The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls In America

unrelatedly (and i've probably asked before), you wouldn't happen to know where i could find a recording of "212-margarita", would you (or anyone)?

I haven't had a chance to hear any of these songs live. This is Xmas in July.

I know they did John Berryman too cause Craig told the story of it onstage, but I can't remember much about the song

anyway: HYPED!

"the devil and john berryman / took a walk together / and they ended up on washington / talking to the river."

this album is going to rule

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT1fxhnaN-8

song about a racehorse

"Chips Ahoy!"

one that had a really big group-harmony chorus

this one I was talking about is called "Massive Nights" ... it's not so much a harmony as a big "whoa-ohhhh-oh-oh" shouty part behind the real chorus ... still rad, definitely my fave on the record so far.

I also like "Chillout Tent," pretty vivid characters ...

haha Finn is getting more and more into the Paul Stanley School of "I'll play every so often whenever I feel like it" Frontman Guitar Playing (TM)

There are nights when I think Sal Paradise was right.
Boys and Girls in America have such a sad time together.
Sucking off each other at the demonstrations
Making sure their makeup’s straight
Crushing one another with colossal expectations.
Dependent, undisciplined, and sleeping late.

She was a really cool kisser and she wasn’t all that strict of a Christian.
She was a damn good dancer but she wasn’t all that great of a girlfriend.
She likes the warm feeling but she’s tired of all the dehydration.
Most nights are crystal clear
But tonight it’s like it’s stuck between stations
On the radio.

The devil and John Berryman
Took a walk together.
They ended up on Washington
Talking to the river.
He said “I’ve surrounded myself with doctors
And deep thinkers.
But big heads with soft bodies
Make for lousy lovers.”
There was that night that we thought John Berryman could fly.
But he didn’t
So he died.
She said “You’re pretty good with words
But words won’t save your life.”
And they didn’t.
So he died.

He was drunk and exhausted but he was critically acclaimed and respected.
He loved the Golden Gophers but he hated all the drawn out winters.
He likes the warm feeling but he’s tired of all the dehydration
Most nights were kind of fuzzy
But that last night he had total retention.

These Twin Cities kisses
Sound like clicks and hisses.
We all tumbled down and
Drowned in the Mississippi River.

We drink
We dry up
Then we crumble to dust.

this is hilarious. I'm calling Vagrant.

again, this is just in general, I don't know what else Vagrant has coming out or if that is the reason.

xpost - what Matos said, too

And then I can't hack it. At all.

in what way are they comparable to bright eyes lyrics? not that I should bother, but what the hell

sounds pretty emo to me

But Oberst almost always keeps it focused on the "me" and the "now." He doesn't allow the personal to billow out into the political/historical/philosophical like Mssrs. Finn and (Sufjan) Stevens. Oberst, as a youth obsessed with youthful self-obsession, lacks perspective and isn't interested in feigning it.

So while Bright Eyes might write something vaguely like the first two stanzas, in general... Nah.

Great final few lines, I think. Can't wait to hear the song proper. As conedust says, simply using the word "we" as opposed to "I" and "me" differentiates it from Oberst style emo.

i dont' think there is as much of a difference as people like to suggest

Well, he never doesn't talk-sing, but I think he talk-sings exactly the right amount!

As conedust says, simply using the word "we" as opposed to "I" and "me" differentiates it from Oberst style emo.

The main issue here is that conflating all emotional/sad lyrics with Conor Oberst and/or "emo" is about as short-sighted and limited as one can get.

But then that Bruce Springsteen guys starts shouting, with the Replacements cover band bashing away in the background

Two of my favorites!

-- kevin barking (kevinbarkin...), July 26th, 2006.

How is this emo? I thought emo people never got laid.

xpost

Better yet: you're drinking yourself to death and won't be around in October.

(check out the Lifter Puller / Hold Steady yahoo group

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/liftersteady/ )

can someone explain to me the appeal?

it sounds like hipster's take on red state bar room rock

to me of course, not to polyphonic

I didn't like Finn's vocals at first (though I did like his lyrics), and the more I listened, the more the taste grew on me. However, I do tend to gravitate toward unconventional voices (Scott Walker, Mark E., Damo/Malcolm Mooney, Roky Erickson...).

