The Hold Steady almost hooked me

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I finally got the group's album (I know ...) and I'm definitely intrigued. But another part of me thinks it sounds like Mike Watt doing a simultanous parody of Springsteen and Lou Reed's "New York." I know there are a few big fans on ILM, but the search really didn't turn up much substantive besides allusions to the fact that there are a few big fans on ILM.

So, can anybody help me get a grip on The Hold Steady? In return I'll stress how great the Ponys album is.

(Done and ...).

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 20:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I like it, but for me it's just an extension of my long fascination with Lifter Puller and Finn's lyrical stylee.....I guess you either buy into his schtick or you don't (I have plenty of friends that I agree with on many things that can't fucking stand him)

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 20:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm conflicted. After a couple cursory listens, it sounds a bit nostalgic to me. But I think it's great, nonetheless.

― Otis Wheeler (Otis Wheeler), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 20:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I didn't like "Ice Of Boston" much the first time around.

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:01 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah but "ice of boston" sounds little like the rest of the dis plan catalog (exceptions maybe "ellen & ben" and something i am forgetting)

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:04 (twenty-one years ago)

and I prefer the rest of the dis plan catalog to "Ice Of Boston" and any band that sounds like they're incapable of doing anything other than "Ice Of Boston."

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:07 (twenty-one years ago)

and I love "Ellen & Ben" so I guess I reserve the right to eventually connect with a Craig Finn track.

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:08 (twenty-one years ago)

I prefer the rest of the dis plan catalog to "Ice Of Boston"
well not all of it but you know what I mean

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:14 (twenty-one years ago)

haha yeah well i thought the unspoken notion was that "ice of boston" is one of the worst things they ever did

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:14 (twenty-one years ago)

craig finn just baffles me though

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:15 (twenty-one years ago)

i realized a while back that hold steady fans probably get much the same thing i get out of ted leo just different musical references and lifestyle choices

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:15 (twenty-one years ago)

haha "musical"

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:21 (twenty-one years ago)

haha well taking sides: ac/dc vs. the jam

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:23 (twenty-one years ago)

musical?
http://www.midatlantic.net/8x10/howard-cosell.jpg

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:23 (twenty-one years ago)

please tell me you are not comparing Craig Finnage to Bon Scottage. Please.

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:24 (twenty-one years ago)

oh vocals is a whole nother kettle

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:27 (twenty-one years ago)

ok I don't see the slightest connection between AC/DC and Hold Steady/Lifter Puller whatsoever. I WISH they sounded like AC/DC.

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:27 (twenty-one years ago)

haha okay admittedly i was just pulling the first classic rock name out of my ass

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:28 (twenty-one years ago)

i will now be duly catisgated

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:29 (twenty-one years ago)

god, it was like having someone compare Lifter Puller to my mother.

Maybe Southside Johnn & The Asbury Dukes would be a better fit.

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:33 (twenty-one years ago)

this is where not knowing or caring about most rock music bites you in the ass

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:35 (twenty-one years ago)

this is amusing, like watching Geir and Alex in NYC discuss contemporary rap

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:41 (twenty-one years ago)

haha yeah cuz me and jess know nothing about shitty indie

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:44 (twenty-one years ago)

we haven't been bathing in it since high school or anything

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:44 (twenty-one years ago)

touchy, touchy

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:46 (twenty-one years ago)

hey i freely admit rock music is my e.s.l.

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:48 (twenty-one years ago)

thus my comparison above

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:48 (twenty-one years ago)

whatever, lungfish advocate

matos, you stole my bit!

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:49 (twenty-one years ago)

x-post. first sentence directed towards the High School Weezer Fan Who Dare Not Say His Name.

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I love how Craig Finn-related threads bring out the same exact descriptions as Streets-hate ones, usually from Streets lovers, though.

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I guess I just prefer Dick Van Dyke telling Mary Poppins about his jowwy howiday over Howard Cosell at the 50 yard line. Plus "Streets" rhymes with "beats" and Finn rhymes with "din."

