A Positive Jam breaks great albums down track by track to find out what makes the music great, what goes into the songs, and why these albums matter. The second season covers The Hold Steady's breakthrough second album, Separation Sunday, an ambitious follow-up that saw the band refine their sound, their style, and their narrative approach, and which put them on the map with the wider music-listening audience. Season 2 is hosted by Shawn Westfall, with Mike Taylor and Daniel Shvartsman alongside. It will feature a variety of guests while focusing on the key lyrical themes of the concept album, its resonance with classic works in both rock and roll and beyond, and the way it built on The Hold Steady's debut album, Almost Killed Me (subject of Season 1 on A Positive Jam) in almost every meaningful facet.
Episodes
Wednesday Sep 30, 2020
Wednesday Sep 30, 2020
Sweet Payne starts off on an awkward step as it connects various threads in Almost Killed Me and in the Hold Steady mythology. But it rises from those beginnings to a glorious finish, revealing some of Craig Finn’s best lines and some of the album’s best ensemble playing. It also introduces the idea of the Unified Scene, a defining aspiration and mantra for The Hold Steady, and digs into the Twin Cities as much as anything in the Hold Steady’s discography.
To understand this, we have Shawn Westfall, writer and comedian and founder of The Unified Scene Theater, join us to explain how Sweet Payne fits in, how the dissonance between sunny harmonics and lyrical darkness plays out for the Hold Steady, what hardcore can teach us about the Cityscape Skins, the importance of community, and more. We also bust out a last Map Corner for this season to get deep into the Minneapolis roots.
Check out show notes here: https://shortmanstudios.com/a-positive-jam-track-9-sweet-payne/
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