6. Apophrades, or the return of the dead...The later poet, in his own final phase, already burdened by an imaginative solitude that is almost a solipsism, holds his own poem so open again to the precursor's work that at first we might believe the wheel has come full circle, and that we are back in the later poet's flooded apprenticeship, before his strength began to assert itself in the revisionary ratios. But the poem is now held open to the precursor, where once it was open, and the uncanny effect is that the new poem's achievement makes it seem to us, not as though the precursor were writing it, but as though the later poet himself had written the precursor's characteristic work.

I just think his lyrics are contrived and tediously ornate
c'est la vie

obviously i'm in the minority here
i should be flogged

but for whatever reason (volume, rockingness, Finn's onstage freakouts) the live show wiped that out, for me ... now I love em

but they are still better live than on record

Are the a-holes at pitchfork only
ones rocking this shit?

all i got is this...
http://www.ezarchive.com/bowsplusarrows/AlbumSpace/7WTB0LUVUJ/_zid-478482/_open-/The_Hold_Steady_-_Stuck_Between_Stations_%28live_on_The_Current%29.mp3
enjoy.

good thing then that they're song lyrics and not poetry, and that the test of whether they're good is whether they work in the song, not how they come across on paper

i'm discounting the music itself, 'cause girls like bruce, the mats, bar bands and classic rock just fine.

but i do wonder about the 'maleness' of this band, more so than other bands.

I agree, and I love 'em.

btw, does anyone know the song that goes "the guys, the guys, the guys, the guys [...] the girls, the girls, the girls, the girls".

my favorites so far are "chillout tent" and "southtown girls," followed by "massive night," followed by "party pit" and "you can make him love you." not sure if i like "citrus"; just seems really introverted. and finn doesn't seem to have the power to keep up with the ted nugent tribute riffs in "same kooks." but i'm reviewing this for a magazine so i don't want to say anything else. (except that i don't agree with the people here who think these guys sound like the replacements; do people just say that because of the minneapolis connection? they sound more like john cafferty and the beaver brown band to my ears...i guess that's what people mean by "average bar band," except bar bands rarely sound like that anymore, do they?)

- alex in montreal

OTM. It's an intensely macho thing, and "gritty sentimentality" is precisely accurate. It descends from a mostly mid-twentieth-century literary tradition of poetic-yet-gruff masculinity exemplified by Hemmingway, Bukowski, Joyce and Miller.

Rock culture often celebrates men (and, yeah, specifically men) for embodying this kind of grizzled, melodramatic heroism: Johnny Cash, Lemmy, John Fahey, The Replacements, Steve Earle, Bon Scott, etc. Others romanticize it, even if they aren't so famous for actually living the hard life: Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen, Craig Finn, Nick Cave etc.

Lots of girls dig this vibe, and such "masculine" music appeals strongly to both men and women (perhaps for different reasons).

People say it so often, I just got tired of arguing against it. Same with the Springsteen thing. I guess I can see elements of both, but they seem pretty damned distinct from either of those bands.

a long time ago this band i used to be in played a show w/lifter puller (ah the arcwelder CD release show w/LFTR and selby tigers....the salad daze of late 90s mpls sigh)...anyway, i actually talked w/finn a bunch at that show, and we spoke at length about wild innocent e-street shuffle and asbury park era springsteen....total influence on him...mostly lyrically though based on the conversation...like finn liked how he invents this sort of semi-fictional jersey shore with all these seedy characters...which is basically what finn does for 1997 twin cities....so i think the springsteen thing is real totally.

i don't think finn lived in the twin cities when the replacements were around.

Also the secret influence on Finn is the song "Ana Voog is Sleeping" by Rank Strangers...the singer of strangers produced the first two LFTR PLLR records and I know Finn was a big fan of that song, which was a local college radio hit....it sort of wierd mediation/diss record about Ana Voog who was in a mpls band called The Blue Up?...she was one of the first people to do that whole "put my whole life on my webcam" thing in the late 90s....I know Finn really liked the sort of story song aspect of it, and also the explicitly local Twin Cities thing, like how you'd have to be from Mpls to totally "get it"....

