Franz Nicolay is that dapper, mustachioed multi-instrumentalist and man-about-town you've seen with such groups as The Hold Steady and World/Inferno Friendship Society. On Major General, he steps up to the spotlight with a melodramatic grab-bag of full-throated songs, stories, and days of wine and roses; shamelessly strident, stentorian and more than a little sentimental. Major General is rich with tales of punk-rock disillusionment, redemption, nostalgic regret, ruthless self-interrogations and reinvention, and defiant yet affectionate apologies. It's a new look for the stylishly vaudevillian jack-of-all-trades with the Jimmy Durante and death's-head-accordion tattoos. A new stop on a hobo's-trail of intelligent, incisive hedonism that's taken him through anarcho-circus punk, Balkan-gypsy, new chamber music, and anthemic classic rock.