Season 2 Track 8: Don't Let Me Explode

 As listeners will know, A Positive Jam Season 2 host Shawn Westfall has called Separation Sunday our generation's The Wasteland, and so our final bonus episode of the season puts that to the test. We read T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland in a Craig Finn-inspired voice. We think and hope you will enjoy it as another lens on the wisdom of The Hold Steady. You can follow along here: https://poets.org/poem/waste-land This wraps up season 2. Get in touch with us on Twitter at @shawnwestfall, @mbrookstaylor, or @danielshortman, or @shortmanstudios. Email us at [email protected]. And hold steady.

In our first of two bonus episodes for Season 2, we welcome Father Christian Raab, a Catholic Priest and scholar who also has a musical and Midwestern background, which gives him quite the perspective on Separation Sunday. We talk about beauty, man and God searching for each other, female mystics, the strings of baptism, other St. Theresas, and, somehow, Evelyn Waugh.   Stay turned for our second and final bonus episode of Season 2 next week.

We're crashing the Easter mass, hair done up in broken glass, and despite what the mural says up on East 13th (which one?) we're going to walk on back. For the last track of Separation Sunday, we do one of our closest readings, wondering about video booths and redemption, amen cadences and calm and collected priests. Somehow we span from Wilco to Mighty Max to crying in the shower. But maybe as you hear this you'll hear us say we love you too. (Also, bonus episodes coming starting next week!)

"Crucifixion Cruise" is the briefest track on Separation Sunday, and arguably both the most forgettable and the biggest sign of concept album excess on the album. But! But there are some serious questions the song poses that we try to put our mouth around, like: What's the difference between a poem and a song? Why is it good that this is a concept album? Or is it good that it's a concept album? What do Simone Biles, Pink Floyd, Canto IV of the Wasteland, and the Avalanches have to do with Separation Sunday. Climb aboard, we think you're going to like the view.

Hard rocking blues, scene reports and literary or religious spirits, and one of the tightest cover bands we've ever heard: "Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night" has a lot going on. And since Craig Finn told us what to celebrate, we invited a special guest to join us: Matthew Hess, founder of the famed Clicks and Hisses Hold Steady fan resource. He joins us to explain why this song is so important, and we go through the lyrics and the music to make sense of one of the band's high as hell moments, while acting out one of the key lines from the song all the while. And after listening, check out Clicks and Hisses if you haven't already: https://clicksandhisses.com/  

Everything is corroding, so we're hitting the road. Well, we never made it to Los Angeles, and Jackie O warned us off of Dallas, but on The Hold Steady's "Don't Let Me Explode", a doo wop dance across the country, we find ourselves talking about curveballs, Rage Against the Machine, things falling apart, and, most of all, the Upper Midwest. It's not the standard Separation Sunday track, but it may be worth more attention than seems at first listen.

For track 7 of Separation Sunday, "Multitude of Casualties", we hit a cruising velocity.  We drove this episode like we stole it, but somehow avoided casualties. Instead we romped through Colorado's history, classic cult movies of the 70s and the 80s, and the importance of narrative shifts (or lack thereof).

There's maybe no better song to appreciate the Hold Steady than "Stevie Nix", track 6 on Separation Sunday. The song hits for the Hold Steady cycle, with hard rock, balladry, howling vocals, sharp lyrics, storytelling, shifting perspectives, and epic songwriting. To break it all down, we have Shawn Westfall, Mike Taylor, and Daniel Shvartsman on the call, as well as Kyle Undem, a special guest making his second appearance on A Positive Jam and repping the Twin Cities to explain why Profane Existence matters so much. Lawwwwd, to be a Hold Steady listener forever. We also have a special contest for this episode, with a chance to win a copy of either Separation Sunday or the Hold Steady's newest album, Open Door Policy. Listen to the intro or check out our twitter account, @shortmanstudios, for details!

Some songs they get slimy, and then they get slinky, and then they get funky. Some tracks feel like skips to some people and the best track in the band's repertoire to other people. Some songs act as a character's theme music and some reinforce stereotypes about the Holy Roman Emperor's namesakes. All of which is to say Charlemagne in Sweatpants is a song that spurs different sentiments. The fifth track on the Hold Steady's second, breakthrough album, Separation Sunday, this is a song that deserves special attention. To tackle it, we invite Bob Bland of the Bend & Scoop podcast - https://bendandscoop.com/ - to explain the glory of tramps and sweatpants, once and for all.

Comes off crunchy but tastes like something deeper: Banging Camp, track 4 on The Hold Steady's Separation Sunday, may evoke tents and summer fun, but there's a more sinister undercurrent. Breaking bread and giving thanks may not mean what you think it means, in other words. We break it all down and figure out why this river trip is more Styxian than it seems on first appearance.