Send "Lifter Puller " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 How many people became Lifter Puller fans between 2000 and 2003? It's probably not a greater number than the fanbase that band built between their first single (1993's "Prescription Sunglasses") and their last (2001's post-breakup "4Dix"), or the number of people that've gotten into the Hold Steady since 2004 and subsequently got the notion to check out what the deal was with Craig Finn's old group. But somewhere between the release of their final album, Fiestas + Fiascos, and the three-night final-reunion set that inaugurated the music room of Minneapolis' Triple Rock Social Club roughly six years ago, Lifter Puller's following grew to the point where they wound up becoming a feverishly adored cult band-- not quite famous, but infamous to just about everyone who'd heard of them. Fans took road trips to the Twin Cities just to visit intersections name-dropped in songs, Finn's lyrical mythologies were built and deconstructed on messageboards and fansites, and at least one person went and got himself a set of "LFTR PLLR" knuckle tattoos. This band bred fanatics.And it'll keep doing so-- this en masse reissue of the entire Lifter Puller discography should see to that. A decade past their heyday, there's still something that resonates unsettlingly in their songs, something even more seedy and desperate than the party-casualty scenarios that fueled the Hold Steady's breakthrough. With his first band, Finn's lyrical tics and themes were well in place already-- shady nightlife characters that introduce themselves with preposterous nicknames, unexpected collisions of different music-scene casualties, people fucking in bizarre locales and somehow waking up in even stranger ones. But it's all just a bit more threatening and sordid, the humor bleaker, the redemption more elusive. It could be that Lifter Puller's style puts an additional edge to things; trade in the Hold Steady's bar-band classic rock for a beat-up indie rock/newish wave that staggers between sludgy and jittery, and it'd be hard not to make the allusion-filled literary/pop-cult debris of Finn's burnout milieu feel just a bit more unhinged....full text |
| Avclub |
| Lifter Puller has generally been remembered merely as the band Craig Finn and Tad Kubler were in before they formed The Hold Steady. But in reality, the group was its own unique, thrilling entity, playing overtly fictional story-songs similar to those Finn grew more famed for, with a wirier, new-wavier sound. Now the band’s catalog is getting the reassessment it deserves: All its albums except its self-titled debut are being re-released with bonus tracks, and they’re abetted with a superb rarities collection, Slips Backwards. Lifter Puller (1996) introduced Finn’s tongue-twisting lyrical style and bad-parties subject matter, particularly on “Star Wars Hips” and “Double Straps.” But too often, it’s fairly ordinary mid-’90s college rock of the despairing sort. (“Love is just keeping a tab / Love is just sharing a cab,” he moans on “Bruce Bender.”) Half Dead And Dynamite (1997) toned up the songwriting, with the band matching Finn’s raucous lyrics on the swaggering opener “To Live And Die In LBI” and “The Gin And The Sour Defeat”: “There’s always dudes talking shit at the bar / There’s always chicks throwing up in my car.” The six-song The Entertainments And Arts EP (1998) condenses Half Dead’s nervy roar and ups the handclaps and cheesy-synth quotient....full text |
| Musicremedy |
| If you’re worried that your memory of the Lifter Puller discography may be off, fear not; one of those five releases is a new compilation titled Slips Backwards, which is composed of 17 tracks of singles, non-album tracks, and two live recordings from D.C.’s Black Cat in 2000 – one of the band’s final shows. Their eponymous debut is available digitally for the first time, while their sophomore LP, Half Dead And Dynamite, gets the Deluxe Reissue treatment, featuring live versions of tracks from a 1998 performance at Minneapolis’ iconic venue 7th St. Entry. The band’s only EP, The Entertainment And Arts (Deluxe Reissue), also includes live bonus tracks from the same 7th Street gig. Fiestas & Fiascos (Deluxe Reissue) was Lifter Puller’s Frenchkiss debut and last studio album, and the reissue features six live cuts from the band’s reunion shows at Minneapolis’ Triple Rock in June of 2003. Lifter Puller also just released a small run of a book, titled Lifter Puller Vs. The End Of, which contains photos, lyrics, and an oral history of the band. The book was put together by the band with help from Jessica Hopper (Girls Guide To Rocking) and Minneapolis graphic designer Jason Miller....full text |
Lifter Puller lyrics
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