Hold Steady .. coming soon

Cool, I like opening bottles and listening to The Hold Steady!

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEVTMn5Ui3o

i wonder if they are able to recover from the slump that was their last record

or the Finn solo for that matter

I liked the last record, and the Craig Finn solo too for that matter. The one I hated was Stay Positive.

those keyboards in the trailer make this sound like some 70s classic-rock throwback. i kinda like it.

I thought the Finn solo was really good, to be honest. Liked the last THS album, too - opened up several directions for them to go in. Question is which one they take …

How about a LifterPuller direction

new song:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-hold-steady-return-with-big-rock-aspirations-on-teeth-dreams-20140123

it kinda sounds like color and the shape era foo fighters musically but craig's doing a more cryptic street story lifter puller style in the verses which i like

I listen to Finn's solo album more than any given HS album lately, but storytelling songwriting + pedal steel is pretty much directly up my alley.

Hated the last album, not really feeling that new song. Same problem I had with the last album (and when I saw the band live a couple of years ago) - no groove, much more emphasis on multiple guitars and layers. I like Finn's songs so I'd rather they have more room for the lyrics.

New album sounds like Graham Parker and the E Street Band.

this new album is streaming on itunes radio, but i don't know how to link to it. first single, which apparently has been out for awhile?

how does it sound? song i heard sounded weird and muddy in terms of mix

They kinda duplicate themselves at rhis point

I haven't heard anything yet, but Stereogum was enthusing all over the place about it.

10 years pass...

They kinda duplicate themselves at rhis point

― nostormo, Wednesday, March 19, 2014

i dunno. for one thing, craig finn doesn't speak-sing anymore; he just sings. it's a jarring change, over the last two albums. and the band just feels a lot older. sometimes that's good (weathered and interesting), and sometimes that's bad (songs can be a drag). this is going to be a divisive album. can't decide if i like it or hate it, to be honest.

craig finn doesn't speak-sing anymore; he just sings

this is a huge part of what made me lose interest tbh

me too, but honestly i'm someone who likes hold steady because i was a huge lifter puller fan and tend to like them more the more they were like LP

I'm no Hold Steady fan but new single sounds weird, UMS is right the mix is really murky, it makes the song sound a lot more sluggish than it probably really is

Hey, wait… it's "The" Hold Steady, though, right? Just plain "Hold Steady" doesn't sound fuckin stupid enough.

correct.

I'm no The Hold Steady fan but new single sounds weird, UMS is right the mix is really murky, it makes the song sound a lot more sluggish than it probably really is

― chr1sb3singer, Friday, March 21, 2014

fixed.

Good job guys

the ballad i heard from this album is pretty great.

but honestly i'm someone who likes hold steady because i was a huge lifter puller fan and tend to like them more the more they were like LP

yup

This is one of the real surprises of the year so far. Really really good record. I like the new production too.

man the production on this sucks sooo bad! man what a fuckin bummer

It does but I do like the songs.

is it worth even listening to or should i just bump stay positive and boys and girls instead?

i never got into separation sunday so i guess i could do that too

not liking separation sunday as much as stay positive kinda breaks my brain so yeah you should check that one again

but this one is a step back in the right direction, i think there's some good songs but yeah just odd production, so muddy and it kind of buries Finn's vox which is sort the whole point of the band

well, what i meant to say is that, like, i'm not sure i've even heard it? i might've, but i never really spent much time with it. will do so though.

Yeah, the first two albums really tower above everything since.

i love the first one cuz it's basically half a new lifter puller record and half a hold steady record, but i guess separation sunday is probably the best because they more fully became themselves on that one and it's by far (IMHO) the greatest and most realized version of finn's whole interconnected fictional minneapolis drug/music scene mythology

man the production on this sucks sooo bad! man what a fuckin bummer

― Juelz Fantano (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 14 April 2014 23:24

^^^
The most baffling, all-time, world-class suck-ass production I have heard in a long, long time. I don't like the songs. I don't like the singing. And Separation Sunday is sometimes my favorite album of the past ten years.

I don't feel like the production is that awful. It's not great, for sure and I wish a few things were done differently, but I also don't hear the absolute disaster you people are hearing.

I'd say there are about 4-5 songs on here worth saving. Still a disappointment but, yeah, a step back in the right direction. "Oaks" kind of slays me.

the production has grown on me.

Another vote for awful, awful production. When you can't tell what Craig Finn is saying more than 50% of the time, there's a fundamental problem.
I don't think there are "I'm not that into lyrics, really" people that listen to The Hold Steady.

