Craig Finn is a god. Seriously. When I’m in my adoring mood (as I am at this moment) I can honestly say that he is the best writer of the decade. The lyrics that he delivers in the Hold Steady albums & b-sides are phenomenal, and his previous work with Lifter Puller is also nothing to sneeze at.

Add the wisdom and song writing to Finn’s excellent half-speaking-half-singing voice **ignore his extra-boring looks** and think of the energy and charisma that can be found in songs like “Your Little Hoodrat Friend” or “Massive Nights”. Now try to claim that he ain’t all that. Can’t do it, right?

Finn showed us that he can turn dirty bar rock into a pretty fun thing and that he can rap like the best of them (in a P.O.S. single that’s embedded at the bottom). Now, I found an old project of his, the Brokedealer, and realized that he can also be an amazing front man for some pure electronic beats. It makes sense.

The Brokedealer is a collaboration between Craig Finn and Matt “Mr. Projectile” Arnold. Around 2002 they have released two unnamed EPs, that are hard as hell to find – you can’t buy them anywhere and even the illegal ways of getting music aren’t that helpful.

I have managed to find the first EP via a members-only bittorrent site, and a link to a weird site with two other songs was sent to me by Lead_Ninja – a last.fm member that I nagged into telling me where he got them from (thank you Lead_Ninja and thank you last.fm!).

The Brokedealer are making simple old electronics – the music is far from blowing the mind, and the spirit is so not up to date that it’s ridicules. But still, Finn is nailing it, once again. He just speaks over the beat - you know… they call it “Spoken Word” and it’s got a very preachy feel to it – but it’s just so right on the money that I can’t understand why he isn’t calling up Hot Chip and demanding a collaboration that will fit his potential.

For now, all we have are these rare songs – feel free to send us the ones that we don’t have, if you are lucky enough to own them.

Download: The Brokerdealer - Sophomore Slump

Download: The Brokerdealer - The Dead Ones Look Like Dolls