Kick Your Losing Habits

Key steps to cleaning up nice

We love underdogs, especially the dogs that clean up nice. In real life, we really like Patton Oswalt. But the fantasy plays better - we love a character that Patton Oswalt portrays in a movie. Movies about dirtbags who kick drugs and conquer the world play tidier in our conscience than the reality where the guy relapses and smacks his woman around in a meth den two years after learning the Windsor Knot. It’s how true stories become “based on actual events”.

Sammy Hagar was in a great band once,
long before he helped ruin Van Halen 

Here at Full Kicks, we celebrate the rock n roll underdog. The artists that we really hope are going to kick the world’s ass by the end of the movie and win the heart of the cute cheerleader / witty prostitute / young widow they deserve.  Our faves aren’t only the forgotten shoulda-been-huge guys like Emitt Rhodes and The Nerves or sidebar greats like Montrose (see left) but also bands that made it from the margins with a true Jerry Lee rebel spirit in their music like The Replacements and The Hold Steady. As far as what it means to be a rock n roll underdog today, almost anyone in tight jeans with a guitar fits the bill. It makes us reluctantly cheer for mediocre bands like Foo Fighters. At least they try.

Underdogs are among some great new stuff kicked out this past week. Nada Surf, a survivor from the one hit wonder MTV machine of the 90s issued their 7^th studio album called "The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy". It features what have become Nada Surf staples – fearlessly sentimental lyrics & lush Buffalo Tom-style guitar pop - enhanced this time out on guitar with the addition of former GBV melody smoker Doug Gillard. Good stuff from a persevering act who have put out quality sappy indie rock for the last 15 years. Bill Janovitz of Buffalo Tom once described their music as something to listen to while you’re doing the laundry. Nada Surf hits that same spot for me. "TSAItA" delivers swooning rockers “Clear Eye Clouded Mind” and stark ballads “When I was Young”, highlighted by centerpiece track “Jules and Jim”. Check it out.

Craig Finn is holding off on The Hold Steady for now. Following an impressive streak fronting the exhilarating neo-classic rock THS – one of the absolute best things to happen to rock n roll in years - the twitchy narrator has bumped up against the inevitable comedown on "Clear Heart Full Eyes", his 1^st solo album and he sucks his characters under with him. Fitted comfortably in a story friendly alt-country suit, Finn here deals with the aftermath. Yes, the title twists the Coach’s refrain from Friday Night Lights, and though he swears it is not a concept album about a TV show about High School football, Finn here is like a coach for his characters, guiding them through the rough spots and helping them find a way out. In THS songs, shit is blowing up and Finn is like an itchy Elvis Costello cheerleading the E Street Band. But "Clear Heart" brings the redemption if not limitless hope: through religion in “New Friend Jesus”, in the anonymity of a neutral site in “Rented Room” where “she fit me just right / my pillow still tastes like her perfume” and the odd release of album highlight “No Future”, a bittersweet Lucero–style chugger where he gets solid advice from Freddie Mercury and Johnny Rotten.  Check out Craig playing and talking "Clear Heart Full Eyes" here.   

As far as this week in Freddie Mercury and religious redemption goes, the incredible Foxy Shazam released “Welcome to the Church of Rock and Roll”, and for this I am eternally grateful. Seriously, these guys kill. Go see Foxy Shazam and you will be a believer – they put on a crazy show with the diminutive & nutty lead singer Eric Nally leading the charge through some Queen/Darkness/Prince inspired slayers.

High priest with
a high voice

The songs are catchy and the band is talented & tight. This new album is supersonic, commercial friendly and could make them huge. Though less of a rule breaker compared to previous efforts, “Church” has some brilliantly-coloured peacock rock like the rifftastic “I Like It”, driving trumpet-inflected gospel “Holy Touch”, sport rocker “Last Chance at Love” and the arresting “Forever Together”, where Nally
professes his love for his family and how hard it is to leave for a tour. The driving element throughout the Foxy Shazam experience - the pomp, ridiculous showmanship, catchy songs – is Nally’s voice. It is a soaring, huge star and its elbowed its way to front of stage here where it belongs.  "Church" is church, check it out.