I'm one of the people who couldn't get into the first two albums. I love the lyrics (regarding the above criticisms of the "Chips Ahoy!" lyrics, what kind of douchebag critiques a song by the lyrics without even hearing the song?), and like the band, but the shouty vocals do grate after a few songs. Finally, problem solved. This is as great as anything by Springsteen, Thin Lizzy, etc.

I left the Twin Cities in '92, but the songs do sound like deja vu . . they really capture the flavor of the place.

Craig Finn told me how much he loves, worships and studies the Drive-By Truckers, which may be a better contemporary comparison, at least as far as storytelling rock goes.

There is nothing flawed about Born To Run.

Also, anyone who can tell me how to get this watermarked CD onto my Mac (because the fucker won't play on my damn computer) wins a prize.

I mean, how stupid are they? for me to get it onto my Mac (and onto SLSK or BitTorrent or a blog), all it would have taken would be plugging in a CD player to the computer and recording all the tracks manually. I'm not too lazy too do that; I'm more pissed that they'd make me actually go through the process.

sorry about the rant.

-- Bumblepuppy (the_horbgorble...), September 26th, 2006 9:25 PM. (Horbgorbling Slubberdegullion) (later)

i can see you, louis jordan

I'm loving this after a few listens, but it might fade -- nothing as immediate as some of the stand outs on Separation Sunday, but it all feels good.

The 'Born To Run' (song not album) question seems an interesting one: certainly I can't imagine any of the tracks here doing well as a single in the uk. At first I wondered whether it was trying to get too many words in to the songs, but I think now it must be something to do with Finn's voice, and a kind of refusal to give it more than a cursory melody line. ha ha He is the Lupe Fiasco of rock: all verse and no chorus.

This the best post on the thread. Doesn't make any sense, though.

-- mookieproof (mookieproo...), September 27th, 2006.

I'm a famous, influential jazz vocalist?! Awesome.

An overdosing couple meet and make out after paramedics revive them at a western Massachusetts rave, then never see each other again (Soul Asylum’s Dave Pirner and the Reputation’s Elizabeth Elmore do the Travolta and Newton-John parts—oh those summer nights).

xpost

Damn you John Agnello! Goddamn you to hell!

Is that the best rating of the year so far?

as for the record, its good, but not as good as separation sunday to my ears. stuck between stations may be one of the best things they've written though. i hate chill out tent, though. the hold steady just doesn't sound right with someone else singing. i too have warmed up to the singing, although i will still like the rants better.

i agree tho as a whole it doesn't hold up to any number of the earlier things finn did.

I think it is. There have been a lot of albums rated at or above a 9.0 this year -- e.g., Danielson, TV On The Radio, Scott Walker, Junior Boys -- but none as high as 9.4. Still, I wouldn't be surprised to see The Knife's Silent Shout (which Pitchfork rated an 8.6) wind up as Pitchfork's No. 1 album of the year. If it isn't, I'll bet it's in the top 5, ahead of some of the albums listed above.

Listen to Agalloch instead ! a far superior US rock band

http://www.myspace.com/agalloch

Listen to Agalloch instead ! a far superior US rock band

No.

I like how The Hold Steady polarizes people. They are a love or hate band. But the "Bar Band" slam is tired. We get it. You don't like rock and roll. Now go listen to your Sufjan Stevens and model your skinny pants in the mirror.

The Hold Steady is fucking great! Lifter/Puller was fucking great!

This is like the best reco for THS ever!

I like rock and roll, and bar bands, (sometimes) but I don't like the Hold Steady, from what I've heard.

Is your name Corey? Are you really into hardcore?

"It was song number 3 on John's last cd,
gonna make it through this year if it kills me."

followed by the requisite Dillinger 4 shout-out.

"arms and hearts" is the most pavement-like thing finn's done since lifter puller's earlier shit (it's sorta "Nassau Coliseum" remade as "Fillmore Jive").

there's an additional "exclusive single" on emusic, btw.

OTM! And it's only, like, five lines.

mountain goats?