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 21:58 (twenty-one years ago)

plus the Streets doesn't think his feets are neats like Amanda Peet's and certainly not like Stacey Keats'.

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 22:01 (twenty-one years ago)

miccio have you ever even heard howard cosell? finn sounds nothing like him (springsteen's ALOT closer)(and even he ain't THAT close), i mean jesus christ does anyone at penn state know anything about football anymore? and your latent stipeness shows thru when you bite his rhymes (rhymes with limes).

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 22:01 (twenty-one years ago)

The last Finn tracks I heard were "Positive Jam" and "Hostile, Mass." I caught the Clarence Clemons but not the Boss himself.

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 22:05 (twenty-one years ago)

duh, new york punk

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 22:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Finn reminds me more of a talky version of the dude from Archers of Loaf.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 22:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Honestly, I can't do anything to convince you of the Hold Steady's worth because I'm not sure I'd like it if I didn't love Lifter Puller, ie M@tt OTM

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 22:27 (twenty-one years ago)

actually i still haven't bought into lifter puller yet (and i've sorta tried)(ie. i've sorta listened to the albums), but took to hold steady pretty much immediately, i'm pretty sure for the reasons jess stated, ie. it's very nostalgiariffic ie. i couldn't imagine reccomending it to someone who's not old enough to have voted for clinton. god 'mike watt parodying new york' rings true though.

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 22:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I WISH they sounded like AC/DC.

ts: the verse riff of "the swish" vs that of "for those about to rock (we salute you)"

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 22:33 (twenty-one years ago)

ok I wish they sounded like AC/DC songs I like.

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 22:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Hmm, now here's something that's weird, per the x-post analogy. I like AC/DC more than I like the Jam, but I like the Hold Steady disc less than I like Ted Leo. Go figure.

Anyway, like I said upthread, I hear a lot of Springsteen and Lou Reed's New York in the Hold Steady disc, and not a lot of AC/DC-type stuff (I wish). But maybe that's because I was paying closer attention to the lyrics than the music, though no doubt Robert Quine (sigh) would have made the the latter gold for me.

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 22:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I like AC/DC more than I like the Jam, but I like the Hold Steady disc less than I like Ted Leo. Go figure.

Actually, I'm in the same boat here.

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 22:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Craig Finn sings like he's Paul Westerberg trying to sound like Steve Albini. Or vice versa.

― Otis Wheeler (Otis Wheeler), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 22:44 (twenty-one years ago)

three months pass...

Ugh. Finally heard this tonight. People like it?

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Saturday, 2 October 2004 01:13 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

hmmmn, been struggling w/trying to make a Hold Steady/Lifter-Puller primer for a bunch've people - with the Hold Steady, I tend to throw my hands up in the air w/what to grab off the albums (& I probably listen to standalone stuff like "Hot Fries", "You Gotta Dance...", "Curves & Nerves" &c than the albums); Lifter-Puller stuff is even more fraught w/trying to put both (a) stuff I like & (b) stuff that'll let people get all the meta stuff (e.g. you put on "Nice, Nice", are you obliged to put on "I Like The Lights" &c?).
anyone got any tracklists that've worked? & people these are intended for aren't tooo classic rock.

anyway, off the top of my head & can't-remember-tracklengths draft:

"Mission Viejo"
"To Live & Die In LBI"
"Nassau Coliseum"
"Viceburgh"
"Plymouth Rock"
"Star Wars Hips"
"Let's Get Incredible"
"Space Humping $19.99"
"Manpark"
"Nice, Nice"
"Touch My Stuff"
"Vs The End Of The Evening"
"Math Is Money"
"Secret Santa Cruz"
"La Quereria"

"Positive Jam"
"Most People Are DJs"
"Sketchy Metal"
"Cattle & The Creeping Things"
"Your Little Hoodrat Friend"
"Don't Let Me Explode"
"Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night"
"Hot Fries"
"Curves & Nerves"
"Modesto Is Not That Sweet"

― etc, Thursday, 5 January 2006 03:33 (twenty years ago)

matos in snide, bitchy knee-jerk defense of his sacred cow shocka (see also any xgau-related thread)

― anna graham, Thursday, 5 January 2006 04:04 (twenty years ago)

― gear (gear), Thursday, 5 January 2006 04:17 (twenty years ago)

you're a little late on that one, aren't you?

