‘Stay Positive’
by The Hold Steady, Vagrant Records
genre: high-five rock
suitable for: making out with strangers

Singer Craig Finn says this about his band’s origins: “The Hold Steady was born out of some loose talk in my Boreum Hill apartment in 2002. I had moved to Brooklyn about two years earlier. I was 31 years old, and the other dudes were about my same age. Our concept was to start a straight rock band with low aspirations.” Little did they know that a low aspiration rock band was in high demand. Since then, The Hold Steady, armed with Finn’s deeply nostalgic storytelling about being young and drunk or spending summer nights at the water tower, has become one of the biggest rock bands in the underground. And Craig Finn, like something out of a dork’s dream sequence, is now a 37-year-old rock star.

Finn also says that “Stay Positive,” the band’s fourth record, is about attempting to age gracefully. There are few songwriters who share Finn’s gift for glorifying everyday adolescent memories, making them seem like something extraordinary. But the record does more than look back, particularly on the title track, which both reminisces and looks forward. The song’s narrator, an aging punk who puts on his old clothes and hits the streets, says that “The Youth of Today and the early 7 Seconds taught me some of life’s most valuable lessons,” but then laments the drugs and egos that often kill a good scene. When Finn sings the refrain of “We gotta stay positive,” it’s a reminder of the imprint that bands like 7 Seconds left on their followers, and, perhaps, something those followers can cling to as they attempt to age gracefully.

Visit www.theholdsteady.com.


‘Baby, It’s Cold Inside’
by The Fun Years, Barge Recordings
genre: slow and steady
suitable for: slippers

Boston’s The Fun Years followed quickly on last year’s “Life-Sized Psychoses” with its second release on the Brooklyn-via-New Hampshire label Barge Recordings (one of the label’s founders is a native of the Lakes Region). With Ben Recht on baritone guitar and Isaac Sparks on turntable, the band is defined by the hazy crackling of slow motion turntables and their interaction with source material. The result is a warm ambience, reminiscent of Wolfgang Voigt’s Gas project or the work of turntablist Philip Jeck, as well as post-rock bands like Godspeed You! Black Emperor (minus the drums). It makes the eyelids grow heavy and the lights glow brighter.

For music that could be described as experimental, “Baby, It’s Cold Inside” is an easy listen. Recht’s guitar playing is fairly straightforward, particularly on the first track, “My Lowville,” in which he softly strums an Americana-sounding improvisation, keeping up the rhythm even while Sparks’ lush textures swallow up his playing. Sounds continue building layer upon layer as the song grows bigger, until the music contracts and segues seamlessly into the opening piano notes of track two, “Auto Show Day of the Dead.” It’s quite an opener.
Visit www.thefunyears.com or www.bargerecordings.com.


‘Nukkuu’
by Lau Nau, Locust Music
genre: mom-folk
suitable for: brewing tea

Sometimes it’s nice to not know what a person is saying when she sings. Such is the case with Laura Naukkarine, a.k.a. Lau Nau, a Finnish musician who sings beautifully in her native tongue. A fixture of the Scandinavian free-folk/psych-folk underground, Lau Nau’s most impressive quality is her ability to sound so endearing, so natural, while bizarre sounds swirl around her. Whistling, out-of-tune stringed instruments, unidentifiable percussion and any number of out-there musical sources provide the backbone for her spare folk songs.

Actually, what really provides the backbone for Lau Nau’s music is her songwriting ability. With such a gift, she is able to take risks and draw heavily upon the abstract without overwhelming the listener. On “Nukkuu,” Naukkarine’s second release for the Chicago-based Locust Music, themes were influenced by the birth of her first child and the home she is building with her family in the Finnish countryside. Indeed, there is a childlike quality to some of these songs, like children beating on toy instruments. It may seem like cacophony, but the intent is so pure and natural that it sounds like perfection.

Visit www.haamu.com/launau.

‘Brotherman (Original Soundtrack)’
by The Final Solution, Numero Group
genre: basement soul
suitable for: neon suits

In 1975, there was almost a film called “Brotherman,” a blaxploitation flick about a pusher turned preacher that sought to capitalize on the success of similar films shot in the early 1970s. The Final Solution, a four-piece vocal group from Chicago’s west side, almost released the next “Superfly” or “Shaft”—an accompanying soundtrack album that would have propelled the band to stardom, as previous albums had done for Curtis Mayfield and Isaac Hayes.

But none of that happened, because the film “Brotherman” was never shot. “Brotherman” the soundtrack, however, was completed, with all 10 tracks written and performed by the would-be superstars. Now, 30 years later, it’s here, released for the first time with incredible artwork and packaging by The Numero Group, a label that specializes in these kinds of dustbin reissues. “Brotherman OST” is pretty much standard soul fair, aside from the flamenco-influenced, speed-funk playing of guitarist Carl Wolfolk. Listening to this music, it’s easy to picture the scenes these songs would have graced if the film had existed anywhere outside of the imagination. It’s at times sweet, always funky, and would have made a badass soundtrack. But it’s the story behind the music, and the unearthing of something so totally lost that is most remarkable.
Visit www.numerogroup.com.