Also, Jenny looks on the brightside
She said i never saw the sunrise before i met all you guys
And now i've done it on the d-line and bathed in all your basslines
And i still ain't died.
Or have i?

strange, but the reasons you mentioned are the same for me thinking that the this record is a step forward for them, and it's their best yet.(though pfrk 9.4 score seems a bit too high .i'd give it 8.something)

i kinda agree with this. it also kinda explains the "step backwards" idea -- finn "sang" on the first couple lifter puller releases, when they were way indie-er (or pavement-y).

tiki -- i listened to the emusic song, tho not all that closely. it's a piano ballad that was probably wisely left off the album.

Either way, playing both of these albums back to back, there's no indication that the songwriting has suffered. I like the backup vocals on BAGIA - the band sounds like they are having tons of fun.

Anyhow, this sucker definitely just slammed high up in my top ten.

And the faux-Nugent riffs in "Some Kooks" are kind of fun, actually. Reminds me of "Tangled Up" by the Necros, best rock single of 1986 or whatever year that was. But Finn can't keep up like Hennsler did.

Christgau reviewed them on NPR yesterday
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6344622

Dolan in Spin
(this is really great)

Nate in City Pages
http://www.citypages.com/databank/27/1350/article14812.asp

the "Chips Ahoy" video is, um . . . Pavement-y?

&, haha, Almost Killed Me has just been released locally (Aus/NZ) w/"Milkcrate Mosh", "Hot Fries", "Curves & Nerves", "Modesto Is Not That Sweet", "You Gotta Dance (With Who You Came With)" & the "The Swish" video as extras. Woo!

I hate the hell out of Chillout Tent. Even if it didn't have tepid guest vocalists, it doesn't fit in with the rest of the album at all. I'd like what they were trying to do with the chorus if they had put a little more backbone into it.

Anyway, Hold Steady's coming to the 9:30 club but sold out way before I thought it would. I saw these guys once a few years ago and have been on a huge Craig Finn kick lately. Has anyone seen them lately? Do they still throw down live? Should I fork over $50 for a scalper's ticket?

I saw them about a week ago. The show was tainted by being at a super lame new venue that was like the Applebees of concert venues. It had TVs on the walls. It looked like where the foot clan hung out in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

They played some new songs (and one song they had never played in front of an audience, ever) that were some of their best. One had Jamaica in the title. The audience was full of douches but it was a good show.

Art Brut opened who are the worst shit ever. They had like a power point presentation with some of their lyrics on it and the lead guy just paced around.

If you see them and Craig is actually drunk and not just faking it, and it's at an actual rock club, then I think it could be worth it.

Art Brut opened who are the worst shit ever.
-- filthy dylan, Saturday, 3 November 2007 15:55 (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

^^^this

I can't remember the last show I went to that wasn't full of douches. They are everywhere and seem to be at every show no matter the venue and no matter how Hipster-Approved the show is.

I can't imagine paying $50 for the Hold Steady.

yeah, $50 for the hold steady is outrageous

This album still rools.

DDW OTM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUwte9Wfr2I

If she asks don't tell her that I'm living hand-to-mouth
Don't tell her that I'm sleeping on your couch
And if she asks just tell her that we opened for the Stones
It's her favourite band except for the Ramones

And if she happens to suggest
A love based on trust and respect
tell I've been wasted since last week
And if she wants to stop on by,
Tell her that I almost died,
Tell her I ain't seein people yet
Yeah but ask her to send cigarettes

And if she calls don't tell her 'bout the bloodshed in the streets
The less she knows the less she can repeat
If she happens to bring up
The pin pricks and the throwin' up
tell her it's just part of growin' up
If she wants to get involved
Tell her to stay in St. Paul
Tell her I ain't up for takin' calls
But ask her for some Adderall

Yeah 'cause we're gonna have to focus
If we're gonna fight this
We gotta stay tenacious

If she asks just tell her that we're too far gone to deal
She should know exactly how that feels
And if she wants a scene report
Don't tell her 'bout the kicked in doors
Tell her they ain't even keeping score no more
And if she wants to help the cause
Tell her we need tape and gauze
Tell her she should look through all her medicine
To see if she's got Klonopin

'Cause I got all this anxiety
Yeah I'm afraid she won't get high with me,
I got all this anxiety

The other song(Lord, I'm Discouraged) is double-neck fun and goood. Boys and Girls still trick me into believing that it's summer outside.