― Matos @ Kate S's (Kate Silver), Thursday, 5 January 2006 05:09 (twenty years ago)

we haven't been bathing in it since high school or anything

ILX, Secrets

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 5 January 2006 05:13 (twenty years ago)

Easily my favorite band of the last few years. I kinda understand why some might not like em, but they seem to be a band derived from and for the peculiarities of my DNA.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Thursday, 5 January 2006 07:28 (twenty years ago)

that's a good list etc...the only one I'd add is "The Pirate and the Penpal", the best Finn slo-jam ever.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 5 January 2006 21:32 (twenty years ago)

mmmmmn, maybe . . . "Viceburgh"'s more my kind've slo-jam. wish I cld fit "4 Dix" on, too.

tho, please please someone take issue w/the tracks I'm putting on from Almost Killed Me & Separation Sunday; I seriously don't know how to, um, seperate tracks away from the album.

― etc, Friday, 6 January 2006 01:10 (twenty years ago)

haha if the intent of this cdr wasn't to try & persuade people who aren't really um primed for this sort of thing, "Slips Backwards" wld totally be on there.

― etc, Friday, 6 January 2006 01:13 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

My very favorite band (this month).

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Monday, 20 February 2006 23:30 (twenty years ago)

Decent live in Baton Rouge the other weekend but maybe anything would have been good after the tedium that is Swearing @ Motorists.

Craig seemed kind of fucked up and the band's energy flagged after 5 or 6 songs. Keyboardist with stupid mustache really annoyed me too.

― adam (adam), Monday, 20 February 2006 23:46 (twenty years ago)

Nothing against the music (nothing for it, either), but I detest Finn's strenuously maintained Intellectual Tough Guy POV. It's the lyrical equivalent of James Frey.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 00:01 (twenty years ago)

Making a Lifter-Puller/Hold Steady best-of without The Swish is not recommended.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 00:27 (twenty years ago)

hahaha - 'intellectual tough guy'?????

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 00:29 (twenty years ago)

except Finn knows he's playing a character and Frey doesn't

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 02:33 (twenty years ago)

haha Johnny Fever's post is hilarious and OTM

― Alex in Baltimore (Alex in Baltimore), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 02:37 (twenty years ago)

It's the lyrical equivalent of James Frey.

Baloney.

Matos OTM.

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 03:27 (twenty years ago)

I like some of their stuff now (kept about five songs from each album, like the ones on Almost Killed Me more, but I'm not remotely Catholic or remotely from Minnesota), but I think his voice fits more with Lifter Puller than the HS. Vocals were faster, backdrop fit the subject matter (GVSB post-punk for the druggy bar scene, but classic rock for skaterats? wtf).

Took a LONG time to get used to his voice, though. Prefer it when I let it rush past rather than focus intently on each pearl (same problem I had with Dylan).

― Zwan (miccio), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 04:35 (twenty years ago)

A friend from college dragged me to a show and i had a good time! I drank lots of cheap beer and shouted along with songs I didn't know. When I brought the album home I enjoyed it because I remembered the show, but each listen brought diminishing returns with diminishing memories. It is like remembering a good time, but is not really a good times itself.

― deej.. (deej..), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 04:47 (twenty years ago)

but classic rock for skaterats? wtf

1) It's not for skaterats, it's a lot less specific than that. It's for the bummed, lonely, addicted, rejected, unshowered, etc. 2) It's not classic rock. It's just rock.

