By Pat Gamble
The Hold Steady
I have a really crummy generic MP3 player that I use for running. It plays MP3's in order and doesn't always let you delete the songs you want to get rid of. For the past 2 weeks, The Hold Steady's song "Sequestered in Memphis" has sent me into a heart attack inducing fit of sprinting and air drumming around Laurelhurst Park in SE Portland. I've tried to delete it, but my MP3 player must enjoy the shaking it gets from these fits of rock-n-roll exercise, or it just loves to make me look like a fool in front of the young mothers running club that meets at the park weekday mornings.
Hot Snakes
An amazing drummer friend of mine introduced me to Hot Snakes. While not technically an air instrument, the steering wheel drums have never been the same. I recently sold my 2000 Chevy Express tour van to a group of traveling poets who will just have to learn to live with the fact that the steering column is a little loose because of the quick driving beats of Hot Snakes. Audit In Progress is my favorite album of theirs, but really it's all pretty consistent up tempo almost punk rock in the style of the band-members previous famous bands: Drive Like Jehu and Rocket from the Crypt.
Man, you totally beat me to my 26 selection, Hot Snakes. This band is nearly perfect, for me at least. It's just the perfect "driving" force music. The riffs are tear-inducing. Plus, they made this trilogy of albums that makes their break-up so tragic. Orange, yellow and red albums, well illustrated, and this amazing middle-ground between the noise of Jehu and the boisterous nature of Rocket. I suppose the best thing to consider about their demise is that they quit at a peak and didn't force the inspiration. These guys make music because they can't help to not make it.
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