Greetings, RSS subscriber! If you haven't been to staires.org recently, you might not notice that from now on I'll only be posting songs, and not writing anymore. I just want to expose you to music, and not feel weighed down with having to try to write something about it. This is best for both of us.

Nothing will change for you, though. Stay subscribed, and you'll keep getting songs from me and probably in more frequent amounts. I will also announce new mixtapes through the RSS feed, so stay tuned!

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm pretty certain Lifter Puller's "Fiestas + Fiascos" is my #1 favorite album of all time at this point. Still, I don't particularly like The Hold Steady, though "Separation Sunday" is fantastic. I'm just trying to say that I came toward Craig Finn's solo album, the singer/songwriter behind both bands if that needs explaining, with much trepidation. Would it be like The Hold Steady, and I won't like it, or will it be like Lifter Puller, and I'll love it?

It turns out Craig Finn's solo album is basically Lifter Puller by way of Wilco, though at times it's even more country than Wilco ever approaches. Lifter Puller, slowed down into a slide guitar accented dirge, or a honky tonk groove.

The important thing is that Craig Finn's lyrics are no less poignant, memorable, and quotable. As always, his tales of misfits checking in and cashing out on their reckless lives mirror my own nostalgia for a reckless life I've never truly lived. In my own idealized drama, my life matches what Finn describes. Every minor drug problem inflated into life wrecking addiction. It's why I don't watch Breaking Bad: I'd just be too jealous of all that delicious drama.

Maybe that's why I enjoy Finn's solo album so much. Clicking through it trying to find a great track that isn't "Honolulu Blues" ('cause it's already been posted a bunch) I find that the album sounds a little clumsy if you're not already committed to the church of Lifter Puller (or Finn in general). The backing music starts to sound like bored bar band, or worse, bored session musicians, like they might be shaking their heads at Finn's back while performing. Maybe I'm reading into it too much, maybe I just think Finn doesn't match so well with the album's more square-dance friendly moments.

It may just be that Finn is not the kind of music that will work into a mixtape ever. You can't just dip your toes randomly into him, you must dive in. This is an album album. Not something you should slice up. Something you should sit down and listen to and romanticize. Spend a Sunday morning in bed just listening to it, you know, like you could imagine Zooey Deschanel doing in some overwrought awful movie.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that this is a good album I don't expect anyone else I know to like, but that's OK, because if you drive around with me in my car you're going to have to listen to it anyway. Or maybe I'll just listen to "Fiestas + Fiascos" again. I'll probably just do that.