Yeah, it's definitely muddy and he's buried more in the mix than I'd like, but I had absolutely no problem making out his lyrics throughout the whole thing.

It just has a "dude our friend has a craxkedy copy of pro tools he'll totally record us at his house" vibe

Man this guy can't sing

and you can't post

http://cdn.niketalk.com/d/de/def72e19_wee-bey-gif.gif

TOO REAL

I don't think there are "I'm not that into lyrics, really" people that listen to The Hold Steady.

You know, I am that type of person and yet I love this band. I don't really listen to lyrics until multiple upon multiple repeat listens and there are songs that I consider all-time favorites that I don't know the words. I was initially drawn in by Franz Nicolay's keyboards, but Finn's reference-heavy lyrics, multi-album narratives and conversational vocals force you to pay attention to what he's saying.

Anyway, think the album is ok, there aren't any songs that really stick out except for the first and last, and Finn's vocals are buried in the mix. The lack of Nicolay still hurts, but Kubler and Selvidge seem to work well together and I have more hope that they have another classic in them than I did after Heaven is Whenever.

Saw them last night, and for what it's worth the new songs sound much, much better live and blend nicely into the set (same for the few Heaven is Whenever tracks that they play). The set drew most from Boys & Girls in America, and there was a huge five or six song encore ending with Constructive Summer, Stay Positive, and (of course) Killer Parties.

"Oaks" is amazing, their Stairway to Heaven

Ages ago, when I interviewed Zeppelin, I got Plant, Page and Jones to autograph a copy of IV for Tad Kubler, being as I know THS from having championed them so much. In return, I asked, could they maybe play one song I've never heard them do next time they were in London. So last week I suggested Milkcrate Mosh. No sign of it in the set last night. That's it. They're dead to me.

Seriously though, great show last night. Fantastic to see them in a small room again.

i *do* like the warm feeling and i *am* tired of all the dehydration

You've been drunk, but have you been John Berryman on the BBC drunk?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGIr7fGdo6o

Guess I need to re-evaluate everything after ...Almost Killed Me because I figured it was their only album I needed to hear. Granted, I've barely paid attention to much other than Boys and Girls in America. Everything I heard only made me want to go back to the first, so I never dug as hard on any of the others.

The band occasionally stopped futzing around to fine-tune the song. It is archetypal Hold Steady. Big classic-rock riff? Check. Propulsive, E Street-style piano? Check. Sad/funny lyrics (about moving to California just to find it’s all “disinterested kissing”)? Check.

From Washington Post article

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/after-16-years-the-hold-steady-is-changing-the-business-of-being-in-a-band/2019/08/28/956d9f04-c297-11e9-b72f-b31dfaa77212_story.html

Had no idea they did a song for Game of Thrones with zero contemporary references:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgiTB2NFvAM

Looking into it, I guess the lyrics are actually George R. R. Martin’s.

From there, to here. From here! To there!
She got in a mosh at a hardcore show there

Does anyone else really like the new one, Open Door Policy, that came out a few weeks ago?

They do a good job of finding slightly new directions to bend their sound - 'Hanover Camera' has a Steely Dan groove while 'Unpleasant Breakfast' stitches some disparate sections together in a fun way.

I thought Thrashing Through The Passion was a good comeback, and this one's even better.

I like it, it is even better than Thrashing Thru the Passion, but I was never completely sold on that one - felt more like Hold Steady going through the Hold Steady motion more than anything else. This is hitting the right spot for me. My only complaint is that weird wooing/siren sound effect that runs through "Unpleasant Breakfast" is super obnoxious on headphones, I can't even listen to it.

i'm liking the sounds, but i could've sworn this band used to have choruses

I suspect fans will be interested in the read

https://defector.com/craig-finn-returns-to-the-scene/

Seeing them tonight, with some band called (checks website) the Mountain Goats? Something like that. I hadn't caught the HS live for years before I saw them at some festival back in 2018 or something and was reminded that they're great fun. (Also reminded that I started a thread on them back in 2004, which is crazy.)

I've been listening to Stay Positive, Boys and Girls in America and Separation Sunday a lot this week - so many elements I'd hate in isolation (most of the piano, most of the backing vocals, the way it all kind of sounds like '80s Jersey rock, often Craig Finn's voice) but as a package it all works. (Until the album after Stay Positive when it stopped working completely.)

have you listened to Almost Killed Me, the first album? that one’s still my hands down favorite.

yeah that one is weirdly forgotten

also Lifter Puller>>>Hold Steady