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 09:36 (twenty years ago)

it's for balding, overweight, nearsighted losers

― jerome jerome, Tuesday, 21 February 2006 17:44 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, fuck the nearsighted, man.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 17:57 (twenty years ago)

Looking back, they are probably my favorite band -- certainly my favorite live band -- of the past 2ish years

― subgenius (subgenius), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 06:27 (twenty years ago)

one of the worst bands i've experienced live. tone deaf indie schmuck does sub-joe cocker histrionics.

― snakeshit ;] (eman), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 06:47 (twenty years ago)

It's for the bummed, lonely, addicted, rejected, unshowered, etc.

http://www.sociopranos.com/forums/images/sleep.gif

― snakeshit ;] (eman), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 06:55 (twenty years ago)

i love the mythology that finn creates on the hold steady albums.

― t0dd swiss (immobilisme), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 07:06 (twenty years ago)

"addicted" to porn, perhaps?

― raphael ruggos, Wednesday, 22 February 2006 07:08 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

i just heard their first album after a recommendation; my first thought was "Popular" by Nada Surf.

― Jesus Christ, Attorney at Law (res), Tuesday, 9 June 2009 00:51 (seventeen years ago)

it's for balding, overweight, nearsighted losers

every band needs a niche

― velko, Tuesday, 9 June 2009 01:12 (seventeen years ago)

will more ilx posters come with the penetrating 2009 insight that they have totally doped out the hold steady

only time will tell

― worm? lol (J0hn D.), Tuesday, 9 June 2009 02:16 (seventeen years ago)

Hah, did I really start this thread? And did I really recommend the Ponys? Gosh, time flies ...

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 9 June 2009 02:24 (seventeen years ago)

there is an art to forgetfulness

― velko, Tuesday, 9 June 2009 22:54 (seventeen years ago)

eleven months pass...

Hah, did I really start this thread? And did I really recommend the Ponys? Gosh, time flies ...

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, June 8, 2009 9:24 PM (11 months ago) Bookmark

haha, the ponys aren't that bad!

i listened to the hold steady for the first time last week. they're alright, i think i like them. they appeal to the part of me that likes the silver jews and the ballsoutness of silkworm. i'mago see them at summerfest when july comes.

― iiiijjjj, Sunday, 30 May 2010 04:07 (sixteen years ago)

still though, that part in "the switch" where they just do the G and D chords, UGGGGHHHHHH

― iiiijjjj, Sunday, 30 May 2010 04:16 (sixteen years ago)

sorry for typing that noise

― iiiijjjj, Sunday, 30 May 2010 04:16 (sixteen years ago)

which records of theirs have you listened to? just the new one?

― ksh, Sunday, 30 May 2010 04:17 (sixteen years ago)

eman otm

― What do you do when there's a user with, like, sixty of 'em? (velko), Sunday, 30 May 2010 05:09 (sixteen years ago)

so far just the first one, twice. and a little bit of separation sunday, though i don't really remember it

― iiiijjjj, Sunday, 30 May 2010 05:21 (sixteen years ago)

eman doesn't know what he's talking about any more than kenan knows about drilling juicy poon

― iiiijjjj, Sunday, 30 May 2010 05:22 (sixteen years ago)

THANK YOU SIR FOR THAT VIVID VISUAL

― henceforth we eat truffle fries (underrated aerosmith albums I have loved), Sunday, 30 May 2010 07:05 (sixteen years ago)

smh can't even open indie rock threads anymore

― ok dennis hopper (J0rdan S.), Sunday, 30 May 2010 07:07 (sixteen years ago)

three years pass...

new single, new album on the way

http://www.vulture.com/2014/02/exclusive-hold-steady.html

god they sound... like a normal band or something don't they?

― eric banana (s.clover), Wednesday, 19 February 2014 06:56 (twelve years ago)

They've always been a normal band, with all the loaded meanings that term implies.

― Murgatroid, Wednesday, 19 February 2014 06:58 (twelve years ago)

Discussion already started over here:

Hold Steady .. coming soon

― how's life, Wednesday, 19 February 2014 10:13 (twelve years ago)

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