Album Notes

Fuck modesty, we'll say it to your face: Lucky Jeremy's debut full-length is the best rock record to come out of the Twin Cities in years.

Lucky Jeremy has played sporadic solo shows for the last five years, mostly on the side from his gig as the keyboard player in Sean Na Na, releasing several singles and EPs (on Troubleman Unlimited, Buddy System, Bread Machine and Heart of a Champion), and enjoying modest success. Only in the last year, however, has he completely focused on his own music.

The New Minneapolis is his first permanent backing band and they have been essential in Lucky Jeremy's transformation from eccentric songcrafter to confident and commanding frontman. On Call It What You Want... But This City Is Mine, Lucky Jeremy has an awful lot to say (15 songs, clocking in at around 55 minutes, to be exact) - about materialism ("Harlem Burned For Your Shuffle"), hipsters ("Ride That Fucking Wave, Brooklyn"), drinking-rocking-bonding ("Tom Petty"), personal demons (the epic closer "The Absolute End of Everything Everywhere"), and a lot of other stuff. All the while, the New Minneapolis brings the goods with an explosive rhythm section and chock-full-o-hooks, Johnny Thunders/Richard Lloyd influenced lead guitar of Baby Grant Johnson (a longtime fixture as a solo acoustic folk-blues artist in the Twin Cities).

This is insidious guitar rock. Like Chisel's Set You Free or the first Strokes record, every song on Call It What You Want could be a hit, resonating familiarity but ultimately maintaining freshness.

"Punk rock before it went pop. Lucky Jeremy & the New Minneapolis is a defiant, pointed four-part attack on Lucky Jeremy's demons, accompanied by the sarcasm of his shrill vocals and bitter lyrics... Nothing like good, old-fashioned punk cynicism."
-Jahna Peloquin, St. Paul Pioneer Press, 10/24/03

"He's like a heckler, jumping onto the stage, kicking the rock stars down into the crowd and blasting them with their own microphone."
-Melissa Maerz, City Pages, 10/22/03