Hold Steady .. coming soon

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