actually bought and sent me a copy of this and their follow-up EP. Nick preferred the EP, The Entertainment and the Arts, but this one, is to me, their masterpiece.

Just listen to it. It is so good.

In 2005, years after Lifter Puller had broken up, Finn moved to Brooklyn and gave up music for a time. He worked at eMusic and one night he saw, oh shit, I forget the band... sorry, they were forgettable, but they inspired him to get a band back together.

 Glen and I, on Nick's recommendation went to see The Hold Steady on a rainy sunny afternoon during San Francisco's Noise Pop Music Festival and not only was the band amazing, all the other ones were too, and Craig manned his own merch table in this tiny club. I chatted with him for nearly an hour, connecting with him over baseball and Minnesota bands of our youth (we're the same age). His favorite album is also mine, The Replacements' Let It Be... the first album posted on this blog.

 Years later, I finally got to see Lifter Puller. They reunited for a show at Denver's legendary Red Rocks outdoor venue. They were on a bill with pre-famous Lizzo (who charmed the shit outta everyone), Brother Ali (so cool) and headliner Atmosphere, a Minneapolis hip-hop act that try as I might, I just don't like. We got out before the crowd, but seeing Finn perform these songs was so great.

A truly essential album.

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