Sunday Music Spotlight - The Hold Steady

Often times our Sunday Music Spotlight band is some kind of exotic, foreign band who plays some kind of strange or challenging music. This week’s band couldn’t be further from that. The Hold Steady is from Minnesota, currently based in Brooklyn, and plays good old-fashioned American rock n’ roll.

Ironically, this all-American rock band got its inspirations from a bunch of Canadians. Frontman Craig Finn and guitarist Tad Kubler were in a band called Lifter Puller which played 80s-inspired synth-rock. One day they were watching the classic concert movie The Last Waltz, which chronicles the final concert of classic rock legends The Band, when they decided that was the type of band they wanted to be in. They enlisted drummer Judd Counsell and bassist Galen Polivka, and got to work.

The band’s debut album, 2004’s Almost Killed Me, earned them critical acclaim and started to build their following. In 2005 they parted ways with Counsell, added drummer Bobby Drake and keyboardist
Franz Nicolay, and released their second effort, a pseudo-concept album called Separation Sunday. It follows a character named Holly on a quest to balance her Catholicism with the traditional trappings of rock n’ roll. Ambitious stuff, and difficult to top.

But top it they did. They released their third album, Boys and Girls in America in 2006, and it basically took the music press by storm, showing up on numerous publications’ Best Of 2006 lists. If you listen to the critics you’ll think that this album should take a place alongside Springsteen’s Born to Run, Nirvana’s Nevermind, and The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds in the pantheon of Great American Rock Albums. When you listen to it you’ll find that it’s not quite there, but it’s not far off either. It’s got a epic and timeless quality about it that recalls some of those albums. It propelled The Hold Steady into the spotlight, and set the bar almost impossibly high for their future work.

Which brings us to today. The band’s fourth album, Stay Positive is set to be released next month. After their past successes expectations are going to be ridiculously high. Is there any way they can live up to them? Well, having heard the album, all I can say is “dear god yes.” While I’m not sure that Stay Positive has vaulted the band into the rarefied air of Springsteen or The Beach Boys, it shows another big step in their progression. And it’s probably the best album of the year so far.

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The title track is a rollicking anthem with an uplifting message and a catchy sing-along chorus.

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While the album may not be quite up to its level, this song’s arrangement and production make it sound like an outtake from Born to Run. Listen closely for all the layers of instrumentation.

Videos

“Stuck Between Stations” live on Letterman

“Chips Ahoy”

Links
Pre-Order Stay Positive
Official Site
MySpace