Dammit, I was almost reconciled to the wisdom of the posts above (that this would not in any way be worth 50 bucks), but the new songs sound pretty damn good.

I'm just feeling a serious urge to rock and other than the Hold Steady, I can't find any touring rock bands that don't suck badly right now. I'll probably end up just sitting at home and listen to Foghat records or something, fuck. : )

I hope the vocals are a little clearer on More Songs About Nicknames And Drugs, and fewer organ solos!

that'd be a good name for a wutang album too.

$50 for the Hold Steady is insane.

Well, like though, your average arena/pavillion rock concert is probably near $50, right? It's between $40-$60 to see The Music of Seal on Ice* - http://www.verizoncenter.com/news/seal_071218.shtml

To me, The Hold Steady is subjectively better than Seal. It doesn't exactly follow logically, but it's only just slightly outside the bounds of my reasoning to consider a fifty dollar Hold Steady ticket insane. And how we ever gonna survive unless we get a little crazy?

*!!!**
**Homina-wah?***
***might could oughta be a thread on it's own

this is by far the worst album craig finn ever made, with the possible exception of the first lftr pllr record.

RONG

most pop(ular) =/= worst

that's not my reasoning at all. separation sunday was the most popular one at the time it was released and that's probably my favorite of his, with the possible exception of half dead and dynamite.

i just think his lyrical thing is getting really used up...i cannot stand how boys and girls sounds, it's so fucking squashed in mastering and the instruments, esp. the piano sound really fake and digital...finn can't sing for shit never has been able to so i wish he wouldn't try...i hate that cheeze ass dude w/the moustache, seems like a session dude jobber, really takes away some of the gang of rock dude vibe for me.

chillout tent is horrid as mentioned above, godawful vocals by pirner on that. and i'm sort of a soul asylum defender most of the time.

it's like they decided to place all these epic classic rock sonic signifiers like more piano and "whoo oo oo" backing vox without any regard to the fact that they were actually appropriate or would help finn's very distinct vibe come off better.

and, outside of "stuck between stations" the tunes just aren't there. this one feels like running on fumes big time.

and as anthony alluded to, for a record that supposed to be your big rock coming out party, why bury the vocals in the mix?? it's like they don't bury tom petty in the mix on a heartbreakers record, which seems like what you thought you were going for.

RITE

well you do make a great case for it being a poor album, comparatively speaking of course.

i agree that the production is godawful; i haven't seen Sick Mouthy write about the mastering on this particular record, but if he hasn't mentioned it somewhere i'd be really surprised. i do think it sucks the life out of some of the recorded songs...live, they are much better. it sounds like you dislike the keyboard guy's image more than his contributions to the songs, which work well in places and in others, not so well.

disagree that the tunes aren't there: hot soft light, same kooks, first night, massive nights, southtown girls are all excellent. and like you mentioned, stuck btw stations.

I think BAGIA is Craig's second or third best album, actually. It sounds more like a transitional work than like a "running on fumes" kind of deal to me; sorta their coming to terms with their inner Springsteen once and for all, maybe.

I think Separation Sunday is a warmer record, in terms of production and characters in the songs. I enjoy Boys and Girls... less, but I only began listening to it recently: I do this thing with records I love where I don't want to listen to anything else by the band (and boy do I love Separation Sunday), but I'm going to see the Hold Steady next week and so I figure I should know the newer songs.

Yeah, Separation Sunday is certainly the stronger, more coherent record, but I still nevertheless appreciate the band's attempt of capturing a somewhat more grandiose (Bruce!) sound on BAGIA.

