Hold Steady .. coming soon

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.

3 song spotify sessions up today w.2 non album tracks

Have they ever played Milkcrate Mosh? I saw a couple of their early shows but I don't ever remember them doing it. Great tune, though - and they cover "Hey Hey a What Can I Do" on the b-side of the 7"!

i heard they finally got some discipline

This seems to be the nearest we have to a general Hold Steady thread and I didn't want to start a new thread just for the new album. Anyway it's great, a definite step up from the last two, looser and with more of that bar-band feel. Finn is back on top form as a lyricist as well.

new one is indeed very good

The one that popped up in my new song recommendations seemed overly wordy even for Finn.

I haven't had a great urge to listen to his solo stuff (when I quit drinking I lost the taste for both whiskey and white guys with acoustic guitars) but that really seems to be his wheelhouse these days.

i think if anything his lyrics are more pared down on this album

I like the noir/crime direction of some of the new songs, especially The Stove and the Toaster. Also dig, in a really different way, Finn’s solo album from earlier this year.

I honestly think that Boys and Girls in America is one of my favorite albums ever by anyone. Yet, despite spending quality time with other Hold Steady and Craig Finn solo records, none of them really grab me. Am I doing this wrong?

kinda with you on that

i think it’s completely understandable, hooks and writing really came together on that record. separation sunday will always be my fav but boys and girls was the only album in the world for me when it came out other than br*nd n*w’s the devil and god are raging inside me

separation sunday is the best by far

Stay Positive for me, it was just the right amount of anthemic before the album after that went too poor man's Springsteen. A mix CD I made that was equal parts BGIA, Separation Sunday and Stay Positive was the one that stayed in my truck for years, though.

I have no recollection of the last time I heard SS this decade, but it lives in my memory. This is their best since Stay Positive

i think it’s completely understandable, hooks and writing really came together on that record. separation sunday will always be my fav but boys and girls was the only album in the world for me when it came out other than br*nd n*w’s the devil and god are raging inside me

― american bradass (BradNelson), Saturday, August 31, 2019 4:03 PM (five hours ago)

boys and girls is my fav too

(I'm a science fiction partisan these days tho)

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