The Sly Oyster | culture & entertainment on the sly

The Hold Steady swung by Letterman on Wednesday night. We know we’re late in getting around to this, but shit we were watching The Watchmen trailer all day yesterday. Anyway, the band played “Sequestered In Memphis” and even got to work some comedy chops in a skit, well, at least singer Craig Finn was in a skit.

Their new album Stay Positive is out now on Vanguard Records and we like it a lot. We’re not sure if we like it more than Boys and Girls in America but it’s been on non-stop rotation all week. Pitchfork gave it an 8.4. And though we generally detest Pitchfork their review of the album was pretty good.

I love how Finn seems to be milking every moment of his new found rock star status. It’s always great to watch a band that never expected to have success find it the most; still, he needs to work on his stage moves. But he’s a rock star! Which he goofs on in the skit.

One of the things that makes The Hold Steady great, besides their aural blend of The Replacements and Springsteen (I can’t tell you how many times people have actually asked if it was The Boss we were listening to) is that Craig Finn is one of us.  You get the sense that even though he is now a rock star, at 37 the dude hasn’t forgotten how unbearably shitty or equally wonderful life can be.  And on both occasions he’s in the bar drinking away the pain or pouring another in celebration.

Their new tune sounds a lot like several of their other tunes, which is slightly annoying but also gratifyingly sweet.  Much in the same way that Craig Finn probably looks at life when he was attending Boston College or working some crap job watching the clock and bolting out the door at 5 p.m. and heading for the bar or the practice space.

Mp3: The Hold Steady - “Sequestered in Memphis”

“Sequested In Memphis,” from the forthcoming Stay Positive LP, is available on iTunes now.  The album will be available 6/15 on Vagrant.  Also, the band is currently on tour so check them out when they cruise into town.

Also: Some early reviews of the album have begun to pop up online. UNCUT Magazine has a very positive one here and The Music Magazine Blog has a track by track breakdown here.

HOLD STEADY SUMMER TOUR
07.17 - Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom
07.18 - Pontiac, MI - Crofoot Ballroom
07.19 - Chicago, IL - Pitchfork Festival
07.21 - Madison, WI - Majestic Theatre
07.22 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
07.23 - Fargo, ND - Fargo Theatre
07.26 - Seattle, WA - Capitol Hill Block Party
07.27 - Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
07.29 - San Francisco, CA - Mezzanine
07.30 - Los Angeles, CA - Avalon
08.02 - Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theatre
08.03 - El Paso, TX - Club 101
08.05 - Dallas, TX - Palladium Ballroom
08.06 - Austin, TX - La Zona Rosa
08.08 - Oxford, MS - Proud Larry’s
08.09 - Athens, GA - 40 Watt
08.10 - Charleston, SC - The Pourhouse
08.12 - Carrborro, NC - Cat’s Cradle
08.13 - Norfolk, VA - The Norva

Craig Finn and the boys of The Hold Steady have finished recording their fourth studio album, the follow up to 2006’s Boys and Girls in America. Considering that their last album is still in heavy rotation around here, you can imagine how exciting this makes us. The record still needs mixing, mastering, sequencing, album artwork, etc. but it is expected to be released in late 2008.

Though both Finn and Kubler are quick to point out that it “still sounds like a Hold Steady record”, there’s talk of opening up the sonic palette a bit on Stay Positive. Finn adds “there’s certainly horns and strings, which I guess we had before, but there’s also a mandolin, a harpsichord.” Kubler notes the band’s growing comfort with the studio setting, particularly with Agnello at the helm. “In terms of fidelity or stereo range, I think John took a little different approach in the way we mixed it in terms of just using some hard pans and doing some things different, rather than just a compressed guitar rock record.”

One can’t talk to Craig Finn without asking him about words themselves; specifically the ones he’ll spit all over Stay Positive. When asked if there was any kind of overarching theme to the tunes on the new disc, he hesitated a bit. “I think the songs relate to each other in a way,” adding “I’m not sure I want to talk about that quite yet.” I figured maybe Kubler would give up the goods. “Well, he’s sitting right next to me, so you’re not going to get anything out of me!”

However, it probably involves teenagers getting drunk and looking for a fix or figuring out their religion. You know? The usual Hold Steady type of stuff.  For those wondering who the hell The Hold Steady are, well think of them as like The Replacements meets Bruce Springsteen.

Mp3: The Holdy Steady - “Stay Positive (Live @ Toad’s Place 11/19/07)”

Myspace: The Hold Steady

It’s your mind as the Austin band melts your face.  It should be no surprise, or maybe it will be, but when I put my year end list together for the best albums Spoon’s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga I think will be my number one album.  If you don’t have it pick it up.  In the meantime you can check them out as NPR is streaming a set from them as part of their World Cafe.

Also, Crawdaddy has an interesting article about everything new being old, in terms of music.  They couldn’t have picked three better bands to illustrate the point.  They interview The Holdy Steady, The Pipettes and Jack Penate.

This is something new we’re trying out here in Oyster land.  Not sure how the format is going to evolve… It may just be titled song of the day, regardless what we’re trying to do is write about any song that moves us, grooves us and just gets plain stuck in our brain.

They’ll be available to download for a bit, but chances are some of you may already have these songs.  The idea is to be able to write about the music we love, in 75 words or less, not so much in a clinical sense [instruments used, song structure, lyrics, melody], but in an abstract sort of way.  Old songs, new songs, pop songs, whatever.  Some days there just isn’t any good music news out there but hopefully, this will keep our ears and writing chops sharp.  And expose you dear reader to new tastes.  We’re hoping this becomes recipricol, where you let us know the songs you’ve been listening to, and turn us onto new sounds.

The Hold Steady - “You Can Make Him Like You” (Mp3)  Craig Finn writes about a lot of familiar characters - downtroddens, drunks, wanderers, emotionally trainwrecked teenagers - but never is that more identifiable then here.  With lines as lazer sharp as “you can wear those sweatshirts and cover yourself like a bruise,” this track is about a fragile optimism.  You can always find other friends, or other scenes to fit into when things get bad.  In under three-minutes Craig Finn wraps you in warm blanket and lets you feel like everything is gonna be a-okay.

Also: Craig Finn was recently at Boston College for a sit down interview, in the style of Inside the Actors Studio.  Basically, BC invites alumni back to talk about their art, etc.  Didn’t know Finn went to Boston College, but it all makes so much more sense now that I know he went to the Jesuit institution.