*at capturing, even.

those lyrics are terrible. sounds like something bright eyes would write.
-- boonah (boonah)

in what way are they comparable to bright eyes lyrics? not that I should bother, but what the hell
-- Thomas Tallis (Tommy)

"Boys and Girls in America have such a sad time together.
Sucking off each other at the demonstrations"
sounds pretty emo to me
-- kevin barking (arghargh)

so, lemme see if I got this: if there is a sad person in a song, it's like Bright Eyes
-- Thomas Tallis (Tommy)

Yes, and if there's a happy person it's like Sugar Ray.
-- Ned Raggett (Ned)

one of my favorite-ever ILM exchanges right there ^^^

How is this emo? I thought emo people never got laid.
-- Mr. Que (Mr.Que)

conor oberst DEFINITELY gets laid
-- kevin barking (arghargh)

how was he
-- dmr (Renard)

also ^^^

I definitely like some of the non-album tracks from these sessions better than some of the album ones; unlike Chuck E., I actually like a higher percentage of "indie" with the "classic" with The Hold Steady.

"Arms and Hearts" is great; "For Boston," "Girls Like Status," and "Teenage Liberation" are fun too.

"She said that she was cumming, but she just made hard fast noises / It kind of sounded like The Locust"

!!!

unlike Chuck E., I actually like a higher percentage of "indie" with the "classic" with The Hold Steady.

at the end of the day, i just like lifter puller way better. but that could be sort of a "time and place" thing for me. but damn i dunno, "nasseau colisseum", "the bears", all that shit...i love lifter puller so much.

she says she really loves agnostic front
they got crazy fast guitars

M@tt is right, though my favorite is and will always be Fiestas + Fiascos. But considering the first two THS albums are right behind it, that's no slam on the current band. Saw them last night--very good, though the venue (HUB Ballroom in U of Washington) was really ill-suited to . . . anyone, really.

Yeah, I just listened to GABIA for the first time in...oh...8/9 months or so and it really was kind of irritating (and not in a very good way). And, yeah, most of the songs would probably benefit greatly from a live setting, true enough. (BTW, I never understood your love for Fiestas + Fiascos, Matos--it always sounded kind of dull to me.)

Listened to Boys and Girls In America, that is.

M@tt otm about BAGIA's mastering. That and more-of-the-same-songs meant it didn't get much play last year, after Separation Sunday topped my list in '05, but you guys are making me consider playing it again.

I don't get the hate for "Chillout Tent". In fact, I'd say it's the highlight of the second half of the record, because the female vocals are such a relief after the flatness of the songs right before it. Probably I'd choose it or "Chips Ahoy" as the tops on this record.

Agreed, "Chillout Tent" is great!

Heard the last one recently at work and its more inoffensive than I remembered, even if I still can't find a reason to think its outstanding. Still seems like gradual downhill since Fiestas.

though if I was a junkie and or catholic I'd probably give it up for Separation Sunday more.

When you love (or worse, loved) a band so much, they've really got nowhere to go but down. Everything becomes post-climatic. It's nobody's fault. And for newcomers, chances are, the entry point will always hold a certain special place even if they do eventually locate a band's true peak. I'm sure people who experienced THS for the first time with America were appropriately blown away by the things the band still does right. Whether they eventually appreciate SS or Lifter-Puller depends on their level of interest. Logic would say they would, but who can apply logic to these things?

Fact: no matter how you feel about B&G in America -- and there are pros and cons (I, too, would like the vocals to be louder and think the glockenspiel should be much lower if used at all) -- it's still better than 90 per cent of the shit I hear elsewhere.

Now, whether the band ever reaches the suckiness of other once great bands...well, we'll see. Keep at it long enough and the law of averages works against you.

Much of the criticisms seem more like love notes from ex-boy/girlfriends. You remember the good times but something keeps reminding you why it didn't work out in the end. Over time, you'll even really mean it when you say you wish them the best.

Then again, if they let the glockenspiel take over, they should rot in hell and they can't have their clothes back!

I heard LP well after I heard HS.

I haven't listened to BGiA in a little while: where's the offending glock? Also Chillout Tent is great.

xposts:

I'm just feeling a serious urge to rock and other than the Hold Steady, I can't find any touring rock bands that don't suck badly right now.

