Middlepicker

About

After delivering the monumental “Masons” with Grickle-grass, Kyle Kosieracki rallied some barflies and rolled out a new vision of lug-nut-loose, overcharged, punk pop. Middlepicker was born. For the first several albums, Middlepicker teetered between two highly charged electrodes — Kosieracki and Bill Zastera. Zastera’s brilliant songwriting ignited defensive posturing from the more seaworthy Kosieracki, and the rollicking, unstable debut “Middlepicker Brings The Nasty” finally launched after some glorious false starts (see “Middlepicker”). Roaring and free, completed by drum wizard Justin Lawson and bassist/vocalist Kristen Anderson, Middlepicker brought us “The Nasty”, “Overdrive”, and “Top Down” while guzzling pure rocket fuel at an unsustainable rate. Ultimately, pure freedom separated Zastera from the band. (Zastera later revealed the brilliant Collapsticator Release/Relapse.) This all seemed to be the predictable end to the ordnance. Defying marching orders to stand down, Kosieracki retrenched and released the outstanding “Middlepicker Minus Bill”, effectively steering the careening craft back on to the road with classics like “Matinee Days”. This encampment set the stage for what was perhaps the most outstanding of the Middlepicker releases, the overbuilt and spectacular “Your Machine Is My Bastion”. With tracks like the title track, “Deep South”, and “Creel Cup”, Bastion shows a band hauled to the edge of hell and back holding a powerful overstatement, licked with battle scars and the hard eye of a warrior that has buried his comrade.