Every party comes to an end, and some parties almost kill us. We wrap up our review of Almost Killed Me (though not Season 1 of A Positive Jam!) with a look at "Killer Parties", the closing track on the Hold Steady's debut album. It's a ritual as much as a song, and we treat it with all due consideration. That includes making this a four-person episode, with regular guest Matt Brooks rejoining us as well as Shawn Westfall hitting us up for back-to-back appearances.

Mike Taylor kicks off the episode with a story about trailing the Hold Steady on their fall 2006 tour and how Killer Parties underlines all that is good about the band. We then go into a discussion about the band's use of ritual, including Craig Finn's So Much Joy speech, and the dichotomy between freshness and familiarity.

Check out our show notes here, and stay tuned for a few bonus episodes over the rest of the month: https://shortmanstudios.com/a-positive-jam-track-10-killer-parties/