That's crazy. There are a ton rock bands touring and plenty of them don't suck badly and most of them don't have the the fame of The Hold Steady and certainly don't charge $50 for a ticket.

it's more of a "someone showed me this photo, and WOW you were hotter in college" thing for me than an ex deal.

isn't "chillout tent" just the logical endpoint of the position as "new voice of the generation" that finn has kind of found himself in? if anyone was gonna write a song about two people falling in love at some OD tent at a festival, i would have guessed craig finn. it seems all too perfect tbh.

ey steve that dude was wondering whether he should try to scalp a HS ticket for $50. i don't think they are charging that much for their concerts just yet.

not to get all songmeanings on you but in "Chillout Tent" does the girl end up singing "and I MUST find that boy again"? The lyrics on the Hold Steady webpage don't indicate a change, but while the guy keeps singing "I never saw that boy again" it sure sounds like she changes to something else.

Not to be all flippant or anything but while I don't really know anything by this band at all really, what I do know sounds pretty average to me but you all seem to be freaking out so much that it makes me think I'm just missing the point or something. Is there like a specific point or do I just not get it whatsoever?

Agreed, "Chillout Tent" is great!

OTM, then again I'm a sucker for Elizabeth's voice. Always have been.

ey steve that dude was wondering whether he should try to scalp a HS ticket for $50. i don't think they are charging that much for their concerts just yet.

Ah, my mistake. Still, if you like The Hold Steady because they rock, the idea that they're the only live band that does so kind of baffles.

ey steve that dude was wondering whether he should try to scalp a HS ticket for $50. i don't think they are charging that much for their concerts just yet.

the Hold Steady show in Austin TX last year was still $12 -- the same price they've been charging for 5 years or so now. totally works for me. i think the Hold Steady/Art Brut show was about $20 but i skipped it; seen the former i think 4 times now, don't care for the latter.

my favorite is and will always be Fiestas + Fiascos.

Mine too, for sure - I first read about LFTR PLLR in Your Flesh (!) years ago and bought the album blind, then saw them 4 times before their demise... I was totally obsessed. And I still think that album is perfect from start to finish.

Your Flesh=mad respect in the hood!

yeah, I've never liked "Chillout Tent." and the idea that Fiestas is boring = ????!?!??!!?

Fiestas + Fiascos is so nice. It's Nice, Nice even. It's like being shot out of an indie rock cannon for half an hour.

Still, if you like The Hold Steady because they rock, the idea that they're the only live band that does so kind of baffles.

To further clarify: the only currently touring rock-and-roll band that I've heard of that is coming through the Baltimore/DC metro area before the holidays. But anyway, I'm not going to do it specifically because Art Brut is opening and like, fuck all that noise.

Not to be all flippant or anything but while I don't really know anything by this band at all really, what I do know sounds pretty average to me but you all seem to be freaking out so much that it makes me think I'm just missing the point or something. Is there like a specific point or do I just not get it whatsoever?

The lead singer -- who is a good and clever lyricist -- makes the band special.

Could someone more adept at this site please start a poll for YAY or NAY Chillout Tent. I'd like to see the breakdown. It seems to be a polarizing tune. I think civilization would benefit greatly from this knowledge. It makes all that red state-blue state bullshit even more trivial.

Please someone.

And the lead singer buys beer for the audience if they cheer loud enough.

Also, something about a "rite of passage" for Minnesotan youth. But you'll have to ask them about that.

Smurfherder, I created a poll for the song.

For Chillout Tent, that is.

thank you. you have single-handedly saved humanity. We all thank you. Three Hanclaps.

that's Handclaps....

and the idea that Fiestas is boring = ????!?!??!!?

Not boring, just a bit dull in comparison with Craig's other releases. And it's largely your fault, now that I think of it: i.e., it was your Soft Rock review in the Voice that convinced me to give LP a try in the first place--and I'm ever so grateful, don't get me wrong. But you made F+F sound so great in that same review (and elsewhere) that I found it somewhat underwhelming when I finally heard it a year or two ago. Still, maybe I should give it another shot in tribute to this thread.

met these dudes at a show, they shoot live stuff in mpls - local and national shit -- but damn this is the hold steady, raging footage and i've NEVER heard better audio quality on locally shot shit, hell even national stuff...

http://scheduletwo.com/video/the_hold_steady/the_swish

Wow, great site - I'm downloading the .mp4s for my iPod right now! (it's taking forever but seems totally worth it). Thanks for the tip...

nice Blues Traveler song to close the record